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Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol said the central bank will discuss raising its key interest rate from its next meeting in August after playing down the likelihood that the latest virus surge will dent the economy’s recovery, Bloomberg News reported. While the bank left rates unchanged at 0.5% at its policy meeting on Thursday, a call for a quarter percentage point hike from one member helped send Korea bond futures plunging and strengthened the won as investors boosted their hawkish bets for the BOK to move early.
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The court that had declared the bankruptcy of Correo Argentino SA, belonging to the family of ex-Argentine president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), decided to provisionally suspend proceedings on Wednesday, after the company appealed the measure, the Rio Times reported. The ruling was issued by Commercial Court 6, headed by Judge Marta Cirulli who granted the appeal filed by Correo Argentino SA and and granted "suspensive force" of all proceedings arising from the bankruptcy.
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Realty developers Mantra Properties and Ashdan Developers are in fray to acquire Pune-based real estate developer D S Kulkarni Developers through the ongoing insolvency process with separate bids of over Rs 800 crore each, the Economic Times of India reported. While Mantra Properties has bid Rs 880 crore, Ashdan Developers has bid Rs 827 crore in the third revision of their plans to acquire the debt-laden company and its projects. The Committee of Creditors (CoC) is expected to take a final call on both the resolution plans this week.
India's central bank has ordered Mastercard to stop adding new customers for failing to comply with the country's data storage rules, escalating a dispute between Indian authorities and U.S. financial services groups over the control of customer data, the Financial Times reported. The Reserve Bank of India said that Mastercard had not complied with rules introduced in 2018 that bar payment companies from transferring customer data overseas. The regulations, which were fiercely resisted by U.S. payment companies, required all financial data to be stored exclusively in India.
After loosing 53 cars during xenophobic attacks in South Africa in 2019, Johannesburg car dealership owner Okey Uchendu never thought he would see his business destroyed again by civil unrest in less than two years. Already dealing with the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, Uchendu received a call at midnight on Sunday that his dealership was engulfed in flames as looting and violence, the worst in South Africa for years, escalated, wrecking hundreds of businesses, Reuters reported.
Sydney Airport Holdings Pty Ltd said on Thursday that it would reject a A$22.26 billion ($16.6 billion) takeover proposal from a group of infrastructure funds, the biggest of a frenzy of Australian deals fuelled by record-low interest rates, Reuters reported. The operator of Australia's largest airport said directors had unanimously concluded the proposal undervalued the airport and was not in the best interest of shareholders. If successful, it would have been one of Australia's biggest buyouts.
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Britain’s financial watchdog will not formally oppose Provident’s compensation plan for its doorstep lending unit in court even as it voiced concerns on Wednesday that consumers were being short-changed, Reuters reported. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which successfully argued for a similar proposal by guarantor lender Amigo to be rejected in London’s High Court in May, said in a statement its decision to not oppose Provident’s plan was because the only likely alternative was the insolvency of the business.
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U.K. inflation unexpectedly accelerated to the highest level in three years in June, driven by widespread price increases that challenge the Bank of England’s argument that the surge will be temporary, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices climbed 2.5% from a year earlier, exceeding all but two estimates in a Bloomberg survey of 35 economists. Prices rose from May in the vast majority of 12 broad divisions, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. The pound advanced.
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New Zealand’s central bank said it will reduce monetary stimulus by ceasing quantitative easing, a surprise move that sent the currency higher as traders priced in an interest-rate increase as early as August, Bloomberg News reported. The Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Adrian Orr, on Wednesday held the official cash rate at 0.25%, but said that it will halt bond buying under its Large Scale Asset Purchase program by July 23. The statement omitted a previous reference to the need for considerable time and patience to achieve its inflation and employment goals.
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The Bank of Canada on Wednesday held interest rates steady and reduced its bond-buying program, saying the economy needed less help as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, but warned that inflation would be higher than previously forecast in the near-term, Reuters reported. The central bank said economic growth should pick up in the third quarter of 2021 after being weaker than expected in the first half of the year.
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