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BENGALURU — Emerging market stocks hit one-week highs on Wednesday as a strong start to the US corporate earnings season encouraged investors globally to take on more risk after a sell-off last week. 

A grind higher for the dollar kept the MSCI index of major emerging currencies under pressure with South Africa's rand near a two-week low and the rouble and Turkish lira struggling to hold on to early gains.

But stock markets in Korea, China and Turkey — all hit by this year's sell-off of riskier emerging market assets — gained ground after the worst two weeks since February for the sector as a whole. 

"Risk has come back into markets, and the bulls have wrestled back control," said Chris Weston, head of research with Australian foreign exchange brokerage Pepperstone. "We can see the relief playing through in Asia. China found good buyers."

Emerging market currencies have also sunk this year, led by Turkey's lira, as rising US interest rates pulled capital back into the dollar and worries about global growth and trade unnerved investors in the developing world. 

The US Federal Reserve issues its September meeting minutes later on Wednesday and a bullish outlook from the US central bank on the economy that ignores signs of tension on financial markets is likely to impinge further on emerging markets. 

China's yuan edged lower in offshore trade in spite of the people's bank setting a stronger midpoint at the daily fixing. 

Koon Chow, a strategist at UBP, argued that any further weakness in emerging bond markets was likely to focus on higher-rated bonds with yields closer to US treasuries. 

"EM currencies are cheap, there is a lot of bad news baked in. Those will be insensitive [to the minutes]," he said. 

"The high rated stuff which have super low yields like central Europe, bits of Asia, where yields are maybe 1.5 per cent or 1 per cent above US treasuries, will be sensitive."

A survey by Bank of America Merrill Lynch showed a record number of investors said emerging market currencies are undervalued — the cheapest valuation since the survey began.

The Turkish lira dipped a day after data showed industrial production grew at its slowest pace in almost two years in August, reinforcing concerns about a sharp slowdown in the economy. 

A Reuters poll showed Turkish economic growth was expected to fall short of sharply lowered government forecasts this year and next, with a recession now likely in the coming six months.

Still, the Turkish treasury said it had sold $2 billion of the 5-year Eurobond at a yield of 7.5 per cent with demand exceeding $6 billion — pointing to a recovery in investors' confidence in the country.

South Africa's rand weakened for the first time in five days as investors awaited retail sales for clues on the economy's health, especially after it unexpectedly tipped into recession in the second quarter.

Ratings agency Moody's said on Tuesday that it expected new South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni to keep the government's broad policies intact in the medium-term budget speech due next week.

FRANKFURT AM MAIN — Auto giant Volkswagen (VW) cleared a new hurdle in its "dieselgate" scandal on Tuesday, paying a hefty fine to close a German investigation into subsidiary Audi, but the group is not yet in the clear over its years of emissions cheating.

In a statement, VW said high-end manufacturer Audi had agreed to pay an 800 million euro ($927 million) fine issued by Munich prosecutors.

"Audi AG has accepted the fine" for "deviations from regulatory requirements in certain V6 and V8 diesel aggregates [motors] and diesel vehicles", the group said.

In their own communique, Munich prosecutors confirmed their so-called "administrative proceeding" against Audi was now "closed".

VW admitted in 2015 to building so-called "defeat devices" into 11 million cars worldwide, in a massive cheating scandal dubbed "dieselgate".

Software allowed vehicles to appear to meet emissions rules under lab conditions, while in fact spewing many times more harmful gases like nitrogen oxides (NOx) on the road.

Tuesday's fine brings the total costs to Volkswagen from dieselgate to more than 28 billion euros ($32.45 billion) since 2015 — most of that in penalties, buybacks and refits in the United States.

VW paid a one-billion-euro ($1.16 billion) penalty to Brunswick prosecutors in June over its own-brand vehicles.

The fines leave just sports car subsidiary Porsche still facing an "administrative" diesel case among the group's companies.

And while the June fine flowed into a total of 1.6 billion euros paid out over dieselgate in the second quarter, the car giant reported profits up 3.4 per cent year-on-year between April and June, at 3.3 billion euros.

