Bloomberg China will reach its target of economic growth of 6% to 6.5% in 2019, said National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) head Ning Jizhe, just days before the official release of data on gross domestic product from last year. China remains the world’s fastest-growing economy larger than $10 trillion, he said at a forum on Saturday, according to a report ...

Bloomberg A tweet from a Japanese billionaire to distribute 1 billion yen ($9 million) to his followers is attracting plenty of attention. Yusaku Maezawa pledged to give 1 million yen each to 1,000 of his Twitter followers who reposted a message from his @yousuck2020 account. It has been retweeted 4.1 million times since the New Year. Maezawa, 44, who founded ...

Bloomberg If the latest monthly manufacturing data suggests anything, it’s that president Donald Trump’s tariffs haven’t yet solved a key issue haunting US steelmakers: China’s subsidising of its own industry. Manufacturing jobs in December unexpectedly fell by 12,000 with a key part of the drop coming in businesses that make raw and fabricated metals. The metal-making industries accounted for a ...

Bloomberg One of president Donald Trump’s top economic advisers played down the prospects of the administration concluding further phases of a trade deal with China, saying any future negotiations would depend on how an initial accord — due to be signed next week — is implemented. “Phase two’s going to depend a lot on how phase one goes,” Larry Kudlow ...

Bloomberg The US labour market ended the year with less momentum, as payroll gains cooled by more than forecast and wages rose at the weakest annual pace since 2018, even as unemployment held at a half-century low of 3.5%. Nonfarm payrolls rose 145,000 in December, the least since May, after a downwardly revised 256,000 advance the prior month, according to ...

Bloomberg US antitrust enforcers are proposing new guidelines for determining whether to approve mergers that combine companies that don’t compete with one another but operate in the same supply chain. The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission announced criteria for how they would evaluate so-called vertical mergers in the future. If finalised, the guidelines would replace rules that haven’t formally ...

Bloomberg Wirecard AG Chairman Wulf Matthias resigned after months of controversy over the digital payments company’s accounting practices. Matthias stepped down as chairman of the supervisory board for personal reasons, and will be replaced by Thomas Eichelmann, the Aschheim, Germany-based company said Friday in a statement. Matthias will remain a member of the board. The payment processor’s shares have whipsawed ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc said it had fired employees for leaking customer email addresses and phone numbers to an unspecified third party, the second time this week the technology giant acknowledged some workers had improperly accessed customer data. “We are writing to let you know that your email address and phone number were disclosed by an Amazon employee to a third ...

If a real-life “Beetle Bailey” — the Mort Walker comic strip soldier who’s a perpetual grumbler and questioner of authority in the US military — were to mutter a cynical assessment of what’s happened in the days since the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, he might be tempted to call it “Operation Backfire.” The big shots, led by ...

In a world caught between bulls and bears, convertible bonds can please both camps. As coupon-paying securities, they provide income like a bond. But they turn into equity if an issuer’s stock rises by a set amount, so investors can taste some of the upside, too. In China, convertible bonds are by no means a compromise; they can offer mouth-watering ...