The IMF on China’s renminbi, French holidays, and too much of a good thing

The daily briefing “FirstFT” from the Financial Times.

China’s currency has received a vote of confidence from the International Monetary Fund, which declared that it was ‘no longer undervalued’. The IMF has shifted its stance after more than a decade of criticising Beijing’s tight management of the renminbi.

The fund’s position puts it at odds with its biggest shareholder. The US insists, along with many economists, that China still gets an unfair trade advantage from an undervalued renminbi. (FT)

In the news

Fifa arrests Swiss authorities detained several top soccer officials in Zurich early this morning. They plan to extradite them to the US on charges that include wire fraud, racketeering and money-laundering. The Fifa officials had been gathered for their annual meeting. (NYT)

US recovery leaves cities behind Nearly half of the largest US metropolitan areas have yet to recoup all of the lost jobs from the financial crisis and almost a third have failed to return to previous levels of output. (FT)

French 10-week holiday threatened State-owned utility company EDF wants to change one of the country’s most generous labour agreements – a sign of an increasing willingness in France to loosen the rigidities of the labour market. EDF wants to call time on the 23 additional days off that thousands of their white-collar employees get in addition to their conventional 27 days of holiday. The FT examines France’s 35-hour working week and whether it really is the cause of the country’s economic problems. (FT)

Obama immigration plan halted A federal appeals bench ruled that the White House plan toshield 5m undocumented immigrants from deportation must be put on hold. The ruling bars the president from implementing his executive order on immigration so long as court challenges from 26 states are pending. (FT)

Snapchat IPO plans Chief executive Evan Spiegel said the company was planning an initial public offering and will spurn acquisition offers to remain independent but did not specify the timeframe for listing. Snapchat was last valued at $15bn in a fundraising round in early March. (FT)

Deutsche Bank derivatives misstatement The US Securities and Exchange Commission said the bank had misstated the value of a giant derivatives portfolio by at least $1.5bn, inflating its value at the height of the financial crisis. Deutsche agreed to pay $55m to resolve the allegations. It had failed to account for something called “gap risk” – the FT explains what on earth this is. (FT)

It’s a big day for

G7 finance ministers The group begins a three-day summit in Dresden, where the conversation is likely to be dominated by terror financing and Greece. (FT)

Charter’s $90bn cable plan It’s over to regulators now, who will weigh whether a deal that would see the US cable company acquire Time Warner Cable in a stock-and-cash deal, further consolidating a top-heavy industry, is in consumers’ interests. (FT)

UK government The Queen will open parliament with a speech written for her by the government, which will lay out plans for an EU membership referendum. David Cameron wants to fast-track the referendum bill through the Commons and get a vote as early as next year. The speech will also detail the first purely Conservative legislative package for almost 20 years. (FT)

Food for thought

Running from the police A sociologist explains how young black men in Philadelphia are ensnared in a Kafkaesque legal system , which makes running from the police their only option: “a man in this position comes to see that the activities, relations, and localities that others rely on to maintain a decent and respectable identity become for him a system that the authorities exploit to arrest and confine him.” (Longreads)

A dark niche in the art market German police raids have revealed a black market for Nazi artand paraphernalia where collectors pay handsomely for works by artists favoured by the Nazi regime. Mainstream galleries and auction houses in Germany avoid displaying and selling these artworks, and the minister of culture and media wants them to be displayed only in a museum with historical context about Nazi abuse of art for ideological purposes. (WSJ)

Hello Fishy It may have brought sushi and sashimi to the world’s dining tables but Japan’s younger consumers are turning their backs on fish in favour of burgers and fried chicken. Enter Kirimichan, a character with a salmon fillet for a head, as a brand ambassador – created by Sanrio, the company behind the Hello Kitty brand. (FT)

Too much of a good thing Martin Wolf thinks we should be worried about a surfeit of finance. “We have a great deal of evidence that too much finance damages economic stability and growth, distorts distribution of income, undermines confidence in the market economy, corrupts politics and leads to an explosive and, in all probability, ineffective rise in regulation.” (FT)

Nigeria: The big oil fix During the 1970s oil boom, Muhammadu Buhari set up the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Forty years later, the recently elected president may be compelled to dismantle the state oil company mired in a web of patronage and allegations of criminality. (FT)

A teenager’s jihadi journey How a Belgian teenager went from moonwalking on a Michael Jackson reality TV show to enlisting in the fight against Bashar al-Assad in Syria. (New Yorker)

Video of the day

Ryanair – a tale of two hedges A customer service overhaul has helped profits climb two-thirds at the budget airline. Lex takes a look. (FT)

This article is published in collaboration with The Financial Times. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: FirstFT is the Financial Times’ editors curated free daily email of the top global stories from the FT and the best of the rest of the web.

Image:  A man rides an escalator near Shanghai Tower. REUTERS/Carlos Barria.