Bloomberg China’s foreign currency holdings fell for a sixth month in December, bringing last year’s drop to $320 billion as the yuan posted its steepest annual slide in more than two decades. Reserves decreased $41.1 billion to a fresh five-year low of $3.01 trillion, the People’s Bank of China said. That was in line with estimates in Bloomberg’s survey …

  Bloomberg Jason Katz, a former Barclays Plc currency trader, admitted conspiring to fix prices in the foreign-exchange market, the third individual to be charged and the first to plead guilty in a long-running US criminal investigation into the rigging of currency rates. Katz appeared in Manhattan federal court, where he admitted to participating in a conspiracy with other bankers …

  Bloomberg One of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s out-of-consensus calls for 2017 is already bearing fruit. While big investors are positioned for Turkey to do well, analysts led by Caesar Maasry recommended greater caution in a report — shortly before the lira plunged to a fresh lows against both the US dollar and the euro. The bank’s analysis of actively-managed …

  Schwarzenbruck / DPA When Tanya Markova was just 12 years old, her life changed literally overnight when a rare disease of the spinal cord left her completely paralysed. “I woke up one day, wanted to get dressed and go to school,” says the Bulgarian-born student, who’s now 24. But suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her back and …

  Beijing / DPA Sunday is market day at the Temple of Heaven Park in central Beijing, with lots of haggling and touting of wares. “Woman, born 1988, 168 centimetres tall, 55 kilograms, nurse,” reads one notice among a row of other A4 sheets laid out on the paved ground. One man who looks to be in his mid-50s appears …

  Bloomberg US President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to shrink a trade deficit with China through punishing tariffs wouldn’t just hurt the world’s second-biggest economy — it would also damage the rest of Asia too. That’s the increasing view of economists who say the risk of significant Trump-triggered trade tensions could slow growth in the world’s best performing region, which accounts …

  Bloomberg Samsung executives have been summoned by South Korean special prosecutors amid a widening influence-peddling scandal that brought about South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment. Samsung Corporate Strategy Office Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung and President Chang Choong-ki were asked to come in for questioning, Hong Jung-seok, a spokesperson for the special prosecutors office, told Bloomberg News via text message …

  Bloomberg A local buyer has purchased a mansion overlooking Hong Kong’s exclusive Repulse Bay using a method allowing him to avoid property taxes. The house may have fetched about HK$670 million ($86 million), based on the average square-foot valuation of similar properties in the Headland Road neighborhood, according to the agent that brokered the deal. Raymond Ho, deputy senior …

  Bloomberg In a packed stall in one of Seoul’s traditional eateries, patrons feast on egg-rich Korean pancakes washed down with beer. Despite the booming business, the owner of the restaurant, Kim Kang-ock, looks on in dismay. “Soaring egg prices are driving me crazy as it’s about to kill my business,” the middle-aged South Korean street-food vendor says as she …

  Bloomberg Air Products & Chemicals Inc. made an offer to buy China’s biggest producer of industrial gases as it seeks to compete with rivals such as Praxair Inc. in an industry marked by a wave of consolidation. The Allentown, Penn- sylvania-based maker of industrial and atmospheric gases said in a statement on Monday that it expressed preliminary, non-binding interest …