MYSTERY writer Ruth Rendell , who brought psychological insight and social conscience to the classic British detective story, has died aged 85.
Publisher Penguin Random House said Rendell — best known for the Inspector Wexford series of novels — died yesterday morning in London. The cause of death was not announced, but Rendell had suffered a serious stroke in January.
Gail Rebuck, chair of Penguin Random House UK, said the author had been “an insightful and elegant observer of society” whose work “highlighted the causes she cared so deeply about.”
“Ruth was a great writer , a campaigner for social justice, a proud mother and grandmother, a generous and loyal friend,” she said.
Rendell was one of Britain’s most popular crime novelists and wrote dozens of books, including many under the pen name Barbara Vine.
She was also a major influence on other writers. Stephen King tweeted that her death was “a huge loss.”
Born Ruth Grasemann in London in 1930 , Rendell began her career as a journalist on a local newspaper, but had to resign after reporting on a sports club’s dinner without attending — thus missing the moment the after-dinner speaker dropped dead.
Rendell said in 2005 that she started her literary efforts by writing some “very bad” novels that were never published. After these false starts, she found that “suspense and a sort of tension and a sort of mystery was my forte.”
Once she found her way, Rendell produced novels at an astonishing pace — more than 60 books over four decades, including 20 featuring the liberal , literary small-town detective Chief Inspector Wexford.
The Wexford books were made into a popular TV series, “The Ruth Rendell Mysteries.”
A lifelong socialist, Rendell anchored her thrillers in a modern landscape, introducing issues including environmentalism, politics , mental health and celebrity culture.
In 1997, she was appointed to the House of Lords, becoming Baroness Rendell of Babergh.
She took the work seriously and frequently attended Parliamentary sessions. She was especially involved in the fight to stop female genital mutilation, Rebuck said.
China's Ministry of Finance dismissed yesterday’s decision by Moody’s Investors Service to downgrade the country’s credit rating for the first time in nearly 30 years, saying the ratings agency was exaggerating economic difficulties and underestimating reform efforts.
Moody’s cut China’s rating from Aa3 to A1 while changing its outlook to stable from negative , citing concerns over rising debt and potential growth slowing.
“The downgrade reflects Moody’s expectation that China’s financial strength will erode somewhat over the coming years, with economy-wide debt continuing to rise as potential growth slows,” the agency said.
Moody’s changed its outlook on China from stable to negative in March 2016.
The downgrading came amid a tightened national campaign in recent months to rein in financial risks and an upcoming key political meeting in the fall.
China’s central bank has raised short-term interest rates twice this year, raising the costs for speculators betting against the yuan. The banking regulator, at the same time , has filed several detailed rules since March to crack down on the shadow banking sector to defuse asset bubbles.
“While ongoing progress on reforms is likely to transform the economy and financial system over time, it is not likely to prevent a further material rise in economy-wide debt, and the consequent increase in contingent liabilities for the government,” Moody’s said.
“We expect the government’s direct debt burden to rise gradually toward 40 percent of GDP by 2018 and closer to 45 percent by the end of the decade,” it said.
A ministry statement said the downgrade was based on a pro-cyclical approach which was “not appropriate.”
Procyclical is where governments increase public spending and reduce taxes during a boom , but do the opposite in a recession.
The ministry said the Chinese government’s liability ratio stood at 36.7 percent to GDP by the end of last year, compared to the European Union’s 60 percent and far below the level of other major economies and emerging markets.
It added: “With the pushing of the country’s supply-side reform and the control over government liabilities, alongside a medium and high-level growth of our GDP to provide fundamental support to guard local government debt risks, the risk level of government debt profile won’t significantly change in 2018 to 2020 compared to the year 2016.”
The downgrading will likely modestly increase the cost of borrowing for the Chinese government and its state-owned enterprises. But many analysts believe it will have limited impact on market players, both in onshore and offshore markets.
ANZ said it sees a marginal negative influence from the downgrade on the domestic bond market as local investors are not sensitive to international credit ratings , according to a report released yesterday. And the scenario could be the same in the offshore market.
“Theoretically, Chinese companies that issue offshore dollar bonds could bear more pressure from the downgrade decision,” said Liu Dongliang, a senior analyst at China Merchants Bank Co.
“But buyers of such bonds in most cases are Chinese financial institutions who have closer connections with the issuers, which also makes them less dependent on decisions made by rating agencies.”
The downgrade could also influence the future bond connect program linking foreign investors to China’s nearly US$9 trillion bond market , but the overall impact is expected to be limited, Liu added.
The official onshore yuan traded a little weaker at 6.8909 yuan to the dollar after softening as much as 0.1 percent following the downgrade. Meanwhile, the onshore bond market was muted on the downgrade, with the yield on 10-year Chinese government bond.