Headlines
Resources Per Region
Lebanon’s financial prosecutor ordered the detention of a director at Banque Du Liban for alleged currency manipulation, the first such move against a central bank that’s been under heavy scrutiny since the start of the country’s financial crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Prosecutor Ali Ibrahim said Mazen Hamdan, director of the cash operations department at the central bank, bought dollars from exchange bureaus and weakened the pound on the black market, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Japan’s economy sank last quarter into a recession that’s likely to deepen further as households limit spending to essentials and companies cut investment, production and hiring to stay afloat amid the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product shrank an annualized 3.4% in the three months through March from the previous quarter as exports slid and social distancing crimped consumer spending, Cabinet Office figures showed Monday.
India said on Sunday it would privatise state-run companies in non-strategic sectors and stop fresh insolvency cases for a year, as the country battles with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. A list of strategic sectors will also be announced in which only one to four public sector enterprises will remain, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, as part of a slew of measures to kickstart the economy. Indian officials said most of the privatisations would happen in the next fiscal year, starting April 2021.
Argentina’s largest and most populous province was cut to selective default by S&P Global Ratings after it missed a deadline to make a $150 million payment. The province is considered to be in selective default because negotiations with creditors are ongoing, making the proposal a “distressed exchange,” according to an S&P statement, Bloomberg News reported. Buenos Aires extended this week to May 26 an offer to restructure $7 billion of overseas debt.
Months of concern over rising Covid-19 infection levels may be secondary for investors in coming days as market-moving events and policy decisions take center stage, Bloomberg News reported. China’s annual National People’s Congress starting Friday will likely keep volatility suppressed for developing-nation currencies, despite the prospect of another flareup in tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Japan’s Renown Inc, part of Chinese fashion empire Shandong Ruyi, filed for bankruptcy on Friday with 13.9 billion yen ($130 million) in debt, the country’s highest-profile business to collapse amid the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reported. Renown, a century-old textile company which sells clothes under brands such as Arnold Palmer, Hiroko Koshino and D’Urban, confirmed it had filed for bankruptcy protection after a month-long closure of department stores brought the already-struggling business to its knees. It joins a list of global fashion companies, including retailers such as J.
South African Airways (SAA) has spent just under 10 billion rand ($540 million) since it entered a form of bankruptcy protection, business rescue practitioners said on Friday as they flagged a structured wind-down process as their preferred option for the carrier, Reuters reported. The troubled state-owned airline, which has not made a profit since 2011 has been burning cash and is dependent on government bailouts to remain solvent. It entered business rescue in December in a last-ditch bid to save the company. “In terms of the amount of money that has been utilized...
As the European Union lurches toward one of the worst slumps since the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720, EU regulators have adapted their playbook from more recent history to help salvage companies from the ravages of Covid-19, Bloomberg News reported. Just over a decade ago, Brussels competition watchdogs had to oversee massive state bailouts doled out to a banking system on the brink of collapse. With a credit crunch threatening to topple global economies, the EU stepped in to ensure loans started flowing but with strict conditions to prevent competition from being left in tatters
To the analysts at UBS Global Wealth Management, the $3.9 trillion municipal-bond market is heading into the biggest financial storm anyone has ever seen, Bloomberg News reported. The nation’s swift economic collapse is hitting virtually every corner of the market, which extends far beyond states and cities with the power to raise taxes. Nursing homes that have sold tax-exempt debt are being ravaged by the outbreak. College dormitory operators are facing vacancies, while small private schools that were already competing for students face uncertain prospects.