Business

HONG KONG — Trading in debt-ridden Chinese property developer Country Garden was suspended in Hong Kong on Tuesday, days after it postponed the release of its 2023 results.

The firm is among a number of China's largest developers battered by a crisis in the country's property sector and struggling under a mountain of debt, fuelling concerns about the stability of the world's second-largest economy.

"At the request of the company, trading in the shares of the company on the stock exchange will be suspended... pending publication of the 2023 Annual Results," Country Garden said in a Hong Kong exchange filing.

The real estate behemoth on Thursday postponed the expected release of its 2023 results, saying it "needs to collect more information to make appropriate accounting estimates and judgements".

"Due to the continuous volatility of the industry, the operating environment the group [is] confronting is becoming increasingly complex," the statement added.

Chinese property firms Modern Land, Central China Management and Ronshine China were among several other firms whose shares were also suspended in Hong Kong.

Country Garden in 2022 suffered its first full-year loss — more than 6 billion yuan ($844 million) — since listing in 2007.

The company has defaulted on offshore payments and is facing a winding-up petition in Hong Kong.

The petition, filed in February, came weeks after Hong Kong's High Court granted a similar petition against developer Evergrande, kickstarting its offshore assets liquidation and management replacement.

Country Garden — China's seventh-largest developer in terms of sales last year — has incurred debts estimated in June at 1.36 trillion yuan ($191 billion). 

HONG KONG — Gold hit another fresh record high on Monday as investors grow confident that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year, even after data showed a slight uptick in a key inflation report.

The precious metal has enjoyed healthy buying interest this year as the US central bank hints at an easing of credit conditions.

On Monday it hit a new high of $2,256.44, according to Bloomberg News.

On Friday the closely watched personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index — the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation — showed a small on-year rise in March compared with February, though the core reading eased slightly.

Powell said the report was "pretty much in line with our expectations" and decision-makers were on track to hit their long-term inflation target of 2 per cent.

He said that while the recent inflation data was higher than the Fed would have liked, the February figures were "definitely more along the lines of what we want to see".

The data appeared to have little impact on traders' expectations for a June interest rate cut, though Powell warned they were unlikely to fall to the levels seen after the 2008 global financial crisis.

Adding to the upward pressure on prices is its demand as a safe haven in times of turmoil owing to growing geopolitical tensions, with concerns that Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza will spread further.

An air strike in Lebanon on Sunday stoked further tensions, with Israel saying a Hizbollah missile unit commander had been "eliminated".

Israel and the Iran-backed group have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire for months.

Meanwhile, traders are also keeping a close eye on developments in the long-running Ukraine conflict.

Because bullion does not generate any interest, it benefits when central banks lower borrowing costs as its safe-haven status makes it more attractive to investors.

ATHENS — Greece on Sunday tightened its Golden Visa rules raising the required investment to as much as 800,000 euros in a bid to help ease a housing crisis.

The successful programme that has attracted thousands of Chinese launched in 2014 granting foreigners a renewable, five-year residence permit in return for a 250,000-euro property investment.

The finance ministry announced that from Sunday, the threshold would climb to 800,000 euros in attractive regions, such as Attica, around Athens, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini and the islands with a population of over 3,100.

In other areas, it would start at 400,000 euros.

"These measures are part of the government's overall housing policy, which aims, in cooperation with the private sector, to ensure affordable and quality housing for all citizens," Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said.

According to the Bank of Greece data, rents have increased by 20 percent since the country officially exited a near-decade-long crisis in 2018.

Investors must now purchase a property of at least 120 square metres, while for historic property and industrial buildings converted into living accommodation, the cost is 250,000 euros. 

Migration Ministry data for last year shows record demand with 10,214 applications for initial visa-related acquisitions or renewals. 

A total of 5,701 Golden Visa permits were granted in 2023, and 8,800 applications are pending.

Investment reached at least 1 billion euros over the year.

However, the Association of Public Limited Companies and Entrepreneurship (SAE/E) has warned that it is "highly doubtful" that the government will achieve its goal of reducing house prices and increasing the availability of homes for long term rental.

The property market and construction industry faced a severe downturn during the economic crisis that kicked off in 2008. 

The SAE/E says about 20,000 permanent residence permits have been granted to real estate investors to date.

Some 6,405 Chinese nationals bought residence permits in 2021, according to the migration and foreign ministries.