Relieved investors welcomed the Audi news, with VW shares rebounding from an initial drop to gain 2.5 per cent at 148 euros by 12:50pm.

Managers on the hook 

Despite Tuesday's agreement, other probes against individual managers and executives from the VW group remain open.

Targets include former chief executives Martin Winterkorn and Matthias Mueller, present VW boss Herbert Diess and supervisory board chairman, Hans Dieter Poetsch.

At Audi itself, former chief executive Rupert Stadler was removed from his post by VW earlier this month.

Prosecutors had jailed him in June, saying this was necessary to stop him trying to influence witnesses in his case over fraud and issuing false certificates.

In a Brunswick court case, investors are pursuing VW with claims totalling some 9 billion euros over the shares' 40-per cent plunge in value in the days after "dieselgate" was unveiled.

They say executives should have informed them sooner of the risks to the group.

And a similar case with a potential billion-euro price tag is underway in Stuttgart against holding company Porsche SE, which owns a controlling stake in VW.

Meanwhile the German government has opened a route for car owners to launch collective cases against the manufacturers, with a first one expected for early November.

Reshaping industry 

The dieselgate fallout is far from confined to VW alone.

German car industry stalwarts like BMW or Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler have also become the targets of official probes, while French-owned Opel was confronted with a new investigation on Monday.

What's more, tough new emissions rules are squeezing carmakers to reduce their fleets' output of both greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) and harmful NOx.

A new EU emissions testing scheme known as WLTP has slowed deliveries of new cars, slashing registrations by 30.5 per cent in September.

And drivers of older diesels face looming bans from many German city centres as the country scrambles to meet EU air quality targets.

"The current campaign against individual mobility and thereby against cars is reaching existential scale," VW chief executive, Herbert Diess, complained to a component makers' conference on Monday, business daily Handelsblatt reported.

In a study seen by the same paper, the Centre of Automotive Management commented more drily that "the fat years for the car industry are over" as a new environment of trade wars and tougher emissions rules bites into sales and margins.

DUBAI — Saudi Arabia's currency fell to its lowest level in two years and its international bond prices slipped on Monday over fears that foreign investment inflows could shrink as Riyadh faces pressure over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Trade in the forward currency market, used by banks to hedge investments, suggested some institutions were protecting themselves against the risk of capital outflows or US sanctions on Riyadh after the disappearance of Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi authorities, in Istanbul.

But the market moves were smaller than some bouts of instability in the last several years, indicating investors were not as panicked by the Khashoggi case as they were by a plunge of oil prices that began in 2014.

US President Donald Trump threatened "severe punishment" for Riyadh if it turned out that Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, as Turkish officials allege. Saudi Arabia has denied this and on Sunday warned it would counter any sanctions with greater ones of its own.

Oil prices moved only slightly on Monday as analysts said they doubted Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter of crude, would risk international isolation and damage its own finances by cutting back exports at a time when it is pushing through reforms designed to create jobs and diversify its economy. 

But Krisjanis Krustins, director in the Middle East and Africa team at credit ratings agency Fitch, said the affair could hurt some parts of the reform programme.

"If there is any lasting change in investor willingness to engage with Saudi Arabia, it could lead to slower and less complete implementation of some Vision 2030 initiatives, and greater need for Saudi Arabia to use debt and internal resources to finance them," he said.

Weak private sector

The riyal was quoted at 3.7524 to the US dollar in the spot market early on Monday, its weakest rate since September 2016, Refinitiv data showed.

The central bank maintains a peg of 3.75 riyals to the dollar, and usually the currency fluctuates in a range of about 3.7498-3.7503. In November 2015, when oil prices were plunging, the riyal dropped as low as 3.7598.

In the forwards market, the dollar rose on Monday as high as 100 points against the riyal, a nine-month high, from 54 points on Friday. In 2016, it briefly rose above 1,000 points.

Yields on Saudi Arabia's US dollar bonds climbed, mostly at the long end of the curve; its notes maturing in 2046 were 15 basis points wider.

