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October 30, Wednesday, China's money market rates pointed on to a four-month high, a day following the country's central bank instill funds into the market to relieve worries that it was preparing to considerably constrict credit situation. The seven-day report rate, observed as a key measure of confidence to lend in the interbank markets, rose to around 5.59 percent - up about 64 basis points from the prior day. Analysts said that the jump in rates was seasonal in nature and at this stage were not too concerned about a repeat of events in June when a surge in money market rates fueled fears of a credit crunch in the world's number two economy. They further mentioned that liquidity infused into the market this week had not been huge enough to shove overnight lending rates considerably lower. On Tuesday via an open market operation, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) infused 13 billion yuan ($2.13 billion) into money markets. "Liquidity remains tight and the repo operation yesterday was small," said Nizam Idris, managing director, head of strategy, fixed income and currencies atMacquarie Bank. "China is still in the process of fine-tuning rates." Chris Weston, chief market strategist at trading firm IG, added: "Month end is coming up and of course tax implications are being blamed for higher rates." No fear With the benchmark Shanghai Composite stock index up 0.75 percent in afternoon Asia trade, Chinese markets became visible to take the spike in money market rates in stride. Analysts put this down to assumptions that the PBOC would approach into the market with better injections of cash to alleviate any doubts that it was geting ready to constrict monetary conditions in a big way. On Tuesday and Thursday, the PBOC usually carry out reverse-repurchase operations, an opportunity for it to inject liquidity into Chinese money markets. "They [PBOC policymakers] will probably provide liquidity on Thursday - at this point they don't wa

Adidas profit warning hits shares, puts 2015 goals under scrutiny Shares in German sports apparel maker Adidas dropped sharply on Friday and its 2015 targets came under scrutiny on Friday after the group issued an unexpected profit warning. Adidas, which has mostly exceeded sales and profit goals in the last couple of years, said late Thursday that weakening currencies in Russia, Japan, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey, a distribution problem in Russia and poor trading at its golf business meant targets were no longer attainable. Its shares, which hit an all-time high of 88.50 euros at the start of August, dropped almost 6 percent in early trading to a three-month low and were down 4.4 percent at 78.95 euros at 0825 GMT.

The World Bank's most recent Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report, released this week, says a global economic recovery is underway, underpinned by strengthening output and demand in high-income countries. Global GDP growth in 2014 will be 2.8 percent and it is expected to rise to about 4.2 percent by 2016, according to the report, which the World Bank publishes twice a year. Average GDP growth in developing countries has reached 4.8 percent in 2014, faster than in high-income countries but slower than in the boom period before the global financial and economic crisis of 2008. Demand side stimulus or supply side reforms? The global economic slowdown that struck in 2008 was caused by a financial crisis that resulted in large part from the bursting of an enormous, fraud-ridden mortgage lending bubble in the US. The crisis led to varying responses in different countries. The GEP report's authors said that in general, developing countries privileged demand stimulus policies over structural reforms during the past several years. For example, in 2008 to 2009, China implemented a four trillion-renminbi ($586 billion) stimulus program as a direct response to the slowdown in global trade caused by the global financial crisis. Critics pointed to over-investment in China as a risk to continued fast growth. The country is now struggling to contain a real estate bubble of its own. The World Bank wants China and other emerging countries to refocus on structural reforms. "A gradual tightening of fiscal policy and structural reforms are desirable to restore fiscal space depleted by the 2008 financial crisis," the bank's chief economist, Kaushik Basu, has said. "In brief, now is the time to prepare for the next crisis."