BUCHAREST — After 13 years of waiting, Bulgaria and Romania are to partially join the Europe's vast Schengen area of free movement on Sunday, opening up travel by air and sea without border checks in a "historic" move.

Land border controls will however remain in place due to Austria's opposition to the eastern European countries becoming full members of the Schengen zone for fear of an influx of asylum seekers.

Despite the partial membership, the lifting of controls at the two countries' air and sea borders is of significant symbolic value.

Admission to Schengen is an "important milestone" for Bulgaria and Romania, symbolising a "question of dignity, of belonging to the European Union", according to foreign policy analyst Stefan Popescu.

"Any Romanian who had to walk down a lane separate from other European citizens felt being treated differently," he told AFP.

Ivan Petrov, a 35-year-old Bulgarian marketing executive who lives in France, said he was enthusiastic about less stressful travelling and the time he would be able to save.

"This is a great success for both countries. And a historic moment for the Schengen area — the largest area of free movement in the world. Together, we are building a stronger, more united Europe for all our citizens," EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on Saturday.

And they were 29 

With Bulgaria and Romania joining from Sunday, the Schengen zone will comprise 29 members — 25 of the 27 European Union member states, as well as Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

According to the Romanian government, Schengen rules will apply to four sea ports and 17 airports, with the country's Otopeni airport near the capital Bucharest serving as the biggest hub for Schengen flights.

More staff ranging from border police to immigration officers will be deployed to airports to "support passengers and detect those who want to take advantage to leave Romania illegally," the government said.

Random checks will also be carried out to catch people with false documents and to combat human trafficking, including of minors.

Bulgaria and Romania both hope to fully integrate into Schengen by the end of the year, but Austria has so far only relented about allowing them to join by air and sea.

Croatia, which joined the EU after Romania and Bulgaria, beat them to becoming Schengen's 27th member in January 2023.

Created in 1985, more than 400 million people can travel freely inside the Schengen area without internal border controls.

'Irreversible process' 

While some have reason to celebrate, truck drivers, faced with endless queues at the borders with their European neighbours, feel left out.

Earlier this month, one of Romania's main road transporter unions called for "urgent measures" to achieve full Schengen integration as soon as possible, deploring huge financial losses caused by the long waits.

"Romanian hauliers have lost billions of euros every year, just because of long waiting times at borders," Secretary General Radu Dinescu said.

According to the union, truckers usually wait eight to 16 hours at the border with Hungary, and from 20 to 30 hours at the Bulgarian border, with peaks of three days.

Bulgarian businesses have also voiced their anger over the slow progress.

"Only three per cent of Bulgarian goods are transported by air and sea, the remaining 97 per cent by land," said Vasil Velev, president of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA).

"So we're at three per cent in Schengen and we don't know when we'll be there with the other 97 per cent," he told AFP.

Bucharest and Sofia have both said that there will be no going back.

"There is no doubt that this process is irreversible," Romanian Interior Minister Catalin Predoiu said this month, adding it "must be completed by 2024 with the extension to land borders".

FRANKFURT, Germany — A German court ruled on Thursday that auto giant Mercedes- Benz knowingly installed emissions-cheating devices in some diesel vehicles, opening the door for owners to seek compensation. 

The carmaker rejected the ruling and said it planned to appeal to Germany's top court. 

The "dieselgate" scandal, which involved claims of rigging emissions levels, first rocked Volkswagen in 2015 and then spread to other carmakers. 

In the case against Mercedes, the VZBV federation of German consumers filed a lawsuit in 2021 in an effort to help owners of the auto giant's vehicles claim damages. 

The case covered various models from the Mercedes GLC and GLK ranges that were subject to recalls. 

In its ruling, the superior regional court in Stuttgart found in favour of some of VZBV's claims. 

It found that Mercedes staff deliberately fitted unauthorised devices to rig emissions levels in some models, although it rejected similar claims concerning others. 

So-called defeat devices fitted in the vehicles made them appear less polluting in lab tests than they were on the road. 

The VZBV, which was representing more than 2,800 people in its legal action, hailed the court's ruling. 

"The course has now been set for important claims for damages," the group's Ronny Jahn said. 

Individual vehicle owners can now pursue claims for damages themselves. 

