29/12/2025

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | DEC 29, 2025

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Bulgaria adopts euro amid fear and uncertainty

Francisco by a three-hour train ride, a project that would deliver the fastest passenger rail service in the United States. Originally planned for completion by 2020 at a cost of US$33 billion, the project is now forecast to cost between US$89 billion and US$128 billion, with service now expected to start by 2033. The California agency said this week it was beginning a process to attract private investors and developers by summer 2026. The agency said on Friday that the loss of federal funding will not derail the project or construction, adding that it was making progress. – Reuters China passes revised law to bolster trade war capabilities BEIJING: China on Saturday passed revisions to a key piece of legislation aimed at strengthening Beijing’s ability to wage trade war, curb outbound shipments from strategic minerals to sex dolls, and further open its US$19 trillion (RM76.8 trillion) economy. The latest revision to the Foreign Trade Law, approved by China’s top legislative body, will take effect on March 1, 2026, state news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday. The world’s second-largest economy is overhauling its trade-related legal frameworks partly to convince members of a major trans Pacific trade bloc created to counter China’s growing influence that the manufacturing powerhouse deserves a seat at the table, as Beijing seeks to reduce its reliance on the US. Adopted in 1994 and revised three times since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, most recently in 2022, the Foreign Trade Law empowers policymakers to hit back against trading partners that seek to curb its exports and to adopt mechanisms such as “negative lists” to open restricted sectors to foreign firms. The revision also adds a provision that foreign trade should “serve national economic and social development” and help build China into a “strong trading nation”, Xinhua said. It further “expands and improves” the legal toolkit for countering external challenges, according to the report. The revision focuses on areas such as digital and green trade, along with intellectual property provisions, key improvements China needs to make to meet the standards of the Compre-hensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, rather than the trade defence tools the 2020 revamp honed in on following four years of tariff war with the first Trump administration. Beijing is also sharpening the wording of its powers in anticipation of potential lawsuits from private firms, which are becoming increasingly prominent in China, according to trade diplomats. “Ministries have become more concerned about private sector criticism,”said one Western trade diplomat with decades’ of experience working with China. “China is a rule-of-law country, so the government can stop a company’s shipment, but it needs a reason.” “It’s not totally lawless here. Better to have everything written out in black and white,“ they added, requesting anonymity, as they were not authorised to speak with media. China’s private exporting firms attracted global attention in November after the French government moved to suspend the Chinese e commerce platform Shein amid an uproar over childlike sex dolls sold on its marketplace into the French market. The Chinese government increasingly could also find itself at odds with private enterprise when seeking to carry out sweeping bans, such as Beijing’s prohibition of all Japanese seafood imports, trade diplomats say. – Reuters

“substantial”, ECB president Christine Lagarde said last month in Sofia, citing “smoother trade, lower financing costs and more stable prices”. Small and medium-sized enterprises stand to save an equivalent of some €500 million (RM2.38 billion) in exchange fees, she added. One sector expected to benefit in the Black Sea nation is tourism, which this year generated around 8% of the country’s gross domestic product. Lagarde predicted the impact on consumer prices would be “modest and short-lived”, saying in earlier euro changeovers, the impact was between 0.2 and 0.4 percentage points. But consumers – already struggling with inflation – fear they will not be able to make ends meet, according to Dimitrova. Food prices in November were up 5% year on-year, according to the National Statistical Institute, more than double the eurozone average. Parliament this year adopted empowered oversight bodies to investigate sharp price hikes and curb “unjustified” surges linked to the euro changeover. But analysts fear wider political uncertainty risks delaying much needed anti-corruption reforms, which could have a knock-on effect on the wider economy. “The challenge will be to have a stable government for at least one to two years, so we can fully reap the benefits of joining the euro area,” Angelov said. – AFP

o Concern over price hikes and instability as EU’s single currency prepares to welcome its 31st user on Thursday

SOFIA: Bulgaria will become the 21st country to adopt the euro on Thursday, but some believe the move could bring higher prices and add to instability in the European Union’s poorest country. A protest campaign emerged this year to “keep the Bulgarian lev”, playing on public fears of price rises and a generally negative view of the euro among much of the population. But successive governments have pushed to join the eurozone and supporters insist it will boost the economy, reinforce ties to the West and protect against Russia’s influence. The single currency first rolled out in 12 countries on Jan 1, 2002, and has since regularly extended its influence, with Croatia the last country to join in 2023. But Bulgaria faces unique challenges, including anti-corruption protests that recently swept a conservative-led government from office, leaving the country on the verge of its eighth election in five years. Boryana Dimitrova of the Alpha Research polling institute, which has tracked public opinion on the euro for a year, told AFP any problems with euro adoption would be seized on by anti-EU politicians.

Any issues will become “part of the political campaign, which creates a basis for rhetoric directed against the EU”, she said. While far-right and pro-Russia parties have been behind several anti-euro protests, many people, especially in poor rural areas, worry about the new currency. “Prices will go up. That’s what friends of mine who live in Western Europe told me,” Bilyana Nikolova, 53, who runs a grocery store in the village of Chuprene in northwestern Bulgaria, told AFP. The latest survey by the EU’s polling agency Eurobarometer suggested 49% of Bulgarians were against the single currency. After hyperinflation in the 1990s, Bulgaria pegged its currency to the German mark and then to the euro, making the country dependent on the European Central Bank (ECB). “It will now finally be able to take part in decision making within this monetary union,” Georgi Angelov, senior economist at the Open Society Institute in Sofia, told AFP. An EU member since 2007, Bulgaria joined the so-called “waiting room” to the single currency in 2020, at the same time as Croatia. The gains of joining the euro are

A drone view of a California High-Speed Rail Bridge where it crosses over Highway 99 in Fresno, California, taken on June 8, 2025. – REUTERSPIC

California drops lawsuit over Trump’s cancellation of high-speed rail funds

WASHINGTON: California has dropped a lawsuit challenging the decision by the administration of President Donald Trump to cancel more than US$4 billion (RM16.17 billion) in federal grants for the state’s high-speed rail project, the state said late on Friday. The California High-Speed Rail Authority, which filed the lawsuit in July, said the decision to abandon it reflected the state’s “assessment that the federal government is not a reliable, constructive, or trustworthy partner in advancing high-speed rail in California”. The agency said it plans to move forward without federal funding, adding that only 18% of

The department added, “American tax dollars will be spared from being wasted on this train to nowhere and will instead support real projects that improve the lives of rail passengers, local drivers, and pedestrians”. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said in July that termination of the grants by the administration of Republican Trump amounted to “petty, political retribution, motivated by President Trump’s personal animus toward California and the high-speed rail project, not the facts on the ground”. The funding cuts are the latest hurdle in the 16-year effort to link Los Angeles and San

programme expenditures for the long-delayed project have come from federal funds. A judge this month rejected a bid to dismiss the lawsuit. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a 315-page report in June finding the project was plagued by missed deadlines, budget shortfalls and questionable ridership projections. The US Transportation Department said on Saturday that the FRA investigation demonstrated that after more than 15 years, the California high-speed rail authority “would be unable to deliver on their high speed rail promises on time or on budget”.