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The influence of China’s once-powerful central bank has diminished as Beijing steps up a drive to centralise Communist party control over financial regulation. Some of the powers formerly held by the People’s Bank of China have been taken over by a party oversight body and a revamped financial regulator as Beijing resets its growth model.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to fight on in the war against Hamas, despite a mounting death toll and growing international calls to alleviate the humanitarian suffering in the Palestinian enclave and halt

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Blackstone invested more in European real estate than in any other region in 2023, as the world’s largest commercial property owner picked up bargains from market turmoil and distressed sellers.  Real estate deal-making collapsed this

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK economy shrank slightly in the third quarter, according to revised figures that highlight the country’s struggle to shake off its low-growth performance. The Office for National Statistics said on Friday that gross domestic

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Football’s governing bodies have lost a landmark court case that threatens their hold over the sport in Europe, potentially opening a path for the biggest clubs to form new breakaway competitions. The EU’s top court

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The writer is chair of Rockefeller International Though Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in his 10th year in office, his position is as strong as ever. The Bharatiya Janata party’s overwhelming election victories in

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Sovereign bonds myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The UK is at high risk of a serious economic downturn next year, one of the world’s biggest active bond fund managers has warned. Daniel Ivascyn, chief investment officer at Pimco, told the Financial Times

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Adobe has terminated its proposed $20bn merger with product design software company Figma, following competition probes from EU and UK regulators. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said that combining the two companies would threaten

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. This week’s rally in global bond markets has shattered investors’ months-long assumption that interest rates in the US and elsewhere will remain higher for longer. The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield, seen as a proxy

This article is an onsite version of our Europe Express newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent straight to your inbox every weekday and Saturday morning A “remarkable strategic own goal by us” — that’s how Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, this week described the risk of a lapse in

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. EU leaders gathering in Brussels have vowed to find a way to support Ukraine after Hungary’s Viktor Orbán vetoed a €50bn lifeline for the war-torn country. Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said that “Ukraine will

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK interest rates myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The Bank of England kept rates steady at 5.25 per cent on Thursday as governor Andrew Bailey warned there was “still some way to go” before inflation hit its target. The BoE’s Monetary Policy

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK economy unexpectedly contracted in October, driven by falls in every sector and fuelling concerns that high interest rates could push the country into a downturn. Gross domestic product fell 0.3 per cent between

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US inflation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. US inflation edged lower to 3.1 per cent for November, bolstering arguments by Federal Reserve officials that interest rates should remain at current levels during the spring. The headline consumer price index figure fell marginally

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. A draft agreement from the UN’s COP28 climate summit has dropped references to the phase out of fossil fuels after opposition from oil and gas-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia. The document — which will

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. China’s state health insurance system has lost tens of millions of subscribers, as higher costs have put one of the world’s largest healthcare schemes out of reach for many people already struggling in a post-pandemic

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Chinese economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. China’s consumer prices fell 0.5 per cent year on year in November, the sharpest decline in three years as the world’s second-largest economy grapples with worsening deflation. Consumer prices dropped by more than the 0.2

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The UK’s competition regulator has taken the first steps of an investigation into Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI, one of the tech industry’s most lucrative tie-ups. The Competition and Markets Authority on Friday said it

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Chinese business & finance myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Moody’s Investors Service advised staff in China to work from home ahead of its cut to the outlook for the country’s sovereign credit rating, a suggestion staff believed was prompted by concern over

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. UK ministers are set to pick veteran TV executive Samir Shah as BBC chair to replace Richard Sharp, the former Goldman Sachs banker who resigned this year.  Shah has had a 40-year career in TV

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The head of Airbus has said the group “might need some support” from European governments for a new, multibillion-dollar commercial aircraft programme as it gears up for a successor to its best-selling A320 family of

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Home secretary James Cleverly is set to unveil measures to reduce migration to the UK after official figures showed net legal migration soared to 745,000 last year. Changes expected to be announced on Monday include

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Chinese economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Defaults by Chinese borrowers have surged to a record high since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, highlighting the depth of the country’s economic downturn and the obstacles to a full recovery. A total of

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. UN climate talks on how to limit global warming have focused on renewable energy for too long, according to the chief executive of ExxonMobil, the biggest western oil supermajor. In an interview with the Financial

Israel is planning a campaign against Hamas that will stretch for a year or more, with the most intensive phase of the ground offensive continuing into early 2024, according to several people familiar with the preparations. The multi-phase strategy envisages Israeli forces, who are garrisoned inside north Gaza, making an imminent push deep into the

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Inflation in the eurozone has fallen far more than expected to 2.4 per cent in November, the slowest annual pace since July 2021, providing some relief to consumers and fuelling hopes that interest rates could

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. UK mortgage approvals rose more than expected in October, according to official figures published on Wednesday that point to a stabilisation in the property market after a prolonged period of low house sales. Net mortgage

Barclays is exploring a plan to drop thousands of clients at its investment bank as part of a strategic overhaul that is meant to boost profits and cut £1bn of costs. Barclays executives have met several times this year to thrash out the restructuring, codenamed Minerva after the Roman goddess of wisdom, according to people

Turkey’s exports to Russia of goods vital for Moscow’s war machine have soared this year, heightening concerns among the US and its allies that the country is acting as a conduit for sensitive items from their own manufacturers. The growing trade, and the corresponding rise in imports to Turkey of 45 civilian materials used by

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The precarious truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza stretched into a third day on Sunday as both sides prepared for another round of hostage and prisoner releases which are due to take place later