Xi Jinping announced a “new phase” of the fight against the pandemic in China, and VTB launches a digital bank in Telegram – these and other important news for the morning of Thursday, January 19, in our daily review.

A “new phase” of the fight against the coronavirus has begun in China, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, the Financial Times quoted him as saying. In his speech on the eve of Chinese New Year celebrations, Xi Jinping expressed fears about the likely spread of COVID-19 in provinces and villages as people from major cities go on vacation to travel or visit their relatives: many for the first time in three years.

VTB announced the launch of a full-fledged online bank in the messenger Telegram, writes RBC. The bank assured that the average time of everyday financial transactions in this case will be halved. “The service will be available to owners of smartphones of all operating systems, and for iOS users it will become a reliable alternative to the application from the AppStore”, – reported in the Bank.

This year, the classic 60/40 portfolio strategy had its best start to the year in 36 years, Bloomberg calculated. The portfolio, which consists of 60% stocks and 40% bonds, has returned about 3.6% so far this year, according to the agency’s index.

Demand for the most expensive apartments on the primary market in Moscow for 2022 has decreased more than twice, writes RBC with reference to the data of real estate agencies. According to “Metrium Premium”, for 2022 in the capital was sold 324 apartments in elite new buildings (the agency refers to them residential complexes with the cost of 1 sq. m. from 900 000 rubles). This is 55% less than in 2021, when 726 apartments were sold in such buildings.

German chemical company BASF will have a net loss of 1.38 billion euros in 2022 against a net profit of 5.52 billion euros a year earlier due to the impairment of assets by about 7.3 billion euros due to the departure of its subsidiary Wintershall Dea from Russia. This is stated in BASF’s preliminary report published on its website.