Bloomberg Russia welcomed US willingness to start talks next month on its security proposals, a day after President Vladimir Putin threatened a military response if the Kremlin’s demands aren’t met. “We would like to hope that for the upcoming negotiations, which is already positive, our partners will come with clearly formulated positions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. The ...

  Bloomberg Libya’s election body proposed delaying the presidential vote by one month, calling on parliament to resolve disputes that have threatened the landmark ballot in the Opec nation. The High National Election Commission said the inadequacy of electoral legislation was a main obstacle to the vote taking place as scheduled. Its proposal to instead hold the first round of ...

  Bloomberg Former Philippine Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr, son of the late dictator, led by a wide margin in a presidential preference survey conducted this month by pollster Pulse Asia Research. Marcos was chosen by 53% of the 2,400 respondents as their preferred successor to President Rodrigo Duterte, Pulse Asia said. Vice President Leni Robredo, the opposition leader, came a ...

  Bloomberg Chinese President Xi Jinping told Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam the city is developing in a good direction, days after an election installed a legislature of Beijing loyalists in the Asian financial hub. Xi added that he fully recognised the work of her government, as the pair met in Beijing. Lam’s annual trip to brief China’s state leaders ...

  Bloomberg German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pushed through tighter social-distancing restrictions to stave off the threat of a “massive” surge of the omicron Covid-19 variant just as families gather for the Christmas holidays. The latest measures, which add to existing curbs that mainly affect the unvaccinated, include limiting gatherings to 10 people starting from December 28. The restrictions, which Scholz ...

  Bloomberg It led the world with inflation targeting, but New Zealand’s central bank (RBNZ) is no pioneer for women. The Reserve Bank has released its gender pay gap for the first time, revealing a gulf that’s more than twice the size of the shortfall in the nation’s public service as a whole. As at June 30, the average gender pay ...

  Bloomberg The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) could bolster liquidity in the banking system by selling yuan, which will help lower borrowing costs while stemming the currency’s gains, Nomura Inc. said. The central bank needs more aggressive steps to tackle China’s slowing economy, and swapping the yuan for foreign exchange is its best option, according to Nomura’s chief China ...

  Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said tapering its bond buying program at the first meeting of 2022 and ending it in May is consistent with existing forecasts, as policy makers presented an upbeat view of the economy. The RBA’s board discussed two other options for quantitative easing: it could cease purchases in February if better-than-expected progress was ...

  Bloomberg The UK’s top banking supervisor has handed out a record fine to Standard Chartered Plc for failures in its regulatory reporting and controls. The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulatory Authority imposed a 46.6 million pound ($61 million) penalty on the lender for five reporting errors between March 2018 and May 2019, according to a statement. That was compounded ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of Canada (BOC) will maintain its 2% inflation target for the next five years, but has formally been given license to moderately overshoot it to “support maximum sustainable employment.” In a mandate renewal released jointly with the Canadian government, the government directed the central bank to use monetary policy to boost employment levels as long as ...