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The US has proposed that the G7 should explore ways to seize $300bn in frozen Russian assets, as the allies rush to agree a plan in time for the second anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
While no decisions have been taken and the issue remains hotly debated inside European capitals, the acceleration of work on confiscating Moscow’s assets for Ukraine highlights its rising importance for the west.
The US, backed by the UK, Japan and Canada, has proposed moving forward with preparatory work so that options will be ready for a potential meeting of G7 leaders around February 24, the date of Vladimir Putin’s 2022 offensive on Kyiv.
Read the whole story here.
Bid for lunch with the FT’s Peter Spiegel in New York, or other top writers including Martin Wolf and our editor, Roula Khalaf, with all proceeds going to the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign charity. Bid now or find out who else is on the menu at ft.com/appeal.
Five more top stories
1. Dealmaking sank below $3tn for the first time in a decade in 2023, with about $2.9tn worth of transactions struck globally this year, down 17 per cent from 2022. It was the first time since 2008-09 that the value of deals announced fell more than 10 per cent for two consecutive years, said the London Stock Exchange Group, which produced the data. Here’s why mergers and acquisitions are going through a lull.
2. Business is booming for the world’s biggest defence companies. An FT analysis of 15 defence groups, including the largest US contractors, found that at the end of 2022 — the latest for which full-year data is available — combined order backlogs were $777.6bn, up from $701.2bn two years earlier. That momentum has continued into 2023. Read our full analysis.
3. Net foreign investment in China-listed shares this year has dropped 87 per cent, with offshore investors selling more than $28bn worth of shares in the past five months amid mounting doubts about Beijing’s willingness to take serious action to boost flagging growth. Read the full story.
4. Exclusive: Higher demand for LinkedIn from advertisers leaving Elon Musk’s X is driving up ad prices on the platform, with annual advertising revenues at the Microsoft-owned group rising to nearly $4bn in 2023. That’s up 10.1 per cent year on year. Here’s more on what one ad agency called “LinkedIn season”.
5. Javier Milei presents wide-ranging reform legislation to Congress. The new Argentine president has opened up a new front in his battle to rapidly reshape the country, putting forward a bill to overhaul areas such as penal, tax and electoral issues that were not covered in an earlier decree.
We’re also reading . . .
Netflix’s rivals: US entertainment giants such as Disney and Paramount are facing pressure to shrink and slash costs after losing more than $5bn this year from their streaming services.
Morgan Stanley: Incoming chief executive Ted Pick is set to inherit a bank in good shape but facing far greater challenges than it did a year ago. Here’s what’s in his in-tray.
Central banks: The world’s top rate-setters are rethinking their approach to forecasting after their high-profile failures to spot the most recent inflationary outburst.
(For more on rate-setters’ battle against inflation, premium subscribers can sign up for our Central Banks newsletter by Chris Giles. Upgrade your subscription here.)
New York’s best new restaurants of 2023: Do you agree with our choices?
The most-read Opinion pieces of 2023
With China regularly dominating global headlines this year, it may come as no surprise that it was the focus of two of our top three most-read FT comment articles.
Helen Thomas’s warning that Beijing’s dominance in the electric vehicle market was leaving Europe in the dust clearly resonated with readers. Ruchir Sharma took a different tone, provocatively declaring: “It’s a post-China world now.” His piece arguing that China’s rise was reversing came in third, and attracted hundreds of comments.
The first runner-up was about a decidedly different topic: flight attendant uniforms. HTSI editor Jo Ellison’s views on the no-nonsense, practical redesign by a Savile Row tailor for the UK’s national carrier were humorously summed up by the following headline: “No sex please, we’re British Airways.”
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Additional contributions from Tee Zhuo and Emily Goldberg
Source: Economy - ft.com
