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Of all the numbers that lay bare the pandemic plight of blue-collar workers, few are as jarring as the pay cut suffered by the millions of Argentines who toil in off-the-book jobs, Bloomberg News reported. The decline for people like waiters, construction workers and candy-vendors was 36% on average last year, considering inflation. That staggering number is almost four times the average pay cut that Argentines in the formal economy had to absorb.
Credit Suisse Group AG knew Archegos Capital Management was a massive risk and didn’t take actions to fix it, according to an investigation the bank commissioned into the collapse of the family investment firm, the Wall Street Journal reported. The report released Thursday, prepared by a law firm for Credit Suisse, detailed how the bank for years granted Archegos special dispensation to avoid rules meant to protect the bank. It also ignored staff warnings before the family investment firm’s collapse.
Investors sent Peruvian bonds sliding in the aftermath of President Pedro Castillo’s inaugural call for a new constitution and choice of prime minister, Bloomberg News reported. Peru’s dollar bonds due in a century are the second-worst performers in the world on Thursday, beating only serial-defaulter Belize, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Meanwhile, the yield on the benchmark bond due in 2031 rose to the highest since the close on June 16, a day after the final vote count showed Marxist party-backed Castillo winning the election.
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South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni affirmed his commitment to reining in debt amid concerns that the coronavirus pandemic and a week of deadly riots will further erode the state’s already shaky finances. “We are not going to go to a sovereign debt crisis for now, at least not under my watch,” despite opposition to spending constraints, Mboweni said in an interview on Wednesday. “There is no such thing as a popular minister of finance -- it doesn’t exist, it’s a contradiction in terms.
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The French government accused Britain on Thursday of enforcing discriminatory new rules that will lift quarantine requirements for most vaccinated travelers — but not for those arriving from France, the New York Times reported. The British authorities announced on Wednesday that, starting in August, a quarantine would no longer be required for travelers from the United States or from most of the European Union who had been vaccinated with shots authorized by either American or European drug regulators.
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China moved to ease investor concerns about crackdowns on listed companies, with a top regulator privately telling global financial firms that Beijing will consider the market impact before introducing future policies, the Wall Street Journal reported. Fang Xinghai, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, spoke to representatives of global banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS 0.89% and UBS Group AG, as well as some investment firms on Wednesday evening, according to the people.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is stepping in to aid a long-delayed, over-budget hydroelectric project in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Bloomberg News reported. The Canadian government will buy an equity stake in the Muskrat Falls project and provide debt guarantees as part of a “multi-billion dollar” financial restructuring agreement with the Atlantic province, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Tuesday evening, without providing specific amounts. Muskrat Falls’ estimated cost has soared to more than C$13 billion ($10.3 billion), nearly double the early projections.
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Hong Kong's buzzing IPO pipeline is likely to taper off in the second half of 2021, as Chinese firms temper their expectations for valuations amid a drastic regulatory crackdown in the mainland, dealmakers said, according to Reuters reported. Investors, on tenterhooks as China's assault on fast-growing private firms has led to an uncertain environment, are also expected to be selective of which deals to buy into, they added.
An Indian bankruptcy court has to decide on a Rs 10,000-crore question in the case of Reliance Communications Ltd. The decision will have a bearing on the single most important asset of the telecom service provider—its telecom licence, Bloomberg News reported. RCom is under insolvency proceedings before the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal and has been under moratorium since May 15, 2018. The company has spent over Rs 10,000 crore to acquire spectrum, Senior Advocate Ravi Kadam informed the tribunal.
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South Africa’s Treasury expects a relief package for businesses and individuals affected by this month’s deadly riots to cost 38.9 billion rand ($2.6 billion), Bloomberg News reported. The government will spend an additional 31.2 billion rand and grant 5 billion rand in tax breaks, while 2.65 billion rand will be reallocated from within the budget, Edgar Sishi, the acting head of the budget office, said in an online briefing on Wednesday. The program won’t require additional borrowing, Treasury Director-General Dondo Mogajane said at the briefing.