Headlines

India plans to raise 6 trillion rupees ($81 billion) from selling state-owned infrastructure assets over next four years to help bolster the government’s finances and plug its budget deficit, Bloomberg News reported. The plan will include sale of road and railway assets, airports, power transmission lines and gas pipelines, said the people who asked not to be identified as they aren’t authorized to share the details. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to make the road-map public at 5 p.m. Monday.

Lebanon’s government agreed yesterday to pay tens of thousands of poor families cash assistance in U.S. dollars from a World Bank loan as the country’s economic crisis deepens, the Associated Press reported. The decision comes as Lebanon is expected to end subsidies for fuel by the end of next month, a move that is expected to lead to sharp increases in prices of almost all products. Lebanon’s parliament approved in March a $246 million loan from the World Bank that would provide assistance for more than 160,000 families.

The International Monetary Fund’s record $650 billion resource injection came into effect Monday, with Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva urging wealthy states to direct some of their allocation to countries lacking the means to cope with the Covid crisis and future challenges, Bloomberg News reported. The creation of the reserve assets -- known as special drawing rights -- is the first since 2009, just after the global financial crisis.

Many train drivers with Germany’s national railway walked off the job on Monday as their union embarked on its second two-day strike this month in a bitter dispute with the company, the Associated Press reported. The GDL union called on passenger train drivers to strike from 2 a.m. Monday to 2 a.m. Wednesday. Freight train drivers already started their strike on Saturday afternoon. Railway operator Deutsche Bahn planned to run about one-quarter of long-distance trains, while about 40% of regional and local services were expected to go ahead.

A Belfast man is to stand trial in connection with an alleged multimillion-pound banking fraud, a judge ordered on Monday, the Irish Times reported. Ciaran Brendan Barr is accused of multiple offences against his former employer Santander. He is charged with 66 counts of fraud by abuse of position, and two further frauds by false representation. It is alleged that he caused a loss to Santander in relation to applications for banking services made on behalf of companies and individuals. The charges cover a period from March 2013 to February 2018.

Afghanistan’s new Taliban-led government faces a series of shocks that probably will lead to a weaker currency, faster inflation and capital controls, according to the nation’s exiled central bank chief, Bloomberg News reported. The Afghani, as the tender is known, likely will see renewed weakness after it reached a record low last week, Ajmal Ahmady, governor of Da Afghanistan Bank, known as DAB, said in an interview for Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast. That could spur a pickup in consumer-price increases by making imports more expensive, he said.

Offshore drilling rig contractors Transocean Ltd and Dolphin Drilling have made a new offer to buy the assets of stricken rival Seadrill Ltd, Dolphin's chief executive said on Friday. Oslo-listed Seadrill, founded by Norwegian-born tycoon John Fredriksen, is seeking to emerge from U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings under an alternative financial plan filed in court last month. Seadrill's Oslo-listed shares traded 5.5% up by 1425 GMT, after jumping about 30% earlier on Friday.

China Evergrande Group pledged to fix its debt problems following a rare public rebuke from regulators as the developer struggles to stave off a liquidity crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Evergrande said that it will do its best to maintain stable operations, resolve debt risks, and keep stability in housing and financial markets. The People’s Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission earlier told the group to address its debt woes and refrain from spreading “untrue” information.

Japan's factory activity growth slowed in August, while that of the services sector shrank at the fastest pace since May last year, highlighting the increasingly heavy toll a recent wave of COVID-19 infections is taking on the economy, Reuters reported. Manufacturers mostly withstood the impact of the coronavirus resurgence, due largely to the highly contagious Delta variant that is forcing governments in Japan and elsewhere in Asia to put in place lockdowns or other curbs.

A major container terminal at China’s Ningbo-Zhoushan Port remained shut a week after operations were suspended from a single Covid-19 case, with dozens of ships lining up to load cargo for western markets ahead of the year-end shopping season, the Wall Street Journal reported. The congestion at Meishan terminal, which isn’t expected to resume full operations before the end of the month, is spreading to other ports like Shanghai and Hong Kong as big operators divert ships away from Ningbo.