Suspension of stock connect denied

China's top securities regulator on Friday denied media reports about the suspension of the stock trading connect between Shanghai and London. Reports saying that China has suspended the Shanghai-London stock connect are untruthful," said Chang Depeng, spokesman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, at a regular news conference. Chang said that the stock connect is an important effort by China to open its capital market and to expand cross-border investment and financing. Reuters reported on Thursday that China had suspended the Shanghai-London stock scheme over political tensions with Britain.

Refined oil import quota unchanged

China will keep the quota for refined oil imports by non-State companies unchanged at 16.2 million metric tons for 2020, according to the Ministry of Commerce. A statement by the MOC listed the detailed application requirements for the import quota, including the scale of oil storage tanks and bank credit lines. China is one of the world's largest oil buyers. Customs data showed its imports of refined oil amounted to 27.25 million tons in the first 11 months of last year.

Employment up in Germany last year

Roughly 45.3 million people were in employment in Germany in 2019, an increase of 0.9 percent compared to the previous year, according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The increase was lower than the relevant growth of 1.4 percent in 2018. According to Destatis, the employment growth observed in Germany for the past 14 years continued but with less momentum. A higher labor force participation of the German population as well as immigration of foreign workers more than offset the effects of demographic change, Destatis said. The number of people in employment last year was the highest since German reunification in 1991.