Krustins and other analysts noted that foreign investment flows into Saudi Arabia were already very low because of a weak private sector and uncertainty over regulation; this could limit the impact of any reduction of flows.

Media organisations and a growing number of executives, including JP Morgan Chase & Co chief executive Jamie Dimon, have pulled out of a major Riyadh investment conference scheduled for next week, dubbed "Davos in the Desert". 

The Saudi stock market had tumbled 7.2 per cent over the previous two trading days because of the Khashoggi case, but it rebounded 2 per 

cent on Monday. 

Traders said some institutional investors, including foreign ones, were buying stocks at the lows, believing Saudi Arabia's fundamental economic situation was unlikely to change much.

But many bankers and analysts said the Khashoggi case had fuelled perceptions of political risk in Saudi Arabia because it was the latest in a series of unexpected incidents over the past three years.

During this period Saudi Arabia has launched a war in Yemen, imposed an embargo on Qatar, arrested dozens of top officials and businessmen in a corruption purge, detained women's rights activists and seen tensions with Canada and Germany rise.

Jason Tuvey, senior emerging markets economist at London-based Capital Economics, said political developments in Saudi Arabia were becoming an increasingly important economic risk.

Nusa Dua, Indonesia — Rising US interest rates, tanking emerging market currencies and a bitter US-China trade spat could push the world towards its next financial crisis but there is still time to avert disaster, global finance chiefs have said.

The world economy is still growing but faces an “unprecedented” combination of threats, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cautioned at an annual meeting with the World Bank in Bali this week.

Among them is growing protectionism championed by the Trump administration and the intensifying trade-and-currency battle between Washington and Beijing, which have imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods.

Opening the Bali talks, Indonesian President Joko Widodo compared the dispute between the world’s two biggest economies to the hit television series “Game of Thrones”.

“Great houses, great families, battle each other fiercely to seize control over the Iron Throne,” he said.

But “confrontation and collision impose a tragic price not only on those who are defeated but also on the winners”.

And IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned of a “degree of uncertainty that we have not seen before” in international trade.

‘Constructive solutions’ 

Disaster can still be averted, officials said at the Bali meet, with reassuring talk from the global financial elite that growth remains strong — the IMF projects 3.7 per cent for this year and the next — and could yet withstand the risks gathering on the horizon.

And despite tensions, US and Chinese officials in Bali also sounded conciliatory tones.

US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin described “productive” talks with the Chinese on the yuan, which Washington has accused Beijing of keeping artificially low to boost exports.

And China’s central bank Governor Yi Gang called for “constructive solutions” to the damaging tiff, but insisted that Beijing was not devaluing its currency to gain trade advantages — a practice the IMF this week called on members to avoid.

But there are also other brewing concerns, including the US Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates.

This year has already seen three hikes, which experts largely agree are necessary to avoid overheating an economy with strong growth and low employment.

That has squeezed emerging markets, which are seeing capital flee towards the US enticed by higher returns, and also threatens developing countries that have large debt burdens denominated in dollars.

“The global economy continues to grow but the outlook is now challenging especially for emerging markets due to the normalisation of the US monetary policy,” Brazilian central bank Governor Ilan Goldfajn warned on Sunday.

The US “needs to be very mindful that spillover from the effect of their policies is very real for many countries”, Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati added, in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

‘Repair your roof’ 

Still, there is little expectation for now of a change of gear by the Fed, despite President Donald Trump’s vocal criticism of the rate hikes.

And top officials said emerging markets should prepare for more hikes with measures that could cushion the impact, including flexible exchange rates and careful management of capital movement.

The consensus among central bankers and leading economic officials is that while the next global crisis may not be imminent, now is the time to prepare for it.

“The time to repair your roof is when the sun is shining,” French central bank Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau told AFP.

He said the current stable global growth was a good moment “to rebuild budget reserves” and for states that can to reduce their debt loads.

The IMF has also called on central banks to begin “normalising” loose monetary policy that began in response to the last financial crisis a decade ago, to give them more room to manoeuvre in the case of a fresh economic disaster.

