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Chinese shares erased their gains for the year and metals prices fell amid mounting concerns over the outlook for the country’s economy and the possibility of an unprecedented US debt default. China’s benchmark CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed stocks fell as much as 1.1 per cent on Wednesday, pushing the index’s year-to-date losses

The UK will escape a recession this year, the IMF said on Tuesday, adding that the country’s economy had been “buoyed by resilient demand in the context of declining energy prices”. But the fund cautioned that Britain risked being stuck with persistent inflation unless interest rates stayed high for longer. “Economic activity has slowed significantly

Meta has been hit with a €1.2bn fine by the EU and ordered to suspend transfers of user data to the US, in the largest penalty to be imposed against a Big Tech company in the bloc over privacy violations. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, which oversees the General Data Protection Regulation, on Monday handed down

China said that US chipmaker Micron Technology’s products posed “serious network security risks” as it banned operators of key infrastructure from buying them, in its first big measure against an American semiconductor group. The Cyberspace Administration of China on Sunday announced that the company, which is the biggest US maker of memory chips, “posed significant

European stocks rose on Friday, pushing Germany’s Dax close to a record high, as investors awaited speeches by central bankers later in the day for clues on the future direction of interest rates. The benchmark index in Frankfurt gained 0.3 per cent in early trade, putting it less than 100 points off the 16,290 high

European equities rose on Thursday, joining an overnight rally on Wall Street, as concerns over a potential US government default and the health of regional banks eased. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 was up 0.4 per cent, recovering from two days of losses, while France’s Cac 40 rose 0.6 and Germany’s Dax rose 1 per cent. London’s

Brazilian oil and gas producer Petrobras has ditched a practice of selling diesel and petrol domestically in line with global market prices, in a significant shift for the state-controlled group under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. It fulfils a key campaign promise by the country’s leader, who has criticised the cost of fuel and

How is one to assess the possibility of a voluntary default by the world’s most important country? Is something as mad as this really likely to happen? What might be the consequences if it did? These questions are impossible to answer. This is not because it is a “black swan” — that is, unimaginable. A

European and Asian stocks rose on Monday as investors cheered German economic data that indicated inflation in Europe’s largest economy was slowing. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 rose 0.2 per cent, extending its rally from last week, while France’s Cac 40 edged up 0.4 per cent and London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.3 per cent in the

Voters are heading to the polls in Turkey’s most consequential election in two decades as longtime leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seeks to fend off a united opposition led by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Polls opened at 8am Ankara time on Sunday in presidential and parliamentary elections that offer two widely divergent paths for Turkey. Erdoğan, who first

China will send a special envoy to Ukraine, Russia and other countries to discuss a “political settlement to the Ukraine crisis”, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday. Li Hui, a former Chinese ambassador to Moscow, will visit Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia from Monday, spokesperson Wang Wenbin announced at a press conference. “Sending

Russia has started evacuating hundreds of civilians from occupied areas in south-eastern Ukraine, including families with children from a town housing workers at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, raising fresh concerns about its safety. The evacuations that started over the weekend come as Russian officials accuse Ukraine of stepping up drone strikes on its territory

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sold billions of dollars worth of stock and invested little money in the US equity market in the first three months of the year, as the famed investor saw little appeal in a volatile market. Berkshire disclosed on Saturday that it had sold shares worth $13.3bn in the first quarter and

Saturday’s coronation of King Charles III will be the most public display in seven decades of the curious relationship in the UK between England’s established church and the hereditary monarchy. The King will be accompanied to and from the ceremony by thousands of military personnel, a reminder that Britain’s constitutional monarch remains head of state.

The US Federal Trade Commission is seeking to ban Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, from monetising children’s data and further limit its use of facial recognition technology. The FTC’s proposal on Wednesday called for a blanket prohibition on Meta’s ability to commercialise data it collects from users aged 18 and under, including

Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attempting to assassinate President Vladimir Putin in a late-night drone attack on the Kremlin, vowing to take retaliatory action. According to a statement from Putin’s press service, two Ukrainian drones attacked and crashed into the Kremlin overnight but were shot down by Russia’s military and secret services, which it

European stocks were lower on Tuesday as rising eurozone inflation data raised investors’ concerns that the European Central Bank will increase interest rates this week. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 0.2 per cent, with weakness in energy stocks and financials ahead of policy meetings at two of the world’s biggest central banks. Germany’s Dax

Will the deadlock in the Ukraine war be broken in Bakhmut or Beijing? At the moment, all eyes are focused on the much-trailed Ukrainian counter-offensive — which is likely to begin soon. But there are also significant developments on the diplomatic front. Last week, Xi Jinping called Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On a recent visit to Kyiv,

Cutting ties with China would be “unthinkable for almost all of German industry”, the chief executive of automaker Mercedes-Benz has said, as Europe’s largest economy grapples with its deep reliance on Beijing. Ola Källenius said cutting ties with China was impossible and “not desirable”. “The major players in the global economy — Europe, the USA

Elon Musk’s move to introduce a pricey paywall to access Twitter’s data is set to upend thousands of academic and developer projects, in his latest controversial attempt to generate new revenues to turn round the business. Twitter has laid out plans to this weekend push developers over to a new monthly pricing structure for its