China Vanke Co.’s sales slump extended in July, adding to liquidity pressure at the developer that’s become the latest focal point of the nation’s property crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Contracted sales for the month slumped 13% from a year earlier to 19.2 billion yuan ($2.7 billion), following a 29.3% slide in June, corporate filings show. The total was 24% lower on month. The protracted sales slump is escalating investor concern over its liquidity.

Kenya’s central bank surprised financial markets by cutting its benchmark interest rate for the first time since early 2020, providing some respite to consumers who have become increasingly frustrated by the high cost of living, Bloomberg News reported. The monetary policy committee lowered the key rate to 12.75% from 13%, Governor Kamau Thugge said in an emailed statement Tuesday. Only one of nine economists in a Bloomberg survey predicted the move. Yields on government bonds due 2031 eased 4 basis points to 11.55% by 6:51 pm in Nairobi, the first drop after three consecutive days of gains.

Credit default swaps tied to the UK’s largest pub operator have plunged in value as investors fear the company’s recent debt refinancing has left the contracts worthless, meaning bondholders have no way to hedge, Bloomberg News reported. The contracts have fallen in value since Stonegate Pubs — owner of the Slug & Lettuce and Be At One chains — closed on a refinancing last week, selling more than £2 billion ($2.54 billion) of bonds at double-digit yields.

China Evergrande Group is seeking to recover $6 billion from its founder and others amid the former property giant’s continuing liquidation, the Wall Street Journal reported. The heavily indebted Chinese developer said late Monday that it is seeking to claw back the money from seven individuals, including founder Hui Ka Yan, his ex-wife, a former chief executive and a former chief financial officer.

Retail sales unexpectedly fell in June in the eurozone as a consumption-led recovery continued to prove elusive, the Wall Street Journal reported. Total retail trade was 0.3% lower than in May, figures from the EU statistics agency showed Tuesday, bucking economists’ expectations for a continued rise in sales. Indeed, the eurozone has failed to book two consecutive months of higher retail sales so far this year despite a steady increase in real incomes as inflation eases and wages rise. Spending both on food and other goods declined compared with May, while fuel sales increased.

Inflation unexpectedly heated up in the eurozone this month, presenting a fresh challenge to policymakers looking for signs that eurozone price rises are easing sustainably, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 2.6% higher on year in July, picking up pace from in June, according to EU figures released Wednesday. That defied economists’ expectations for a slight decrease in inflation over the month, and leaves the rate further from the European Central Bank’s elusive 2% target.

Scotland’s corporate insolvencies dipped by 3.1% in Q1 2024-2025 compared to the previous fiscal year, totaling 283, Scottish Financial News reported. Despite this decrease, figures are still 17.9% higher than pre-pandemic levels.

The National Company Law Tribunal has directed to initiate insolvency proceedings against Supertech Township Projects on a plea filed by Punjab & Sind Bank over a default of Rs 216.92 crore. This is the third group firm of Ram Kishor Arora-led realty major Supertech to go through the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), the Economic Times of India reported.

Private lenders to PT Visi Media Asia secured a rare win in Indonesian court after a Jakarta judge ruled to fully admit their $560 million claim, allowing them to participate in the debt restructuring of the embattled media company, Bloomberg News reported. The ruling by Judge Kadarisman Al Riskandar of the Central Jakarta Commercial Court on Monday overruled an earlier decision by court administrators who had rejected the claim, according to a statement from a group of creditors. Lenders to the company include funds managed by Tor Investment Management and Varde Partners Inc.

The last time a freshly minted Labour government unabashedly campaigned on an ambitious national industrial policy to revive the British economy was 50 years ago, and the results were generally viewed as disastrous, the New York Times reported. The 1974 program of subsidies, state ownership and power sharing among business, unions and government resulted in strikes that paralyzed the nation. And the government’s goal of picking industrial winners turned into a policy of backing losers like the automaker British Leyland and British Steel Corporation.