Open Editor's Digest for freeRula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.UK mortgage delinquencies reached a seven-year high in the last quarter of 2023, according to official data underscoring the impact of rising borrowing costs on households. The Bank of England said on Tuesday that the proportion of total loan balances in arrears, compared to outstanding mortgage balances, rose to 1.23 per cent in the three months to December 31 from 1.12 per cent in the third quarter.These numbers reflect a long-term decline in late payments and the highest share since the last…
Author: ricardofrancois
Peak The most influential investor in India and Southeast Asia revealed the news to its limited partners at its annual general meeting in New Delhi this week. Through the “permanent” fund, Peak XV aims to bring “a culture of high accountability and alignment with limited partners” and a “differentiated” ability to grow as an organization, according to an LP source familiar with the matter. Peak XV, the investment firm formerly known as Sequoia's India and Southeast Asia subsidiary, did not disclose the size of the new fund. More than a hundred of its limited partners are in New Delhi this…
On Thursday, December 28, 2023, Chinese consumer electronics company Xiaomi unveiled its long-awaited electric car, but refused to reveal its price or specific launch date.CNBC | Evelyn ChengBeijing – Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi It announced on Tuesday that it will officially launch its long-awaited electric car on March 28.The company claimed in a social media post that its SU7 electric vehicle “will be delivered as soon as it is launched,” according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese-language post. The company is opening a waiting list for 59 stores in 29 cities in China, the post said.Xiaomi revealed the exterior…
Lego achieved 2% sales growth last year, even as the global toy industry saw a 7% sales decline, according to data from Circana.Pandemic-era gains that fueled accelerating gaming industry sales growth are waning in 2023 as consumers cut discretionary spending amid rising inflationary costs and rising credit card debt. Meanwhile, Denmark-based Lego posted resilient sales, with revenue reaching 65.9 billion Danish kroner, or about $9.65 billion, it said Tuesday.“To be able to outperform the market again by almost 10 percentage points, as we did the last couple of years, I think it's really good to see that we can do…
Open Editor's Digest for freeRula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.This article is an on-site version of our Unhedged newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent directly to your inbox every weekdayGood morning and happy CPI Day. Everyone wants to know whether inflation stabilizes near 3 percent or 2 percent. One disturbing possibility is that the data could be similar to last Friday's inconclusive jobs report. Down with mystery! We demand that the Bureau of Labor Statistics only release numbers that unequivocally make us happy or sad! Email us: robert.armstrong@ft.com…
China has set a GDP target of about 5% for another year, amid analysts' concerns about insufficient political support to reach this goal.Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesValuations for Chinese stocks are “very low” and investors should look to cautiously return to the world's second-largest economy, according to Sean Ren, founder and managing director of China Market Research Group.China recorded its first month of inflation in February after four months of deflation, with the consumer price index rising 0.7% year-on-year after a 0.8% annual decline in January, new figures showed.However, Ren attributed this to the Lunar New Year period, insisting…
Stay informed with free updatesSimply subscribe to the Fintech myFT Digest – delivered straight to your inbox.Ugh. Ugh.A new study conducted by cryptocurrency tax software CoinLedger reveals that the retail and e-commerce sector has the largest number of businesses offering the option to purchase through cryptocurrencies.The study compiled a list of 400 major companies listed by BitPay as accepting cryptocurrency methods and classified them into sectors, to discover which ones contain the most companies offering cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.Retail and e-commerce hold the top spot with a total of 76 businesses accepting cryptocurrency payments. The sector includes clothing…
Recording your voice may seem harmless, but it may actually reveal your identity, as well as additional data about you, such as how you feel. But it can also detect diseases you may be suffering from. People may not understand this yet, but companies that process data increasingly realize that they need to treat voice as personally identifiable information. This is especially true in Europe in the context of the GDPR: while many companies hope to build AI on top of voice data, in many cases this requires removing biometric information first. This is where Nijta hopes to help: by…
Western governments wanting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are encouraging greater use of electric vehicles to help achieve their goal. But it has also become clear that providing support involves solving dilemmas. Among the most pressing issues are: how to balance domestic political concerns and geopolitical tensions; And how to encourage citizens to buy electric cars without undermining key national manufacturing industries.In the United States, the Biden administration determined three years ago that electric vehicles should make up half of the vehicles sold in the United States by 2030. In Europe, the European Union aims to have at least 30…
IKEA is reducing prices on items worldwide.norphoto | norphoto | Getty ImagesSwedish home and furniture company IKEA has cut prices in a number of countries as global inflation declines, as it boosts its investments in lowering prices.The company is expanding price cuts in 2024 in all its markets globally, with the aim of limiting the price increases introduced in 2022. The move comes with a decline in the cost of transportation and raw materials.“We do this in all the markets we operate in,” Tolga Onjo, head of retail at Inkga Group, the largest owner of Ikea stores, told CNBC on…