The need for a “cushion” in case of disaster has also been exacerbated by the rise of so-called “shadow financing”, a largely unregulated system that has spread globally, and an alarming expansion of public and private debt to more than double the world’s GDP last year.

Lagarde urged vigilance as she addressed the meetings in Bali, warning against “collective amnesia” about what sparked previous financial crises.

“Geopolitical tensions combined with... increased protectionism produced terrible developments.”

NUSA DUA, Indonesia — Italian officials must stop questioning the euro and need to "calm down" in their budget debate as they have already caused damage to firms and households, European Central Bank (ECR) President Mario Draghi said on Saturday.

A senior member of Italy's ruling coalition shot back that it was Draghi who should calm down, rather than draw attention to occasional comments on the euro which were personal opinions and had no implications for government policy.

Italy's government is in a war of words with European officials over its plans to triple the deficit next year, backtracking on a previous pledge to narrow the budget gap in one of the bloc's most indebted countries.

"A budgetary expansion in a high debt country becomes much more complicated... if people start to put in question the euro," Draghi told a news conference at the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting in Indonesia.

"These statements... have created real damage and there's plenty of evidence that spreads have increased in connection with these statements," Draghi said. "The results of which is that household and firms pay higher interest rates on loans."

Italian bond yields rose sharply this month after a senior official from one of the ruling parties said Italy would be better off with its own currency, though he later reiterated the government's frequent reassurances that quitting the euro is not in its programme and it has no plans to do so.

"The very first thing [to do] is to calm down with the tone. And then the second thing is we have to wait for the facts," Draghi said, stressing the need to examine the actual spending plans, which may differ from the government's communications.

Alberto Bagnai, a senator from the right-wing League who heads the senate finance committee, said Draghi himself risked agitating markets by drawing attention to rare personal opinions on the single currency that were not government policy.

"Draghi should calm down and stop mentioning the euro. Nobody does it around here," he Tweeted.

Draghi also batted back accusations from some corners in the Italian government that the ECB's plan to phase out asset purchases by the end of the year had caused the increase in spreads.

Draghi, a former governor of Italy's central bank, said markets had not reacted in June to the ECB's decision to end its asset buys but had moved specifically on local Italian issues.

He pointed to the narrowing of the yield difference between Italy and Greece as evidence that the problem is localised. 

Since the ECB is buying Italian but not Greek bonds, a bigger rise in Italian yields would suggest that investors are not acting on overall ECB policy change but a local issue.

NUSA DUA, Indonesia — International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Thursday warned countries against engaging in trade and currency wars that hurt global growth and imperil “innocent bystanders”.

Formally launching the IMF and World Bank annual meetings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, Lagarde urged countries to “de-escalate” trade conflicts and fix global trading rules instead of abandoning them.

The United States and China have slapped tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other’s goods over the past few months, rattling financial markets as investors worry that the escalating trade conflict could knock global trade and investment.

The tariffs stem from the Trump administration’s demands that China make sweeping changes to its intellectual property practices, rein in high-technology industrial subsidies, open its markets to more foreign competition and take steps to cut a $375 billion US goods trade surplus.

Share markets in Asia plunged to a 19-month low on Thursday after Wall Street’s worst losses in eight months led to broader risk aversion, partly due to the heated global trade tensions as well as rapidly rising dollar yields.

“We certainly hope we don’t move in either direction of a trade war or a currency war. It will be detrimental on both accounts for all participants,” Lagarde told a news conference. 

“And there would also be lots of innocent bystanders”, including countries that supply commodities and components to China, such as Indonesia.

Finance ministers for developing countries in the Group of 24 whose economies have been battered by stormy markets urged major economies to reform the global trading system, rather than discard it.

The G-24 statement, issued on the sidelines of the meetings, said all emerging markets were “adversely affected” by excessive capital flow volatility.

In recent weeks, US Treasury officials have expressed concerns about China’s weakened yuan as the department prepares its semi-annual report on currency manipulation.

