China’s National People’s Congress, oil prices, US healthcare

The daily briefing “FirstFT” from the Financial Times.

China’s ersatz parliament, the National People’s Congress, kicked off today. The leadership set its GDP growth target to “around 7 per cent”, down from the heady heights of much of the past two decades or so and even last year’s 7.5 per cent as the country enters a “new normal”. (FT)

a shift down from last year’s “around 7.5 per cent.” It will also increase its defence budget by 10.1 per cent this year to address China’s ‘vulnerability to foreign adversaries’. (FT)

The week-long session may seem to be a bewildering mass of dark-suited officials but it does provide a rare glimpse into the workings of Chinese politics. The WSJ explains how the NPC works and the FT looks at what is to be expected in the days ahead.

In the news

AbbVie to buy Pharmacyclics for $21bn US pharmaceuticals group AbbVie signed a deal tobuy the cancer drugmaker, snatching the prize from Johnson & Johnson at the eleventh hour. The purchase gives AbbVie more clout in oncology medicine but also smacks of a rebound – last year it was close to clinching Irish drug company Shire for $54bn, before exiting in the face of US curbs on these tax-lowering deals. (WSJ$)

US ambassador to S Korea attacked Mark Lippert was rushed to hospital after being attacked with a razor blade on his face and wrist. The attacker was reportedly motivated by opposition to the US-South Korea joint military exercises that began on Monday. (FT)

Low oil long term Rex Tillerson, the chief of ExxonMobil, said the world should “settle in” for a period of weak oil prices as demand in China slowed and US supplies were “coming like a freight train”. (FT)

Rate manoeuvres Brazil’s central bank raised rates to a six-year high as inflation rose at the fastest monthly pace in 12 years in January. In Turkey, the currency hit an all-time low after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attacked the central bank governor for being too parsimonious with interest rate cuts last week given inflationary pressures. (FT)

Subpoena for Clinton emails Republicans investigating the 2012 attack on a US consulate in Libya issued subpoenas for Hillary Clinton’s personal emails. These have already unleashed a political storm after it emerged the former secretary of state used a personal email account for government business. (FT)

US healthcare cliffhanger Four justices of the nine-member Supreme Court defended the US government against arguments that healthcare subsidies are illegal . If the court does not decide to uphold the tax credit provisions, millions of Americans could lose their health insurance although it won’t get rid of Obama’s signature healthcare legislation completely. (FT, NYT$)

Crafty ambitions Online craft goods marketplace Etsy filed to go public on Nasdaq. It aims to raise at least $100m and estimates suggest the purveyor of hats for boiled eggs and dinosaur-shaped wine racks could be valued at as much as $2bn, which would make it the biggest IPO for a New York-based tech company in several years. (FT)

It’s a big day for

Wall Street The results of the Federal Reserve’s stress tests will be released. If a bank fails the test it will be barred from distributing dividends or buying back shares. Dealbook explains how the tests work and what to expect. (NYT$)

Central banks The Bank of England and the European Central Bank are expected to stay pat on interest rates at today’s meetings but the ECB will publish an updated economic forecast expected to show a downwards revision of inflation. (FT)

Food for thought

The secret of Warren Buffett’s success is $62bn of deferred corporate taxes. He is a proponent of raising taxes, but also holding off paying them as long as possible. (FT)

Feminism and Wonder Woman American history professor Jill Lepore discusses her book telling the history of the fight for women’s rights through Wonder Woman. She also explains her grim assessment of feminism today, saying, “We’re moving backwards at a pretty fast pace, I’d say.” (Dissent)

Travels with my censor Peter Hessler decided the best way to understand censorship is to spend a week with your censor. He finds that rather than promoting an agenda or covering up specifics, the censor tries to avoid catching the eye of higher authority – a goal that may run counter to the goals of the Chinese Communist party. (New Yorker)

The original corporate raiders The East India Company subjugated and plundered vast tracts of south Asia, and the lessons of the its brutal reign have never been more relevant, says William Dalrymple. “So it was that in 1773, the world’s first aggressive multinational corporation was saved by history’s first mega-bailout – the first example of a nation state extracting, as its price for saving a failing corporation, the right to regulate and severely rein it in.” (Guardian)

Video of the day

Is this another dotcom bubble? Online luxury retailer Farfetch is the latest London technology start-up to be valued at $1bn. Ravi Mattu looks at whether London’s start-up scene is overheating. (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: Pedestrians walk under red lanterns. REUTERS/Aly Song.