Headlines

Canadian business insolvencies have climbed to levels not seen since the financial crisis of 2008, driven by indebted companies struggling with interest rates and softened consumer demand. But even those official insolvency statistics don’t tell the full picture, according to a commentary in The Globe and Mail. Economists and professionals who work with small and medium-sized businesses warn that the actual number of businesses that fail is much higher, with other data suggesting the problem is growing.

China’s benchmark lending rates were held steady this month, central bank data showed Monday after Beijing announced bold moves to address property-sector malaise, the Wall Street Journal reported. The one-year loan prime rate was steady at 3.45% while the five-year rate was unchanged at 3.95%, according to the official data. Economists had expected the benchmark rates to be left untouched after the People’s Bank of China kept key policy rates, including the interest rate on the medium-term lending facility that is used to price LPRs, unchanged earlier this month.

There are enough unsold homes in China to house every family in California and New York combined. Beijing might finally tackle the problem with a huge outlay of cash, but investors should curb their enthusiasm, according to a Wall Street Journal commentary. It might not be enough, or it could overshoot and reignite the housing bubble. Beijing rolled out measures Friday to support the sluggish housing market. The most eye-catching move is that it would let local governments buy apartments at “reasonable prices” to use as affordable housing in places with excessive inventory.

The value of loans made by pawnbrokers in the UK topped £250 million last year after a 13% rise, new data shows, the Evening Standard reported. Data from audit and tax firm Mazars shows that the value of pawnbroker loans increased from £224 million in 2022 to £252 million in 2023, as the cost of living crisis put stress on household finances. Amid interest rate uncertainty, many traditional lenders also tightened borrowing criteria, which helped to fuel the rise as well.

The Bank of England will be able to cut interest rates “some time over the summer” if second round inflation pressures drop away as expected, Deputy Governor Ben Broadbent said, Bloomberg News reported. In his last speech after 13 years at the UK central bank, Broadbent signaled that the decision to cut rates from the current 16-year high of 5.25% would hinge on the stickiness of wage growth and whether businesses pass higher payroll costs through to prices.

An Australian computer scientist who claimed he invented bitcoin lied "extensively and repeatedly" and forged documents "on a grand scale" to support his false claim, a judge at London's High Court ruled on Monday, Reuters reported. Craig Wright had long claimed to have been the author of a 2008 white paper, the foundational text of bitcoin, published under the pseudonym "Satoshi Nakamoto".

A leveraged trade that’s worrying regulators worldwide has caught the attention of the European Central Bank, which pointed to signs the strategy is gaining traction in the region, Bloomberg News reported. The ECB noted a group of offshore hedge funds has become increasingly present in Europe’s government bond repo market, suggesting growing use of the so-called basis trade. The strategy, which looks to exploit price differences between futures and bonds, has come under scrutiny in the US after it contributed to market turmoil at the start of the pandemic in 2020.

Brazil's central bank announced on Monday that it has decided to divide the process of regulating crypto-assets and virtual asset service providers into phases, with regulatory proposals expected by the end of this year, Reuters reported. The decision effectively delays the completion of the process following a 2022 law on the subject, which paved the way for subsequent regulation by the central bank. In a congressional hearing last year, the bank's director of regulation, Otavio Damaso, had projected regulation to be wrapped up by June 2024.

Chile’s economy recorded the fastest quarterly growth since 2021, when government stimulus fueled domestic demand during the pandemic, as both mining output and consumption increased while slowing inflation and falling interest rates provided much-needed relief, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product rose 1.9% in the first quarter compared with the prior three months, a tad less than the 2% median forecast from analysts in a Bloomberg survey. From a year ago, the economy expanded 2.3%, the central bank reported on Monday.

Thailand’s economy grew in the first quarter as private consumption and tourism helped counter weakness in goods exports, but the outlook for the year remains cloudy, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product rose 1.5% from a year earlier, compared with the 1.7% expansion seen in the final quarter of 2023, the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council said on Monday.