US President Donald Trump has accused China of deliberately manipulating its currency to gain a trade advantage, claims Beijing has consistently rejected.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met with People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Yi Gang on Thursday on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank meeting.

“We discussed important economic issues,” Mnuchin said of their meeting on Twitter.

Opposite rate cycle 

Yi, in a closed door meeting on Thursday with investment officials, explained that China’s monetary policy was on an opposite rate cycle to that of the United States, which is tightening monetary policy due to a strong economy, two people who attended the meeting said.

Over the weekend, the PBOC cut bank reserve requirement ratios for a fourth time this year to ease credit conditions and support businesses, including exporters hit by the US trade war.

The PBOC did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on Yi’s remarks.

Yi also said China would continue to open up its financial markets, including to foreign ratings agencies and bond investors, the attendees said. 

Lagarde weighed into the currency debate on Thursday and appeared to side with China, saying that yuan weakness against the dollar was driven by the greenback’s strength as the US Federal Reserve hikes interest rates. Against a basket of currencies, the yuan has depreciated less.

“We have supported the move of China towards [currency] flexibility and we want to encourage the authorities to continue on this path,” she said.

The yuan currency lost over 8 per cent between March and August at the height of market worries, although it has since pared losses as authorities stepped up support measures.

Lagarde said later that she believed Chinese authorities were taking steps to maintain growth, stability and investor confidence amid the trade conflict, but faced a “complicated” balancing act to keep its fiscal situation under control.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim also warned against an escalation of the trade row, saying that if all countries maxed out their trade threats, “We’d see a clear slowdown in the economy and the impact on developing countries would be great. We’re working with every single one of our countries to prepare them in case it gets worse.”

The IMF and Pakistan on Thursday launched talks on a new bailout program aimed at easing a mounting balance of payments crisis in the South Asian country. It would be Pakistan’s 13th IMF financing programme since 1988. 

The IMF and World Bank meetings, attended by more than 19,000 delegates, showed no sign of disruption from an offshore earthquake early Thursday morning between Bali and Java island that killed three people.

Kim pledged World Bank support for Indonesia in the wake of a series of earthquakes, including financing support for rebuilding schools, hospitals, roads, housing and other critical assets. 

NUSA DUA, Indonesia — World leaders need to fix global trading systems instead of trying to tear them down, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Chief Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday, in a rebuke to nationalist politicians pushing tariffs and protectionism.

Her comments come as a trade spat between China and the United States threatens economic growth around the world, with IMF experts warning of “new vulnerabilities” in the global system.

“We need to work together to de-escalate and resolve the current trade disputes,” Lagarde said at an IMF and World Bank gathering in Bali.

“We need to join hands to fix the current trade system, not destroy it,” she added.

Around 32,000 members of the global financial elite are on the Indonesian holiday island for a week of discussions that have been clouded by US President Donald Trump’s America First trade policy.

Trump has levied or threatened tariffs on goods from economies around the world, notably China, but also on traditional allies such as the European Union.

The head of the World Trade Organisation warned that a “full-blown commercial war” could shrink global trade by nearly 18 per cent and also knock worldwide GDP.

“The US and China would suffer considerably,” added Roberto Azevedo, director general of the global trade body.

Higher US interest rates has also helped send emerging market currencies into a tail spin, as countries that borrowed heavily in dollars race to pay back their debt.

The IMF’s latest report on world financial stability, released on Wednesday, said global growth could be at risk if emerging markets deteriorate further or trade tensions escalate.

“New vulnerabilities have emerged and the resilience of the global financial system has yet to be tested,” it said in the twice-yearly Global Financial Stability Report.

Market participants “appear complacent” about the potential risks from a “sudden, sharp tightening of conditions” — like rising interest rates or declining access to capital.

More tariffs and their countermeasures “could lead to a broader tightening of financial conditions, with negative implications for the global economy and financial stability,” the fund warned.

 ‹Bit depressed’ 

Lagarde told her audience on Wednesday that she did not feel overly gloomy about global conditions.

