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An Indian court put on hold on Monday an order restraining Future Group chief Kishore Biyani from selling personal assets, amid legal challenges to the group’s $3.4-billion retail deal, Reuters reported. The legal fight over Future’s assets has embroiled two of the world’s richest men, Jeff Bezos of U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc and Mukesh Ambani of Indian congolomerate Reliance Industries. In various Indian courts, including the Supreme Court, Amazon has accused Future of violating certain contracts by agreeing to sell its retail assets to Reliance.
The European Central Bank finally delivered on its promise to boost the pace of emergency bond-buying to combat the economic threat from higher yields, Bloomberg News reported. Net purchases settled last week climbed by 21.1 billion euros ($25.2 billion), the most since the start of December. That figure is reduced by redemptions -- the gross value of purchases will be disclosed on Tuesday. German bonds held marginally higher on the day, with 10-year yields dropping one basis point to minus 0.31%.
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A Tokyo-based restaurant chain operator on Monday filed a damages suit against the Tokyo metropolitan government for ordering business hours be reduced as a public safety measure during the coronavirus pandemic, Nikkei Asia reported. Global-Dining claims the order "is illegal and unconstitutional as it infringes the right to freedom of business" in the first such lawsuit anywhere in Japan. The company runs dozens of restaurants including the Gonpachi "izakaya" Japanese-style pubs.
New Zealand’s government took aim at property speculators with a suite of new measures to tackle runaway house prices and prevent the formation of a “dangerous” bubble, Bloomberg News reported. The government will remove tax incentives for investors to make speculation less lucrative and unlock more land to increase housing supply, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday. The moves come as surging house prices keep first-time buyers and people on lower incomes out of the market, raising concerns about growing societal inequality.
Turkey’s currency tumbled almost 8% on Monday, putting it on course for its biggest single-day selloff since 2018, following the abrupt ouster of the central-bank governor last week, the Wall Street Journal reported. The lira fell to as low as 8.280 a dollar from 7.219, before regaining some ground to trade at about 7.7865 a dollar, according to FactSet. Turkey’s stocks also plunged.
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Mark Branson, the head of Switzerland’s financial markets regulator, is to become president of Germany’s finance watchdog BaFin, the finance ministry said on Monday, as part of a shake-up at the regulator after the Wirecard fraud, Reuters reported. Current BaFin president Felix Hufeld is leaving at the end of the month after coming under pressure for failing to spot wrongdoing ahead of the collapse of the payments company. The implosion of a former blue-chip hailed as a German success story and once worth $28 billion has embarrassed the government and damaged the country’s reputation.
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Global central banks have instruments to deal with rising inflation after rolling out unprecedented pandemic stimulus measures, Agustin Carstens, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements, said on Saturday, Bloomberg News reported. “It is likely that we will see spiking inflation,” Carstens said on Saturday in a panel discussion during the China Development Forum organized by the Chinese government. This would require central banks, including the Federal Reserve, to revise monetary policies and give more weight to achieving the full-employment goal, he said.
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A top official at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Saturday that the global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is growing, but that concerns remain over possible pitfalls, The Hill reported. IMF First Deputy Managing Director Geoffrey Okamoto, the No. 2 IMF official, said in a speech to the China Development Forum that he was optimistic that the economic rebound in 2021 could exceed expectations but said unequal recoveries in countries across the globe could impact the international bounce back.
Germany is mulling around 70 billion euros ($83 billion) in extra debt spending this year to fight the fallout from the coronavirus crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Finance Minister Olaf Scholz needs those additional funds because the country’s lockdown is dragging on much longer than expected, the person said, cautioning that the exact number is still under discussion. Germany’s total new debt for this year will rise to 250 billion euros, Der Spiegel said, which reported the new spending plans earlier.
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Thirty-four creditors of Greensill Capital Pty, the Australian parent of the collapsed British supply chain financier, submitted over A$1.75 billion ($1.35 billion) in claims to the company, administrators said on Friday, Reuters reported. About $1.15 billion of that was made by Japan’s Softbank Group, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters. The source declined to be identified as the person was not permitted to speak publicly.