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More than 130 countries have signed up to a ground-breaking global deal on corporate tax reform that the OECD hopes will eliminate tax havens while bringing in $150bn more a year from multinationals. The 136 nations also agreed to a two-year ban on imposing new taxes on tech groups such as Google and Amazon while

China has ordered coal miners to boost production urgently as the energy crisis threatens factories across the world’s second-biggest economy and forces Xi Jinping’s administration to backtrack on climate change promises. Energy officials in Inner Mongolia, one of China’s largest coal producing regions, instructed 72 local miners to expand capacity by 100m tonnes, according to

Global gas markets eased and equities climbed on Thursday, as investors banked that Russia would help Europe avoid a full-blown energy crisis. European and UK gas prices fell in early trading after a chaotic Wednesday that saw UK futures contracts climb almost 40 per cent before Russian president Vladimir Putin said his country was prepared

Government bond yields rose and European stocks fell on Wednesday after energy prices surged, the IMF trimmed its economic growth expectations and New Zealand became the latest central bank to raise interest rates. On Tuesday, European natural gas prices shot to record highs, dragging down government bond markets. The UK’s 10-year benchmark bond yield, which

The debt problems afflicting China’s real estate market deepened on Tuesday after a developer defaulted on its bonds while the world’s most heavily indebted property group Evergrande extended a suspension of its shares into a second day without explanation. Fantasia Holdings, a midsized developer that just weeks ago assured investors it had “no liquidity issue”,

Evergrande suspended its shares from trading in Hong Kong on Monday as the world’s most indebted real estate developer braced for the possible sale of its property management unit. Evergrande Property Services Group also halted trading of its stock, stating in a stock exchange filing that the move was taken ahead of “a possible general

Nancy Pelosi has given her warring party one more month to pass a $1.2tn infrastructure bill after the party failed to come to an agreement on Joe Biden’s spending plans despite a week of frantic negotiations on Capitol Hill. The Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives wrote to Democratic Congressional colleagues on Saturday morning

Joe Biden insisted Democrats would pass his ambitious domestic spending agenda despite interparty feuding that has stymied its passage, saying “we’re going to get this done” after a rare Capitol Hill visit to lobby lawmakers. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, was due to bring the US president’s $1.2tn infrastructure legislation

Nancy Pelosi appeared determined to press ahead with a make-or-break vote on Joe Biden’s $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure bill in the US House of Representatives on Thursday, even as progressive lawmakers threatened to sink the flagship piece of the president’s legislative agenda. “We are proceeding in a very positive way to bring up the bill . . . in a

Manufacturing activity in China suffered its first official contraction since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic as widespread power shortages compounded a loss of momentum across the country’s economy. China’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, an official gauge of factory activity, was 49.6 in September, dropping below the 50-point threshold that separates monthly contraction from expansion

Europeans are leaving their houses to go shopping, eat out, travel and visit cinemas as much as they did before the pandemic, in a sign of returning consumer confidence which suggests that the eurozone’s economic rebound remains intact, for now. Despite a slew of worrying economic news — from high energy bills that threaten household

Two top Fed officials on Monday warned that failing to raise the US debt ceiling would have catastrophic consequences, hours before Republicans in the Senate were set to block a bill that would increase the borrowing limit and stave off a government shutdown. John Williams, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said

Germany’s two main parties are neck and neck after Sunday’s election, according to first exit polls from voting to determine who will succeed Angela Merkel as leader of Europe’s largest economy. An exit poll from public broadcaster ARD put both the left-of-centre Social Democrats and the centre-right CDU/CSU on 25 per cent, with the Greens

US president Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are gearing up for a frantic dash to pass their multitrillion dollar economic agenda, avert a debt default, and salvage their worsening prospects in the 2022 midterm elections. Eight months after he entered the White House, Biden must overcome a series of hurdles in the coming weeks if

US prosecutors have reached an agreement with Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei and daughter of the Chinese tech giant’s founder, to resolve fraud charges against her. The details of the agreement are set to be announced in a court hearing in Brooklyn at 1pm, Eastern time, according to a letter from Nicole

Investors in an Evergrande offshore bond say they have yet to receive a closely watched interest payment just hours before the deadline, adding to uncertainty over an unfolding liquidity crisis at the world’s most indebted property developer. The $83.5m payment has a deadline of midnight in New York on Thursday, or noon Friday in Hong

Deepening worries over Evergrande have ignited selling in a $428bn corner of the Asian debt market, underscoring how the crisis at the Chinese property developer is spreading to other assets as traders and investors brace for a crucial payment deadline on Thursday. Yields on US dollar-denominated bonds issued by riskier Asian borrowers have soared to

Chinese markets fell on their first day of trading this week after a public holiday as concerns built in global markets over a possible default by property developer Evergrande on an international bond repayment. But the losses were not as heavy as feared after the real estate company, which has total liabilities of more than

Shares in Asia swung between gains and losses in the wake of Wall Street’s worst one-day fall in four months, as investors braced for the possibility of a default by Chinese property developer Evergrande. Shares in Japan sold off sharply on Tuesday, after being closed on Monday for a public holiday, with the benchmark Topix

Shares in Chinese and Hong Kong property groups fell to their lowest levels in half a decade as an escalating liquidity crisis at developer Evergrande showed signs of spreading beyond the sector. Evergrande, the world’s most indebted property developer, faces obligations of more than $300bn to creditors and other businesses and a crucial interest payment