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Jens Weidmann has decided to step down after a decade as head of Germany’s central bank in a move that comes weeks after the country’s general election and shortly before a crucial decision on the future of eurozone monetary policy. Since he joined the Bundesbank, Weidmann has been one of the most vocal critics of

The European Commission will take steps to punish Poland for challenging the supremacy of EU law, its head has vowed as she condemned Warsaw for “calling into question the foundations of the European Union”. Ursula von der Leyen, commission president, said on Tuesday that Brussels would use one of three tools to hit back at

Countering the security threat from the rise of China will be an important part of Nato’s future rationale, the alliance’s chief has said, marking a significant rethink of the western alliance’s objectives that reflects the US’s geostrategic pivot to Asia. In an interview with the Financial Times, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said China was already

China tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August that circled the globe before speeding towards its target, demonstrating an advanced space capability that caught US intelligence by surprise. Five people familiar with the test said the Chinese military launched a rocket that carried a hypersonic glide vehicle which flew through low-orbit space before cruising down towards its target.

Goldman Sachs reported a 60 per cent rise in quarterly profits, capping a week of bank earnings in which Wall Street firms reaped billions of dollars from a record burst of dealmaking. On Friday, Goldman reported third quarter group earnings per share of $14.93 on total net income of $5.4bn, up from $3.4bn a year

Japan’s new prime minister has pledged to move the country away from neoliberal fundamentalism as he lambasted his own party’s failure to deliver broad-based growth under the Abenomics programme that defined the economy for almost a decade. In his first interview with international media since taking over Japan’s leadership this month, Fumio Kishida told the

International bond sales by Chinese developers have all but halted as the crisis at China Evergrande stokes fears of defaults across the country’s property sector, throttling a crucial driver of Asia’s high-yield debt market. Just one developer has managed to tap overseas bond investors since Evergrande, the world’s most indebted real estate group, missed an

Chinese president Xi Jinping appears to be sailing into an economic storm of his own making, as one of China’s largest developers teeters on the edge of bankruptcy and manufacturers grapple with power shortages across the country. But aside from minor course corrections, analysts and government advisers expect Xi to take advantage of what he

The IMF’s executive board has opted to retain Kristalina Georgieva as the institution’s managing director and said it had “full confidence” in her ability to carry out her responsibilities, despite allegations she pressured World Bank staff when she was its chief executive to manipulate data to China’s benefit. The announcement followed marathon meetings of the

The Kremlin’s ambassador to the EU has called on Europe to mend ties with Moscow in order to avoid future gas shortages, but insisted that Russia had nothing to do with the recent jump in prices. Vladimir Chizov, Russia’s permanent representative to the EU, said he expected Gazprom, the state-controlled exporter that supplies 35 per

Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz has resigned, just days after he was named as a suspect in an investigation by state prosecutors into grand corruption at the heart of the Austrian government. In a brief statement on Saturday evening at the Ballhausplatz — the seat of the chancellery in Vienna — Kurz said it had been

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

Republicans and Democrats in Congress opened the door to a temporary solution to America’s debt ceiling crisis on Wednesday, saying they would consider a stop-gap measure extending the country’s borrowing limit until December. The potential breakthrough came after Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s top Republican, offered to support a short-term extension of the nation’s debt limit

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

A slide on Wall Street led by losses for Big Tech companies spread to Asia on Tuesday morning, dragging Hong Kong’s tech index to its lowest level in six weeks and hitting equities across the region. Overnight in the US, the S&P fell 1.3 per cent to its lowest closing price since late July, dragged

A Facebook whistleblower accused the company on Sunday of placing “profit over safety”, as it emerged that she had complained to US securities regulators that it was misleading investors. Speaking on the news programme 60 Minutes, Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, unmasked herself as the whistleblower who leaked a trove of internal company

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