Business

摘要

China opened its new Shanghai Free Trade Zone. The government has promised convertibility of the yuan and interest-rate liberalisation within the area, as it experiments with economic reforms. Some observers compare it to the creation in 1980 of the Shenzhen economic zone, where China's manufacturing-export boom began. But restrictions on foreign investment within the Shanghai zone were announced the day after it opened. The European Central Bank left its main interest rate unchanged at 0.5% and unveiled no new policies at its latest meeting, though it said it would keep an eye on interbank lending rates, which have been creeping up. Mario Draghi, the ecb's president, described the euro zone's unfolding recovery as "weak, fragile and uneven".