“It’s tempting to be a bit depressed about this perspective but I’m actually hopeful because there is a clear appetite to improve and expand trade,” she said.

Prominent US academic Jeffrey Sachs was less diplomatic in his assessment of Trump’s shepherding of American trade relationships, slamming the president’s repeated claims that deficits with China and other nations meant Americans were being taken advantage of.

“Trade deficits don’t [necessarily] mean cheating by the other side... This is the United States trying stop China’s growth — it’s a terrible idea,” Sachs, director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, told a seminar.

“All the accusations against China are completely trumped up... Grossly exaggerated.”

 Fund exodus 

As interest rates rise in advanced economies, prompting investors to take their money in search of higher returns, the IMF said emerging economies should take steps to insulate themselves from an exodus of funds.

That would include boosting foreign currency reserves that could be used in a crisis, as well as working with local bond markets to build a local investor base, rather than relying on financing from abroad.

The fund also pointed to risks from high corporate debt and too much government borrowing, a hangover from fiscal stimulus measures and government rescue spending in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis.

Since the last stability report in April, global economic conditions have become less balanced, with a more pronounced divergence between advanced and emerging economies.

Despite the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases, financial conditions “have eased further” in the US as equity valuations have stayed lofty.

Conditions in Europe and other major advanced economies have also remained “relatively easy”, although investors have pushed back their expectations for the European Central Bank to lift interest rates, the report said.

In China, the situation remains “broadly stable,” although corporate debt is above historical levels and household borrowing is at the high end among emerging countries.

“China is well aware and is taking steps to slow down the debt buildup,” said Vitor Gaspar, director of the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department.

ISTANBUL — Turkey's private sector has agreed to cut prices on its goods by at least 10 per cent across the board, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said on Tuesday, as he called on businesses to join a national struggle to tame soaring inflation.

Berat Albayrak, Turkey’s finance minister, rolled out the measures as part of a "fully fledged fight" against inflation.

The announcement appeared to leave financial markets cold, however. The lira weakened slightly as he spoke in Istanbul and was at 6.1484 at 11:57 GMT, a touch weaker on the day.

The currency has fallen some 40 per cent this year, driving up the price of everything from food to fuel and eroding confidence in what was once a high-flying emerging market. The sell-off has been sparked by deep concern about Erdogan's influence over monetary policy. 

Investors have said that more interest rate increases, and orthodox policy measures, are needed to rein in inflation, which last month hit its highest in 15 years at nearly 25 per cent.

"The fight against inflation and for price stability is not a fight that can be conducted by the state and institutions alone," Albayrak said. 

The voluntary discount would be reflected in all the goods that make up Turkey's inflation basket, and prices would be lowered by a minimum 10 per cent until the end of the year, he said.

The programme also included a freeze on energy prices until year-end and an acceleration of VAT rebates.

It was not immediately clear how many goods would ultimately be impacted, or how many companies would take part, but Albayrak called on the public to support those that did push through the price cuts.

Erdogan has called on Turks to report unusual price hikes in shops, saying it was the government's responsibility to raid the inventories of stores if necessary.

The trade ministry said on Monday it had asked more than 100 companies to explain what it says were excessive price increases of goods, in a probe into suspected price gouging after it inspected more than 69,000 products at nearly 4,000 companies.

As the currency crisis deepened in August, the government made it illegal for companies to arbitrarily impose price increases if they were not impacted by a rise in input costs or the exchange rate.

Alphabet Inc.'s Google said on Monday up to 500,000 Google+ user accounts were potentially affected by a bug that may have exposed their data to external developers, and the company is shutting down the social network for consumers.

Google opted not to disclose the issue partly due to fears of regulatory scrutiny, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. 

A software glitch in the social site gave outside developers potential access to private Google+ profile data between 2015 and March 2018, when internal investigators discovered and fixed the issue, the report said.

Shares of Alphabet Inc. were down 2.6 per cent at $1138.53.

The affected data is limited to static, optional Google+ Profile fields including name, email address, occupation, gender and age, Google said.

