The World Bank slashed its 2023 growth forecasts on Tuesday to levels teetering on the brink of recession for many countries as the impact of central bank rate hikes intensifies, Russia's war in Ukraine continues, and the world's major economic engines sputter, Reuters reported. The development lender said it now expected global GDP growth of 1.7% in 2023 — the slowest pace outside the 2009 and 2020 recessions in nearly three decades. In its previous Global Economic Prospects report, in June 2022, the bank had forecast 2023 global growth at 3.0%.
These should be great times to be in the wind energy business, especially in Europe. Governments here have long promoted offshore wind projects, and those efforts have accelerated since Russia started cutting natural gas shipments in its war against Ukraine, the New York Times reported. “We need clean, we need cheaper and we need homegrown power,” Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union president, said in August.
FTX Digital Markets, the Bahamas-based unit of the recently collapsed cryptocurrency trading platform, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S., CNN reported. The company filed Tuesday in New York court under chapter 15. The move comes after the crypto exchange’s U.S.-based arm, FTX Group, abruptly filed for bankruptcy Friday after facing a “severe liquidity crisis.” FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO the same day. FTX’s rapid collapse marked a stunning downfall for one of the biggest and most powerful players in the crypto industry.
Liquidators for FTX's Bahamas unit, FTX Digital Markets, have asked a New York City court to recognize its bankruptcy in the Bahamas, saying they "reject the validity" of the cryptocurrency exchange's U.S. bankruptcy proceedings, Saltwire reported. The Bahamas liquidators, who were appointed on Nov. 10 by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas, filed a chapter 15 petition late Tuesday in U.S. bankruptcy court in New York, asking the court to help them obtain records from FTX and block asset transfers to protect creditors of the Bahamas-based company.
PT Garuda Indonesia on Friday filed for chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York court, as the debt-laden carrier tries to secure its future profitability, Bloomberg News reported. The submission comes as the airline, having completed a court-supervised debt restructuring in Indonesia to halve reduce its debt load, tries to capitalize on the rebound in international travel. Garuda’s total debt now amounts to roughly $5.1 billion, President Director Irfan Setiaputra told parliament in Jakarta on Monday.
A unit of Malaysia’s state-owned investment fund 1MDB -- which has spurred investigations around the world into deal-making and political patronage under former Prime Minister Najib Razak -- is seeking bankruptcy protection in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. Brazen Sky Ltd., which is fully owned by 1Malaysia Development Bhd., filed for chapter 15 in Southern District of Florida court, according to a filing. The document listed voluntary liquidation pending in the British Virgin Islands, where Brazen Sky is incorporated.
Brazil's government debt fell to its lowest level since the start of the coronavirus pandemic amid favorable fiscal data, central bank data showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The country's debt as a share of gross domestic product dropped to 77.6% in July, from 78% in June, the lowest figure since March 2020, when it reached 77.03%. At the peak of the spending spree to fight the pandemic, the indicator reached 89% of GDP.
Global supply chain pressures have been showing signs of easing, a trend that should translate into less pricing pressure on goods in the months to come, the New York Times reported. Compared with before the pandemic, ports and warehouses are still congested, and companies are still contending with shipping rates and delivery times that remain much higher than normal. Still, this more smoothly functioning supply chain is likely to provide one source of relief for an economy that is still struggling with rapid inflation.
A top arranger for Chinese junk dollar bonds says that a type of filing under the US bankruptcy code will play an important role for China’s distressed developers to restructure debt, buying them time to pay back creditors until markets recover, Bloomberg news reported. About 10 Chinese real estate companies could use so-called schemes of arrangement to restructure debt in a holistic fashion this year, Chen Yi, head of global capital markets at Haitong International Securities Group Ltd., said in an interview.
Irish developer Michael O’Flynn has been blocked by the High Court from raising any objections to the personal insolvency agreement of a neighbour John O’Driscoll over a guarantee on a €2.2 million loan, the Irish Times reported. The developer who contended that Mr. O’Driscoll from Ovens, County Cork, was allegedly not insolvent, failed in his bid to overturn a Circuit Court ruling that he had no right to be heard on the matter. In the High Court, Mr. Justice Alexander Owens upheld the Circuit Court ruling that because Mr. O’Flynn who had been invited by Mr.