But Stuttgart-headquartered Mercedes said in a statement that it believes "that the claims asserted against our company are unfounded and we will defend ourselves against them". 

The carmaker also noted that car owners can only pursue their claims once its appeal has wrapped up. 

It was not immediately clear how much Mercedes might have to ultimately pay out, or how many vehicle owners may seek to claim compensation. 

"The decision also sends a positive signal to hundreds of thousands of Mercedes owners who, independently of the model (legal action), can assert claims for compensation," said German consumer lawyer Claus Goldenstein, who represents over 65,000 claimants in emissions-cheating cases. 

The "dieselgate" saga shocked Germany and was seen as one of the country's biggest post-war industrial scandals. 

FRANKFURT, Germany — The German economy is expected to barely grow this year, leading economic institutes said on Wednesday, as weak demand at home and abroad slows the path to recovery.

Europe's largest economy will expand by just 0.1 per cent in 2024, five think-tanks said in a joint statement, a sharp downgrade from their earlier forecast of 1.3 per cent growth.

"Cyclical and structural factors are overlapping in the sluggish overall economic development," said Stefan Kooths from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

"Although a recovery is likely to set in from the spring, the overall momentum will not be too strong," he added.

The German economy shrank by 0.3 per cent last year, battered by inflation, high interest rates and cooling exports, and is struggling to emerge from the doldrums.

Even though inflation has steadily dropped in recent months, consumer spending was picking up "later and less dynamically" than previously forecast as wages lag behind, the institutes (DIW, Ifo, IfW Kiel, IWH and RWI) said.

And Germany's export sector, usually a key driver of economic growth, was suffering from cooling foreign trade against a fragile global economic backdrop.

Energy-intensive businesses in particular have been hit hard by soaring energy prices following Russia's war in Ukraine, contributing to a manufacturing slump in Europe's industrial powerhouse.

Corporate investments , meanwhile, have been dampened not just by the European Central Bank's interest rate rises, which have made borrowing more expensive, but also by "uncertainty about economic policy", the institutes said.

Debt brake debate

The criticism of Berlin comes after a shock legal ruling late last year threw Chancellor Olaf Scholz's budget into disarray, forcing the government to rethink its spending plans.

The government recently also drastically downgraded its own economic forecasts, expecting output to expand by just 0.2 per cent this year.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck last month acknowledged the economy was "in rough waters" and in need of a "reform booster".

But Scholz's three-way coalition government — made up of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the liberal FDP — is divided over how to turn the tide.

Calls have grown for the government to relax its constitutionally enshrined "debt brake", a self-imposed cap on annual borrowing, in order to turbocharge much-needed spending on infrastructure modernisation and the green transition.

BRUSSELS, Belgium — EU member states on Tuesday agreed to unpick more eco-friendly requirements under the bloc's common agricultural policy (CAP) in a new bid to pacify months-long protests by farmers — who rolled hundreds of tractors into Brussels to vent their grievances.

A special committee endorsed the review to be debated by agriculture ministers meeting in Brussels as farmers thronged the city's European quarter for the third time in two months, setting fire to tyres and bales of hay, and throwing eggs at riot police.

"We have listened to our farmers and we have taken swift action to address their concerns at a time when they are confronted with numerous challenges," said David Clarinval, deputy prime minister of Belgium, which holds the rotating EU presidency.

He said the revision aims to slash red tape for farmers and give them more flexibility complying with green regulations while also "maintaining a high level of environmental ambition".

The committee backed a proposal from the European Commission to change a set of environmental and climate standards that determine whether farmers can receive CAP subsidies.

A key change involves granting leeway to farmers who fail to meet CAP requirements because of extreme weather.

The revision does away entirely with the obligation to leave a share of arable land fallow — a measure aimed at protecting soils and promoting biodiversity but a major gripe for farmers. But they would still be incentivised to do so.

Member states would have more flexibility to decide which soils to protect and in which season, and allows them to diversify crops as well as rotate them.

And it exempts small farms under 10 hectares from inspections and penalties related to CAP compliance.

Farmers have been mounting rolling protests in countries across the EU, from Belgium to France, Spain, Italy and Poland, over a long list of burdens they say are depressing revenue.

The concessions are being made less than three months before EU-wide elections for the European Parliament. Surveys predict the vote will result in a surge of support for far-right parties that are using farmers' discontent as part of their campaigning.