"We found no evidence that any developer was aware of this bug, or abusing the API, and we found no evidence that any Profile data was misused," Google said.

A memo, prepared by Google's legal and policy staff and shared with senior executives, warned that disclosing the incident would likely trigger "immediate regulatory interest" and invite comparisons to Facebook's leak of user information to data firm Cambridge Analytica, the WSJ report said.

Allegations of the improper use of data for 87 million Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica, which was hired by President Donald Trump's 2016 US election campaign, has hurt the shares of the world's biggest social network and prompted multiple official investigations in the United States and Europe.

Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai was briefed on the plan not to notify users after an internal committee had reached that decision, according to the WSJ.

In weighing whether to disclose the incident, the company considered "whether we could accurately identify the users to inform, whether there was any evidence of misuse, and whether there were any actions a developer or user could take in response", a Google spokesman told WSJ. "None of these thresholds were met here."

BALI, INDONESIE — Rising protectionism, vulnerable emerging markets and record debt levels —- the International Monetary Fund (IMF) holds its annual meeting this week in earthquake-stricken Indonesia, as it shines a light on tremors in the global economy.

Finance ministers and central bankers from 180 countries will be among 32,000 attendees in Bali for the annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank, which takes place every three years outside of Washington. The gathering will be held from Tuesday to Sunday. 

The resort island of Bali is 1,125 kilometres from Palu, the city on Sulawesi that wracked by an earthquake and tsunami on September 28 that left more than 1,500 dead and 1,000 missing.

Despite the distance, security is a major concern for Indonesian organisers. 

Bali experienced a series of volcanic eruptions over the summer, while the neighbouring island of Lombok was struck by a string of deadly earthquakes.

If there is an earthquake, Jakarta recommends participants stay in the conference centre, which, like many hotels in Bali, is built to withstand such seismic events. 

In case of tsunami risk, attendees would be evacuated to a nearby building.

But the focus of the meeting is averting economic rather than natural disasters.

The trade war launched by US President Donald Trump against China, along with disputes with allies like the European Union, Mexico and Canada, is a key source of concern. 

The dispute caused a proliferation of protectionist measures in recent months that is weighing more and more on international trade. 

 Risks materialise 

Trump has imposed tariffs on $250 billion of annual imports from China, to try to pressure Beijing to change trade policies he calls unfair, including theft of American technology.

Beijing countered by imposing punitive duties on $110 billion of US products.

Washington also has imposed steep tariffs on steel, aluminum, washing machines and solar panels, drawing retaliation from Canada, Mexico, China and others.

Like the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development which lowered its economic growth forecast for the world economy to 3.7 per cent for 2018, IMF chief Christine Lagarde signaled the fund would cut the outlook which in July stood at 3.9 per cent.

After sounding the alarm in recent years about threats to the global economy, Lagarde said last week "some of those risks have begun to materialise" and "there are signs that global growth has plateaued".

The rise in trade barriers is slowing trade, and dampening investment and manufacturing as uncertainty increases, she said.

She repeated the warning about rising debt levels which "reached an all-time high of $182 trillion — almost 60 per cent higher than in 2007".

That creates concerns for emerging market economies which will come under increased pressure as the US central bank raises interest rates, while investors are likely to pull out of those markets seeking higher returns.

Argentina and Turkey already have been hit by headwinds, seeing their currencies collapse and forcing Buenos Aires to go the IMF for help.

The fund recently increased support for Argentina by $7 billion to $57 billion in exchange for tough economic policy reforms, although the loan has not yet been approved by the IMF board.

But economist Monica de Bolle of the Peterson Institute for International Economics said Brazil was likely to see market turbulence next year and South Africa is vulnerable as well.

"This is not going to end well," de Bolle said of the emerging market outlook.

There could be broader repercussions in the event China's economic engine slows sharply amid the trade confrontation. 

Group of 20 finance ministers also are due to meet in Bali on the sidelines of the IMF meeting to discuss topics such as US sanctions against Iran or taxes on digital giants. This will the last meeting prior to the leaders' summit in Buenos Aires at the end of November.