Sankcie Iránu, zlato rastie, Shein klesá, Alibaba AI

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WORLD

• Shein launches IPO in Hong Kong with a target valuation of up to 27 billion USD. The Chinese fast-fashion giant is preparing to go public in Hong Kong after unsuccessful attempts in New York and London, but its valuation has fallen by approximately 70 percent from nearly 100 billion USD in 2022. The company plans to raise capital for further development.
• Alibaba announces a 10.2 billion USD share issue for AI, the share price fell by 8 – 10 percent. Alibaba Group announced the largest primary follow-on share issue in the history of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, worth HK $80 billion (10.2 billion USD), with all proceeds going towards the development of its AI capabilities. The company’s shares fell by 8 – 10 percent in response to the announcement, although demand for the issue exceeded supply.
• Singapore inflation highest in almost two years, MTI raised GDP forecast. Consumer prices in Singapore rose 2.2 percent year-on-year in July 2026, the highest in almost two years, but fell short of economists’ estimates. Singapore’s MTI also raised its GDP growth forecast for 2026.
• Drug prices in Iran are rising sharply, patient’s children asked to postpone chemotherapy. Rising drug and healthcare costs in Iran are limiting patients’ access to treatment, with the children of a cancer patient asking to postpone chemotherapy. The Iranian government explains the price increase by higher raw material costs, but doctors warn of complications and the risk of premature death.

EUROPE

• UK productivity is growing by 1.1 percent annually, but LFS shows a decline and the reason remains a mystery. British labor productivity is growing at a rate of 1.1 percent per year according to administrative tax data, exceeding the pre-pandemic average, while the official Labor Force Survey shows a decline. The cause of this discrepancy remains unexplained, with AI, sector shifts or capital investment unable to explain it.
• Graduate jobs in the UK at a ten-year low, record year heading to universities. In July 2026, there were only 8,383 graduate vacancies in the United Kingdom, a year-on-year decrease of 45 percent. At the same time, a record 262,820 students are preparing to start university in September 2026, with the number of young people not in education, employment or training exceeding one million.
• Cipollone: EU must remove single market barriers and reduce fossil fuel dependence. Member of the ECB Executive Board Piero Cipollone called for the removal of internal barriers to the EU single market and warned of the risk of slowing growth in the fight against supply inflation. He emphasized that temporary fiscal measures alone do not address Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels.

Translated from the Slovak original and checked automatically: every figure must match the source, or this version is not published.