July, 2018

• 4 July

  China unveils details of 3-year pollution plan

  Bloomberg China unveiled further details of its three-year environmental plan, reiterating its goal to reduce coal consumption and listing the cities where it’s targeting steel capacity curbs. Policy makers will promote natural gas use over coal in areas battling severe air pollution in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as well as Fenhe and Weihe river plains, according to three-year plan published by ...

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• 4 July

  HNA co-chairman Wang Jian dies in France aged 57

  Bloomberg HNA Group Co., the once-acquisitive Chinese conglomerate that’s been selling billions of dollars in assets this year amid soaring borrowing costs, said that Co-chairman Wang Jian died after an accident in Provence, France. He was 57. Wang, who was on a business trip, had a fall from which he couldn’t recover, HNA said in a statement on its website. ...

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• 4 July

  ‘Sprint acquisition needs scrutiny over China links’

  

  Bloomberg US lawmakers plan to pressure the Trump administration to closely scrutinise T-Mobile US Inc.’s planned purchase of Sprint Corp., arguing the acquisition poses a threat to American security because the owner of Sprint has ties to Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies Co. A draft letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who leads a US national security review of the ...

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• 4 July

  No-deal Brexit will wreak havoc on UK business: Minister

  

  Bloomberg Failure to reach a Brexit deal would wreak havoc on British business, especially manufacturers that rely on just-in-time supply chains. That’s the view of Business Minister Richard Harrington, who in an interview defended the right of companies to openly voice their concerns. “It would be completely disastrous for business in this country,”Harrington said. Four months after Prime Minister Theresa ...

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• 4 July

  UK services sector growth hits 8-month high

  

  Bloomberg The UK’s dominant services sector grew at the fastest pace in eight months in June, driving a bounce back in the nation’s economy and boosting the case for a Bank of England rate increase as soon as next month. The unexpected gain in the gauge of activity followed reports this week showing faster growth in manufacturing and construction. IHS ...

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• 4 July

  Buoyant euro-area services drive pick-up in growth momentum

  Bloomberg The euro area’s services sector expanded at a faster pace than initially estimated in June, as the industry drove a pick-up in the bloc’s growth momentum. A purchasing managers’ index for the region climbed to 55.2 last month, higher than an earlier flash estimate of 55 and up from 53.8 in May, IHS Markit said on Wednesday. The survey ...

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• 4 July

  Android fine may come in mid-July as EU dances around Trump

  

  Bloomberg It’s no secret that Google is set for another round of hefty antitrust fines. The decision could come as soon as July 18, judging by the gaping hole in the European Commission’s calendar the week after US President Donald Trump visits Brussels. But while the size of the penalty will grab the headlines — after last year’s record 2.4 ...

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• 4 July

  Trump’s tariff plan is a car crash for Germany

  

  If Donald Trump had his way, the US wouldn’t import any German cars at all. “Build them here!” he barked in a recent tweet threatening 20 percent tariffs on European automakers. No matter that the Germans have invested billions of dollars in US plants and their employees build hundreds of thousands of cars in the country annually, many of them ...

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• 4 July

  Chinese money should play by rules

  

  Global worries over trade wars, central bank rate hikes and geopolitical instability have hammered emerging-market debt in recent months. The fact is, over the past decade, many developing and low-income countries have simply borrowed too much. They borrowed from the markets, from banks and from other countries. In particular, they borrowed from China, which has averaged more than $100 billion ...

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• 4 July

  The euro has finally stopped its self-harming

  German Chancellor Angela Merkel has proved once again she is the ultimate political survivor. As the immediate threat of a collapse of her government coalition passes, so does one source of some of downward pressure on the euro. That pressure has been pretty substantial over the past two months, and the blowup in Italian politics in mid-April was just a ...

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