Headlines

Bankruptcies are on the rise in Canada as government supports end and businesses grapple with a challenging post-pandemic recovery featuring soaring costs, supply chain issues and a labour shortage, YahooFinance.com reported. The number of businesses that filed for insolvency in the first quarter of the year jumped 33.8 per cent compared to 2021, according to statistics released by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada. A total of 807 businesses filed for bankruptcy in the quarter, up 10.1 per cent from the previous three months.

The president of the European Central Bank on Monday gave the clearest sign yet that policymakers will aim to raise interest rates as soon as July to ease surging inflation, the Associated Press reported. In a blog post on the Frankfurt, Germany-based bank’s website, President Christine Lagarde said she expects asset purchases that buoy the economy would end “very early in the third quarter.” “This would allow us a rate lift-off at our meeting in July, in line with our forward guidance,” she wrote.

Italy expects to attract at least two rival bids for ITA Airways, the successor to Alitalia, before the deadline for its part privatisation expires at midnight on Monday, Reuters reported. Shipping group MSC, which is working with Germany's Lufthansa, is seen as the leading candidate, but a consortium comprising U.S. private equity fund Certares, Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines Inc is also expected to make a competitive offer.

Chinese conglomerate HNA Group Co. must pay its former business partner SL Green Realty Corp. about $185 million in a dispute over a bankrupt Manhattan skyscraper, an arbitrator said, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The arbitrator, former judge L. Priscilla Hall, found that real-estate investment trust SL Green was entitled to a $184.6 million payment over an investment that it made in HNA Group’s 245 Park Ave., according to documents made public in a New York state court on Friday. SL Green should also be reimbursed for $856,000 in fees, she said.

Mexican annual inflation eased slightly in the first half of May compared to the previous two-week period, but inflationary pressures remained well above the central bank's target, official data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Headline inflation dipped to 7.58% in early May from 7.65% during the last two weeks of April, the latest figures published by national statistics agency INEGI showed. A Reuters poll of economists had forecast a rate of 7.60%. Compared with the previous two-week period, consumer prices fell 0.06% during the first half of May, INEGI said.

Brazilian consumer prices rose more than expected in the month to mid-May, statistics agency IBGE said on Tuesday, marking the sharpest jump for the period in six years as the country grapples with galloping inflation, Reuters reported. The IPCA-15 consumer price index rose 0.59% in the month, according to IBGE. That was down from 1.73% in the previous month as the central bank has raised interest rates aggressively, but still above expectations of a 0.45% rise, according to the median forecast in a Reuters poll. Inflation in the 12 months to mid-May hit 12.20%, up from 12.03% in mid-April.

A large creditor of failed Wellington construction company Armstrong Downes Commercial is trying to replace the liquidators with someone with “some teeth” to ensure subcontractors get paid, Stuff.nz reported. Armstrong Downes (ADC) shareholders had appointed David Ruscoe​​ and Russell Moore​​ from Grant Thornton as liquidators. However, Lower Hutt developer Kevin Melville, whose High St Holdings 2020 Ltd was a client, said he wanted to replace them with Damien Grant of Waterstone Insolvency as the new liquidator. ADC had two directors, Doile​ and Taylor​.

A senior official in Argentina charged with leading government efforts to tame sky-high inflation resigned on Monday due to differences over how to contain steadily creeping prices, which have hobbled the country's economy, Reuters reported. Annual inflation in the South American nation reached 58% in April, as many food and energy prices surged in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with some analysts predicting consumer prices will jump 70% later this year.

South Korea's central bank is likely to hike its benchmark rate at a second consecutive meeting on Thursday to combat inflation running at more than double its target, taking rates higher by year end than previously thought, a Reuters poll showed. Inflation in Asia's fourth-largest economy rose to more than a 13-year high of 4.8% in April, as repercussions from the Russia-Ukraine war and a weakening won , down 7% this year, ramped up prices. Inflation has stayed above the central bank's target of 2.0% for more than a year.

The Turkish lira plunged the most since a rout late last year, as a steep drawdown in the central bank’s reserves and its unorthodox monetary policy left the currency increasingly exposed amid a standoff with the country’s NATO allies, Bloomberg News reported. Already the worst performer in emerging markets this year, the lira on Tuesday is on track for the world’s biggest decline against the dollar, slipping as much as 1.5% to the weakest level in five months. Little relief is in sight, especially as energy costs spiral higher for Turkey.