Day: October 21, 2025

Major foreign banks raise China’s GDP forecast, annual target seen as ‘on track’

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Several major banks forecast stronger economic growth for China this year, buoyed by third-quarter data showing slightly better-than-expected expansion despite domestic and external headwinds. Advertisement Investment bank Goldman Sachs raised its full-year gross domestic product forecast for 2025 from 4.8 per cent to 4.9 per cent, noting that the government’s target of “around 5 per cent” remains “largely on track”. The bank also revised its estimate for 2026, up slightly from 4.2 per cent to 4.3 per cent, in a report on Monday. The new forecasts follow China’s announcement on…

I Deliver Parcels in Beijing by Hu Anyan review – startling stories of China’s new precarity

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From the early 2000s until the Covid lockdowns, Hu Anyan was one of China’s vast army of internal migrants, moving between cities in pursuit of work. He did 19 jobs – shop assistant, hotel waiter, petrol attendant and security guard, among other things – in six cities. Although all these jobs were atrociously paid, they still earned him more than the one he tried for two years in the middle of this period: writer. (An 8,000-word story earned him less than 300 yuan – about £30.) Then, during Covid, he wrote…

Japan stocks hit record as Sanae Takaichi becomes prime minister

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Japan’s parliament has elected Sanae Takaichi as the country’s first female prime minister, as Tokyo stocks hit a record high on investor optimism over her government’s policies. Takaichi won 237 votes from MPs in the 465-seat lower house on Tuesday following a breakthrough coalition deal by her Liberal Democratic party 24 hours earlier. Her new ruling coalition is expected to discuss an increase in defence spending, potential tax cuts and…

China-Australia team reports cell weakness that may help beat prostate cancer

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An international team from China and Australia has discovered a new vulnerability in prostate cancer cells – a previously unknown mechanism that scientists say could help combat one of the most common cancers affecting men. Advertisement From politicians such as former United States president Joe Biden and the late South African president Nelson Mandela, to business magnate Warren Buffett and celebrities like Ian McKellen and Hong Kong local veteran opera singer Law Kar-ying, the disease afflicts many. The collaborative team said a new therapeutic strategy to fight it might be…

Japan stocks surge as Sanae Takaichi becomes prime minister

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Japan’s parliament has elected Sanae Takaichi as the country’s first female prime minister, as Tokyo stocks hit a record high on investor optimism over her government’s policies. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Average surged as much as 1.5 per cent on Tuesday to more than 49,900 points, within striking distance of a landmark 50,000 level. The index is up more than 26 per cent this year. Takaichi won 237 votes from…

At China’s Canton Fair, exporters sense a warming trend in yuan settlements

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At the ongoing autumn edition of the Canton Fair in Guangzhou – China’s oldest and largest trade exhibition – Chinese exporters are noticing a quietly spreading shift: an increasing number of overseas clients, particularly from emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Africa, are proactively proposing to settle trade orders in yuan. Advertisement Wang Lilin, sales director at diesel generator manufacturer Keypower, said the company had seen a clear rise in yuan settlements over the past two years. “Customers from several countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Central…