Headlines

Esprit Europe GmbH and six other German companies of the fashion group will file for insolvency under self-administration on Wednesday, the company said, as Hong Kong-listed apparel group Esprit Holdings' seeks to restructure its European business, Reuters reported. This is the second insolvency procedure within four years for Esprit, which had laid off around a third of its workforce and closed 100 branches during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company had already filed for bankruptcy in Belgium and Switzerland in March.

China’s central bank held key policy rates steady on Wednesday, a move that could preface a hold on benchmark lending rates later this month, the Wall Street Journal reported. The People’s Bank of China injected 125 billion yuan ($17.28 billion) worth of liquidity via the medium-term lending facility, which charges banks an interest rate of 2.5%. The rate was unchanged from last operation. The MLF is a tool the central bank uses to lend to commercial banks and acts as a guide for the benchmark loan prime rate, which is tied to mortgages and other loans.

The director of an online cryptocurrency academy has forced to close his business after misleading investors and failing to file up to date accounts with no record of a £5m transfer, Accountancy Daily reported. Amey Finance Academy has been wound up at the High Court following investigations into the company’s trading by the Insolvency Service. The academy was set up by sole director Desmond Amey in December 2018 to offer financial education and advice on cryptocurrency.

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) allows the withdrawal of the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) against Syska LED Lights Pvt Ltd, the Economic Times of India reported. Earlier, the tribunal had admitted the company under the insolvency resolution process and had appointed Ravi Prakash Ganti as the interim resolution professional for the company. Syska LED Lights is part of the Pune-based SSK Group, an exclusive distributor of Samsung mobiles, accessories and tables for five states in Western India.

Argentines are rushing to banks to apply for mortgages as interest-rate reductions since President Javier Milei took power begin to wake the home-loan market from a six-year slumber, Bloomberg News reported. “People are very anxious, inquiries overflowed our communication channels and we are overwhelmed,” Daniel Tillard, president of Banco Nacion, the country’s largest state-owned lender, said in an interview. The bank announced it will disburse some $4 billion of mortgages over the next four years to 40,000 potential home owners.

Argentina’s monthly inflation rate eased sharply to a single-digit rate in April for the first time in half a year, data released Tuesday showed, a closely watched indicator that bolsters President Javier Milei’s severe austerity program aimed at fixing the country’s troubled economy, the Associated Press reported.

Brazil’s central bank said it unanimously sees more restrictive interest rates ahead as the institution tries to calm investors following a split policy decision that exposed rifts among its board members, Bloomberg News reported. “In the end, it was unanimously concluded that a more contractionary and more cautious monetary policy was needed,” central bankers wrote in minutes to their May 7-8 rate decision, when they cut the benchmark Selic rate by a quarter-point to 10.5%.

Any future foreign-exchange intervention by Japan to support the yen would likely involve tapping its holdings of US Treasuries, according to Bank of America Corp., Bloomberg News reported. Japanese authorities likely stepped in on two occasions in recent weeks to bolster the yen as it reached the weakest levels in several decades versus the dollar, and they probably used their cash reserves to accomplish that.

The German Council of Economic Experts cut on Wednesday its forecasts for economic growth this year, postponing the expected recovery of the euro zone's largest economy, Reuters reported. The panel expects 0.2% gross domestic product growth this year, cutting its autumn forecast of 0.7% growth, their forecast showed on Wednesday, as reported by Reuters on Tuesday. The German economy is expected to gain some momentum over the course of the year, with inflation expected to fall and nominal wages forecast to rise. For 2025, the economic experts forecast 0.9% growth, the report showed.

The economies of central Europe are set for stronger growth this year and next as inflation cools, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will continue to cast a shadow over their prospects in the form of higher borrowing costs, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The London-based development bank also noted a surge in Chinese investment in parts of Europe and North Africa last year as businesses sought to avoid barriers to their exports.