Headlines

Malaysian Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz, who retained the post in the new government announced Friday by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, has his work cut out for him, Bloomberg News reported. In October, Zafrul is set to unveil the 2022 federal budget to what may be the most divided parliament in Malaysia’s history. The spending plan will need to address an economy weakened by protracted lockdowns and a raging Covid outbreak, amid steep financial constraints and a deficit target that was already revised higher twice this year.

A business plan that aims to put Mexico’s troubled Interjet back in the skies in 2022 is ready, according to the firm the airline hired to advise on restructuring $1.25 billion in debt, Bloomberg News reported. Argoss Partners submitted the plan to Interjet management at the end of July. It calls for debt forgiveness of over 90%, partial payment to workers, preliminary agreements for new aircraft leases and a management team revamp.

The United States will continue to be a "very generous" donor of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people and will aim to prevent any of its assistance from passing through Taliban coffers, State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Friday, Reuters reported. "We can maintain a humanitarian commitment to ... the Afghan people in ways that does not have any funding or assistance pass through the coffers of a central government," he told reporters.

Paraguay will continue to dial back pandemic stimulus next year as a fast growing economy cushions austerity measures that have proved unpopular in other South American countries, Bloomberg News reported. The government has already reduced temporary pandemic cash transfers to people working in the country’s vast informal sector without triggering social unrest, Finance Minister Oscar Llamosas said in an interview. “The task of adjusting fiscal accounts was largely done this year, and the idea is to continue that in next year’s budget,” Llamosas said.

Zambia’s new finance minister plans to more than double the southern African nation’s copper output in five years and strike a financing deal with the International Monetary Fund by October, Bloomberg News reported. Situmbeko Musokotwane, who President Hakainde Hichilema appointed to the job on Friday, said an economic program with the Washington-based lender will be key to restoring the nation’s credibility and help convince external creditors to extend payment terms.

Mexico's new finance minister Rogelio Ramirez de la O said on Friday that the 2022 budget will not increase taxes, and that the government will instead focus on combating tax evasion, Reuters reported. Speaking to lawmakers in Congress, Ramirez de la O said the budget would not include tax rate hikes, and would be balanced, responsible and realistic. Read more.

Fugitive Indian businessman Vijay Mallya has filed papers in the UK high court seeking permission to appeal against his bankruptcy order, the Times of India reported. Mallya was declared bankrupt by the insolvency and companies court (ICC) of the high court on July 26 this year. His name is now listed in the individual insolvency register. A spokesman for the chancery division of the high court told TOI that Mallya had on August 16 filed a notice seeking permission to appeal the decision of Chief ICC judge Briggs, who had declared him bankrupt.

Almost a quarter of firms that received funding from Microfinance Ireland (MFI) over the past decade have ceased trading, according to a spending review carried out by the Department of Public Expenditure, the Irish Times reported. MFI was established to deliver the Government’s Microenterprise Loan Fund. It works closely with Local Enterprise Offices to provide loans to small businesses. The Department of Public Expenditure published a series of spending reviews on Thursday, which included an analysis of the impact of Covid-19 on State supported lending.

If there isn't an immediate intervention, "the Metropolitan Government will become insolvent by the end of the year,” Budapest Deputy Mayor Ambrus Kiss said in a recent interview, HungaryToday.hu reported. The politician blames ever-increasing expenditures and the central government for the situation. In order to avoid insolvency, this year’s budget had to be modified in 65 points, Kiss revealed.

Supply constraints are pushing prices up more than the European Central Bank expected, even as the impact will likely be temporary, Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau said, Bloomberg News reported. “There are supply difficulties that will push inflation higher than we thought in the short term,” Villeroy told executives at the annual conference of business federation Medef.