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The economic crisis in Sri Lanka is deepening. The rupee has plunged to record lows against the dollar on the back of blackouts, food shortages and sky-high prices. The country may have as little as $500mn left in foreign reserves though a $1bn bond repayment is due in a few months. With the IMF ready

Right now, the dollar is the world’s most popular reserve currency by some margin. It plays a vital role in facilitating world trade and global finance, enabling the US to use it as a mightily effective weapon against those who stand against the aims of its foreign policy. Yet some think the weaponisation of the

Far-right politician Marine Le Pen has said she is open to appointing leftwingers in her government if she is elected French president later this month. Le Pen, who has already held out the prospect of a “government of national unity”, said on Thursday that while she would “probably not” work with hard-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon,

Rokos Capital Management is applying for licences to manage assets in Hong Kong and Singapore as part of an expansion into Asian equity capital markets as the UK hedge fund attempts to recover from a dire year. The fund, which is run by former Brevan Howard partner Chris Rokos and manages $13bn of assets, will

Tax experts have criticised the “disingenuous” explanation given by the wife of chancellor Rishi Sunak for claiming non-domiciled status. Akshata Murty, who married Sunak in 2009, owns a stake in Indian technology company Infosys, founded by her father, that is thought to be worth more than £500mn. Her spokesperson confirmed on Thursday that she holds

A leading infrastructure investor is eyeing the liquefied natural gas sector after raising a new $15bn fund, capitalising on Europe’s search for energy supply alternatives to Russia. I Squared Capital is among a handful of private capital firms dedicated to infrastructure investment. In the past decade the Miami-based group has grown to $34bn in assets,

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded with the international community to provide more military supplies and to impose tighter sanctions on Russia as his foreign minister said he had one demand of Nato: “Weapons, weapons and weapons.” The pleas from Kyiv come as Ukraine’s military warned that invading Russian troops were regrouping and preparing an

Richard Liu has stepped down as chief executive of JD.com, the Chinese ecommerce group he founded more than two decades ago, marking the latest exit for one of the country’s top entrepreneurs. Beijing’s months-long campaign to rein in Big Tech has spurred several Chinese entrepreneurs to flee executive roles in favour of working from behind

Shell will take a writedown of up to $5bn after its decision to quit Russia as the UK-listed energy group warned extreme price volatility in commodity markets would hit cash flow. In a trading update ahead of next month’s first-quarter results, Shell said ending its three joint ventures with Kremlin-backed gas producer Gazprom would result

Hardware rental start-up Grover has brought in former magazine executive Joanna Coles to chair its board, as it plans a rapid expansion of its consumer electronics subscription service fuelled by a new $330mn fundraising. Coles, who spent 12 years with publisher Hearst and was the former editor of women’s lifestyle magazine Cosmopolitan, has lately transitioned

Good morning and welcome to Europe Express. The eurozone’s own bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, will soon be looking for a new managing director to succeed Klaus Regling when his term ends this autumn. We’ll look at who might take over and why the ESM has been struggling to play a role of late.

Elsewhere on Thursday . . .  Putin’s invasion reminds us that we live in a finite world. Worldcoin promised free crypto If they canned their eyeballs with “The Orb.” Now they feel robbed. Behind Arsenal’s retro merch boom. If stocks don’t fall, the Fed needs to force them. On regulation, racing, and safety innovation. Naked mole rats have

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Through the little country town of Machynlleth, just before the old Dyfi blast furnace and down the potholed lane through fields, woods and over the River Einion, you’ll find Wales’s best restaurant. Though the setting is deeply rural — getting here by car takes three hours from Cardiff, more like six from London — those

This is part of a series, ‘Economists Exchange’, featuring conversations between top FT commentators and leading economists A chart first brought economist Branko Milanovic to worldwide attention. In 2013, the former World Bank economist and his colleague Christoph Lackner captured in a simple picture how global growth in two decades of rapid globalisation had accrued

European banks are stepping up their complaints to Brussels about a lack of clarity on how to implement EU sanctions on Russia and a “misalignment” with equivalent measures imposed by the US and UK. Representatives of the region’s biggest banks, including the European Banking Federation, are due to discuss their concerns with European Commission officials

One thing to start: Jason Kilar, chief executive of WarnerMedia, is leaving the company along with most of his senior leadership team on the eve of its takeover by rival Discovery. Channel 4: when politicians are on the sellside  The funny thing about the British government’s plan to privatise Channel 4 is that it’s very

Despite art dealer Adam Williams winning a still life by 18th-century artist Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin at auction for a record-breaking €24.3mn, his client might yet not end up with the picture, if the Louvre has anything to do with it. The Louvre’s director, Laurence des Cars, has confirmed that “The Basket of Wild Strawberries” (1761) should

Faultlines that were exposed when coronavirus shook corporate bond markets must be addressed to prevent future disruptions to a key source of funding for companies worldwide, according to the top organisation representing securities regulators. The International Organization of Securities Commissions is examining ways to improve the overall functioning and liquidity of corporate bond markets, particularly

Europe is blessed with many things but abundant and accessible mineral wealth and processing infrastructure are not among them. Industrially, Europe has positioned itself as a centre of excellence for research and development and high-end manufacturing, insulated from the challenges of extracting and processing raw commodities. Politically, Europe has driven the global agenda in environmental,

Two weeks ago the new Retroville shopping centre in north-western Kyiv was hit by Russian shelling, killing eight people. Now, a backhoe digger is clearing a mountain of debris in one section of the mall and Vladyslav Apostolov, co-founder of coffee chain Coffeelat, is trying to get back to business. “I am working on reopening