BRUSSELS, Belgium, April 4, 2024 (AFP) – A coordinated police swoop across Europe on Thursday netted 22 arrests and saw villas and luxury cars seized in Italy, in a probe into an alleged 600-million-euro ($650 million) fraud of EU Covid funds, officials said. Dozens of raids took place in Italy, Austria, Romania and Slovakia as authorities moved in against a suspected criminal network that carried out the alleged fraud between 2021 and 2023, the European […]
Tag: finance
Hong Kong scraps property taxes to revive sluggish market
HONG KONG, Feb 28, 2024 (AFP) – Hong Kong has axed all property transaction taxes in a bid to revive the depressed housing market, finance minister Paul Chan said in his annual budget speech Wednesday. The finance hub’s economy was initially buoyed by China’s post-pandemic reopening but recovery has since slowed and residential property prices are at a multi-year low. Chan said Hong Kong would scrap three types of stamp duty with immediate effect, reversing […]
US identifies use of AI as risk in financial system
WASHINGTON, Dec 14, 2023 (AFP) – US regulators have identified the use of artificial intelligence as a vulnerability in the financial system for the first time, according to a report released on Thursday. There is a need to monitor “rapid developments in AI, including generative AI, to ensure that oversight structures keep up with or stay ahead of emerging risks to the financial system,” said the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) in its annual report. […]
UK’s second biggest city latest to declare financial distress
LONDON, Sept 5, 2023 (AFP) – The council of the UK’s second biggest city, Birmingham, became Tuesday the latest local authority to declare financial distress, with the opposition blaming Conservative governments of years of under-funding. Birmingham City Council in central England said it had issued a Section 114 Notice under the Local Government Finance Act 1988, which blocks spending on all but essential services. Leaders of the Labour-controlled council — one of Europe’s largest — […]
G7 finance chiefs move to diversify supply chains
NIIGATA, Japan, May 13, 2023 (AFP) – The G7 plans to launch a partnership scheme to diversify supply chains this year, the group’s finance ministers said Saturday following talks in Japan ahead of a major summit next week. The ministers did not directly cite a desire to reduce reliance on trade with China or Russia as motivation for the initiative, which focuses on clean energy technology. But the United States has led a push for […]
Norway’s wealth fund posts record loss of $164 bn
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, said Tuesday it recorded a loss of 1.637 trillion Norwegian kroner ($164 billion) in 2022, the largest since its creation, citing volatile markets. “2022 was a truly dramatic year in the world. It affected financial markets and hence it also affects our global fund,” deputy chief executive Trond Grande of Norges Bank Investment Management which manages the fund told a press conference. “We had multiple different emergencies and […]
Hong Kong crypto exchange falls silent, fuelling shutdown fears
Hong Kong, China (AFP) A major Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange has scrubbed some of its social media presence two weeks after it halted withdrawals, fuelling fears the firm may collapse as the sector reels from the implosion of giant FTX. Atom Asset Exchange (AAX) prevented customer withdrawals on November 15, saying its capital position was under “acute pressure” after some investors asked for their money back. This came after the stunning fall of industry leader […]
World ‘burning up faster’ than it can recover: Pakistan PM
Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt | AFP | Climate change is outpacing the capacity of developing nations to cope with its devastating impacts, the Pakistani premier told COP27 on Tuesday, as his country reels from historic floods. Talks at the UN climate conference in Egypt have been dominated by calls for wealthier nations to fulfil pledges to financially help poorer nations green their economies and build resilience. “The world is burning up faster than our […]
Diokno says economy still on steady path to recovery despite lower growth figures in 2nd quarter
Main growth contributors were transportation and construction; services sector posted highest positive growth (Eagle News) – The Philippine economy grew by 7.4 percent in the second quarter of 2022, mostly due to growth in the construction sector and transportation and storage, according to figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority. The figure, however, was lower than the first quarter growth figure of 8.3 percent, and also lower than the fourth quarter of 2021 growth rate […]
G20 finance chiefs meet as Indonesia warns of energy, food catastrophe
BALI, Indonesia (AFP) — Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs met in Indonesia Friday for talks on the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the host warning them failure to tackle energy and food crises would be catastrophic. The two-day meeting on the resort island of Bali started under the shadow of a war that has roiled markets, spiked food prices and stoked breakneck inflation, a week after Moscow’s top diplomat […]
China’s Xi calls for stronger fintech oversight, security
BEIJING, China (AFP) — A high-level Chinese government meeting led by President Xi Jinping has called for stronger oversight and better security in financial tech, state media reported, with the sector hit hard by a regulatory crackdown. The government action has pummelled some of China’s biggest tech firms, wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars in market value since last year. But with the Chinese economy hammered by Covid lockdowns, the government has rolled out […]
Mining firms targeting Brazil indigenous lands: report
RIO DE JANERIO, Brazil (AFP) – Major mining companies are seeking to expand to currently protected indigenous lands in the Amazon rainforest, bolstered by billions of dollars in financing from international banks and investment firms, a report found Tuesday. Nine mining giants including Brazil’s Vale, Britain’s Anglo American and Canada’s Belo Sun have filed applications seeking authorization to mine on indigenous reservations in Brazil — even though that is currently illegal, said the report by […]
