Headlines

Container shipping rates from China to the United States have scaled fresh highs above $20,000 per 40-foot box as rising retailer orders ahead of the peak U.S. shopping season add strain to global supply chains, Reuters reported. The acceleration in Delta-variant COVID-19 outbreaks in several counties has slowed global container turnaround rates. Typhoons off China's busy southern coast in late July and this week have also contributed to the crisis gripping the world's most important method for moving everything from gym equipment and furniture to car parts and electronics.

After almost 18 months of relying on expensive emergency aid programs to support their economies through the pandemic, governments across Europe are scaling back some of these measures, counting on burgeoning economic growth and the power of vaccines to carry the load from here. But the insurgent spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus has thrown a new variable into that calculation, prompting concerns about whether this is the time for scheduled rollbacks in financial assistance, the New York Times reported.

Inflation in Britain will rise to an annual rate of 4 percent later this year, according to new projections by the Bank of England, a level that is double the central bank’s target and one that hasn’t been reached in a decade. But policymakers didn’t feel the need to immediately slow their efforts to stimulate the economy, the New York Times reported. They said that the increase in prices would be temporary and that inflation would return to its 2 percent target in 2023.

The Czech Republic’s central bank has increased its key interest rate by a quarter-point to 0.75% to tackle inflation amid the economy’s rebound from the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reported. It was the second such increase in about two months. Analysts had predicted Thursday’s move, and a member of the bank’s board had indicated that the rate might be hiked further later in the year as the bank considers high inflation as a major threat.

As the power of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has dwindled, he’s kept something in his back pocket: Citgo Petroleum Corporation, the American refiner and gas distributor with the potential to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars to help topple President Nicolas Maduro, Bloomberg News reported. Now Guaido is on the verge of losing the company. Creditors owed $7 billion in debts accrued by Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, are mounting legal challenges to wrest control of it -- and appear to be succeeding.

Venezuela says it will make a million-to-1 change in its currency soon, eliminating six zeros from prices in the local currency as hyperinflation continues to plague the troubled South American nation, the Associated Press reported. Venezuela’s central bank on Thursday announced the change to the bolivar will go into effect Oct. 1. The new 100 bolivar bill will be the highest denomination. It is equivalent to 100,000,000 of the current bolivar. This is the third adjustment since socialist leaders began governing Venezuela.

Germany plans to introduce a waiver on bankruptcy filing for businesses affected by last month’s devastating floods, the Justice Ministry said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Parliament will have to approve the waiver, which expires at the end of October, in a vote. “We have to prevent a situation where businesses must file for bankruptcy simply because they could not access financial aid in time,” Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht said in a statement. German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that rebuilding would cost more than 6 billion euros ($7.11 billion).

A day after Kumar Mangalam Birla’s letter warning that Vodafone Idea (VIL) may reach an “irretrievable point of collapse” became public, banks are worried about the fate of the telecom major which, they say, is “too big to fail”. Lenders both Indian and global have an exposure of Rs 1.8 lakh crore. A large part of this is in the form of guarantees. Some private lenders with a funded exposure have already started making provisions. However the bulk of the exposure is with public sector banks.

Argentine officials met last week with representatives from the International Monetary Fund in Washington as the government of South America’s second-largest economy seeks to rework its troubled loan program, Bloomberg News reported. Economic Policy Secretary Fernando Morra and Central Bank Economic Research Deputy General Manager German Feldman traveled to the U.S. to hold the in-person meetings with IMF staffers including Argentina mission chief Luis Cubeddu.

Ghanaians kicked off a series of planned protests aimed at pressuring President Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration to do more to create jobs for the youth, improve health-care and education standards, and bring down living costs, Bloomberg News reported. The demonstrations are being organized under the social media banner #FixTheCountry and were joined by thousands of people wearing masks and carrying placards, who marched in the streets of Accra, the capital, on Wednesday, a public holiday in the West African nation.