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In this round-up, consumer inflation in China turns positive in December, Beijing announces rules to protect Chinese companies from sanctions of foreign governments, and the banking and insurance regulator hands a Rmb200m ($30.1m) fine to financial institutions including China Development Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

This week in Keeping Tabs: US Capitol invaded but economic growth projections up, the UK's 12 week policy on vaccines, and insolvency in Europe.

In this round-up, the central bank sets working goals for 2021, the Chinese government extends its policy to support small and micro-sized enterprises, and the US bans eight Mainland-based applications including the popular Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Raiffeisen Bank International’s clients are increasingly looking to achieve more sustainable, fairer and more transparent ways of doing business. In this context, RBI maintains a comprehensive dialogue with an ever-increasing pool of clients on sustainable finance, e.g. bonds, loans and Schuldscheine. We focus our attention not only on “green”, but also cover sustainability-linked instruments, a rapidly growing area in the sustainable finance universe.

Leading US financial institutions were quick to condemn the shocking attacks on the US Capitol on Wednesday — a sign that they are willing to take positions on important social issues, in line with the industry’s eagerness to align with good environmental, social and governance standards.

Sometimes one gets a stark reminder that there are different levels of wealth. This realisation struck a good friend of mine recently, with terrifying implications.

Asian loans bankers are expressing guarded optimism about their prospects this year. Most of their hopes are so far concentrated on India, where a mix of public and private sector deals — as well as the occasional sponsor financing — should bring some welcome supply.

Cancelling debt, dual interest rates, helicopter money: if the recovery from the coronavirus crisis stalls in the developed world, we will see calls for more radical central bank action.

The more infectious new variant of the coronavirus has rattled Europe, plunging major economies back into lockdowns. This is already reshaping January’s usually lethargic pace of high grade corporate bond issuance and market participants should expect a frenetic start to the year.

For years, meeting obligations has been the be-all and end-all of emerging market debt management. Pay your debts, or wave goodbye to international investors.

If 2020 was all about piling on the debt as governments around the world rushed to save their economies and societies, 2021 will be all about working out ways to reduce it — or at least sustain it.

The closing of borders between mainland Europe and the UK has provided a brief glimpse into the chaos that the immediate imposition of trading restrictions between the UK and EU might caused in the event of a no-deal Brexit on December 31. Both sides need to work around the clock to finalise a deal with a generous implementation period to avoid the kind of nightmare scenario that could lead to investors fleeing the UK.