China’s global index inclusion delayed, Jack Ma reassures, and Greece talks

China may have to wait until 2017 to join MSCI’s global benchmarks due to concerns about international investor access to one of the world’s largest equity markets.

Only once quota, liquidity and ownership issues are resolved will the MSCI index – tracked by funds worth $1.7tn – include China A-shares, which are listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen.

That’s not the answer China wanted. Depending on who runs the numbers, inclusion could have added $20bn – $50bn to the two markets. Others may also be ruing the verdict: it comes just a week after Vanguard, the world’s largest fund provider, chose to add A shares to its flagship emerging markets fund.

That a passive benchmark has been left unchanged has been a big event for world markets,writes John Authers. Here’s a handy explainer of why the decision is so significant. John Plender, meanwhile, thinks China may be blowing an equity bubble. (FT)

In the news

Mood darkens in Greece talks Athens has submitted yet another last-minute economic reform proposal to its bailout creditors, only to have it once again dismissed. The back-and-forth has become so commonplace, it has earned the moniker “paperology”. But the most recent exchange differed in one vital respect: the mood of cautious optimism that has surrounded the talks in recent weeks is rapidly giving way to fear and suspicion. (FT)

Ma reassures Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, set out his pitch to bring US businesses to his Chinese ecommerce platform on Tuesday in a speech that drew admiring gasps, laughter and applause from some of the most powerful figures on Wall Street. (FT)

Emerging market bond sell-off hots up Speculation about economic revival in developed nations has led to the largest monthly sell-off in debt since the “taper tantrum”, raising concerns that the world is entering a phase of market turbulence. Investors have removed $4.4bn from debt issued by countries in Africa, Latin America, eastern Europe and Asia in the space of a month, with India and Thailand suffering particularly heavy outflows. (FT)

Brother’s grim David Miliband has said his “worst fears were confirmed” when his brother led Labour to its most comprehensive defeat for almost 30 years in last month’s general election. Mr Miliband told The Times he felt a great sense of “frustration and anger” about what a Conservative majority government would mean for the UK, and said in an interview with CNNthat the Labor party needed to “reflect on the very clear lessons of two devastating electoral defeats,” which had happened for very clear reasons. (The Times, CNN)

P&G’s beauty parade Procter & Gamble’s auction of its beauty assets is reaching the final stages, with five companies making binding bids for different parts of its hair, cosmetics and fragrance businesses, insiders said. Henkel, the German consumer goods group, Coty, the French beauty products company, and private equity firms KKR ,Warburg Pincus and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice are in the running for the various P&G assets. (FT)

US shale targeted As the economics of expensive new oil projects become questionable with a near 50-per cent plunge in crude prices over the past year, companies sitting on lower-cost oil and gas output in America’s shale producing heartlands are expected to become targets for predators. (FT)

Brazil’s infrastructure boost Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s prime minister, joined the bridge-building brigade. She plans to sell the private sector new concessions to build and operate nearly 7,000km of roads, as well as four new airports, and a number of ports and railways as part of a $65bn infrastructure package aimed at propping up the flagging economy. India and Indonesia harbour similar plans. (FT)

Deutsche Bank raided Around 30 plain-clothes officers were involved in a search of the company’s Frankfurt offices, according to people familiar with the situation. The raids are the latest blow for the German bank, which is involved in numerous legal wrangles, and whose co-chief executives said on Sunday they would step down. (FT)

It’s a big day for

UK budget George Osborne will stake his reputation on Wednesday on achieving budget surpluses for years to come, enshrining his pledge to pay down debt in normal conditions in legislation in the autumn. (FT)

UK markets A major review of UK financial regulation is due to drop today. New laws designed to close the legal loopholes and regulatory gaps that allowed scandals like foreign exchange market manipulation and the rigging of Libor to happen are expected to feature heavily in the Fair and Effective Markets Review.

World Bank The latest edition of the Washington-based bank’s twice-yearly report is released later today in the US. In January, the Bank said it expected the global economy to expand by 3 per cent in 2015 and by 3.3 per cent in 2016, on hopes lower oil prices would boost activity. Since the previous report, though, oil prices have gained about 15 per cent, albeit remaining about 37 per cent lower over the past 12 months. (FT)

Food for thought

Forcing the arrest of police officers Fed up with a 199-day (and counting) wait for prosecutors to charge the Cleveland police officers involved in the shooting death of Tamir Rice, a group of community leaders have made a request under an obscure provision of Ohio law that enables them to file an affidavit demanding an arrest. On Tuesday, they went to a municipal court judge and asked him to issue a warrant for the officers on charges of murder, aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, negligent homicide, and dereliction of duty. (The Atlantic)

Greeks chose poverty, let them have it Francesco Giavazzi, economics professor at Bocconi University, argues that Europe has spent long enough worrying about Greece. “If the Greeks do not want to modernise, we should accept it…Without economic and social reforms, Greece will remain a relatively poor country. But it is not for the rest of Europe to impose reforms on Greece.” (FT)

The worst refugee crisis in generations How the world is responding to the flood of 11m people uprooted by violence last year, mostly propelled by conflict in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and Afghanistan, in what the UN has called the worst migration crisis since the second world war. (NYT)

Apple reinvents – er, disrupts – the wheel Streaming music. Internet radio. A customised news app. As Rdio put it: “Welcome, Apple. Seriously.” Here are all the new products Apple just announced as major innovations…and the companies they copied them from. But perhaps Spotify should be afraid, very, very afraid . (FT, Slate, NYMag)

Video of the day

The Dax’s big ‘W’ James Mackintosh looks at the German index, which has fallen into correction territory and beyond. (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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Image: Pedestrians walk under red lanterns. REUTERS/Aly Song.