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China has ordered its top four state-owned banks to issue offshore loans to help developers repay overseas debt in Beijing's latest support measure for the cash-starved property sector, Reuters reported. The regulators have given the banks 'window guidance', or verbal orders that leave no paper trail, setting a date of Dec. 10 by which to make loans secured against domestic assets, said two of the sources, who all spoke on condition of anonymity.
Next Plc has bought UK retailer Joules Group Plc out of insolvency for £34 million ($41.5 million), winning a bidding war against rival store owners, Bloomberg News reported. The clothing and housewares retailer has teamed up with Joules founder Tom Joule to snap up the chain, which fell into administration on Nov. 16. The maker of colorful coats and Wellington boots had failed to secure bridge financing or raise equity, after warning that it would struggle to repay a £5 million loan due at the end of November.
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OPEC+ said Sunday it would lock in current production levels, a pause that suggests the word’s leading oil producers are uncertain about the direction of crude prices with a price cap on Russia’s petroleum exports set to take effect, the Wall Street Journal reported. The decision on Sunday allows the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a group of producers led by Russia—collectively known as OPEC+—to take more time to assess the market impact of an EU and Group of Seven price cap, which is intended to crimp Russia’s revenue for the Ukraine war.
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India has decided to extend the deadline on capping the share of digital payment transactions by about two years to Dec. 31, 2024, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said on Friday, Reuters reported. The NPCI had said in late 2020 that payment firms will not be allowed to process more than 30% of the total volume of transactions on UPI from Jan 1. The move comes as a breather to companies like Walmart Inc's PhonePe and Alphabet Inc's Google, which are among the leading digital money transfer apps in the country.
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India’s central bank will launch its first pilot of a digital rupee for individual users Thursday, putting it ahead of many major economies in the journey toward a sovereign virtual currency, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Reserve Bank of India has said a digital rupee could provide Indians a safe alternative to risky private digital currencies. Central banks globally have been exploring the possibility of issuing a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, as cryptocurrencies have gained favor with the public.
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Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce said on Friday it would appeal a New York court's ruling in a lawsuit brought against the bank by an entity of U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, Reuters reported. Cerberus had alleged that CIBC defaulted on certain payments and is seeking damages of $1.067 billion. CIBC said it had satisfied all its obligations. The court issued a liability ruling against the lender, but has not determined how much it will have to pay. The parties will get to present arguments on the damages at a hearing on Dec. 19, CIBC said.
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The Canadian economy added a limited number of jobs in November and the unemployment rate came in lower than expected as fewer people looked for work, official data showed on Friday, in a tepid report that may bolster the chances for a normal-sized interest rate increase next week, Reuters reported. Canada added 10,100 jobs in November, broadly in line with the forecast gain of 5,000, while the jobless rate fell to 5.1%, Statistics Canada said. Analysts had forecast the jobless rate would tick up to 5.3%.
Ghana will launch a domestic debt exchange on Monday, its Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said, expressing confidence that the move would help restore macroeconomic stability and end the West African country's worst economic crisis in a generation, Reuters reported. Ofori-Atta said in a video address on Sunday that Ghana's government had finished its debt sustainability analysis, but he did not provide any information on plans for foreign debt that are anxiously awaited by international creditors.
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Industrial production in Brazil rose 0.3% in October from September, government statistics agency IBGE said on Friday, returning to positive territory after two consecutive monthly declines though still below pre-pandemic levels, Reuters reported. Production in October also grew 1.7% from a year earlier, slightly above market consensus of a 1.6% rise.
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Rangers FC could still be sued for £9.5million by the administrators of the Elite Sports Group despite the sports goods distributor going insolvent, the Scottish Daily Express reported. The Ibrox club is facing a civil court action over claims Rangers breached a contract related to the provision of kits for the Glasgow team. Elite is the exclusive brand partner to Danish sportswear firm Hummel and it instructed lawyers to go to the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Elite won a bid to force Rangers to disclose sales data to them last month.
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