Headlines

Singapore Exchange Ltd. published a list of firms that are now required to provide quarterly earnings reports based on its risk-based approach, a few weeks after the city-state scrapped the requirement for most companies, Bloomberg News reported. Hyflux Ltd. and Best World International Ltd. were among 109 names published on the SGX website. The companies either have a qualified report from auditors, worries about them as a going concern or have been identified by the exchange itself for regulatory concerns.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, the state-rescued Italian bank, missed income targets set out in its restructuring plan, which may force the bank to cut an additional 100 million euros ($110 million) of costs, Bloomberg News reported. The Siena-based bank swung to a fourth-quarter loss after it wrote down 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) of deferred tax assets to comply with changes in Italy’s 2020 budget law, it said in a statement on Friday. Net operating income, which excludes the writedowns, totaled 23 million euros on higher revenue and cost reductions.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday that his government did not agree with plans to cut some of struggling South African Airways’ (SAA) domestic routes, plunging rescue efforts for the cash-strapped carrier into uncertainty, Reuters reported. State-owned SAA entered a form of bankruptcy protection in December and is fighting for its survival. Specialists appointed to try to rescue SAA said on Thursday that SAA would cease flights to Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth from Feb.

The Australian dollar tumbled to its weakest level since the financial crisis as investors continued to weigh the impact of the coronavirus on economic growth in China, Australia’s biggest trading partner, the Financial Times reported. The currency, typically regarded as a proxy for Chinese economic growth, fell as much as 1 per cent to $0.6662 in New York trade on Friday morning, the lowest level against the greenback since March 2009.

New measures by New Delhi designed to encourage banks to boost lending and take more risks are unlikely to revive anaemic credit growth in Asia’s third-biggest economy, industry observers have warned, the Financial Times reported. The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday eased new lending for cars, residential housing and small businesses and introduced a $14bn facility that allows commercial lenders to borrow more cheaply from the central bank.

Natural disasters are unpredictable events with broadly predictable results: a destruction of property and wealth, but no lasting impact on economic growth, The Wall Street Journal reported. Australia’s wildfires, which have ravaged more than 26,000 square miles of land and killed at least 30 people, will be the latest big test of that view. At stake is the country’s 28-year run without a recession—the longest ongoing streak in the developed world.

Chinese car and car-parts factories may stay closed longer than expected because of the coronavirus, increasing the chances that assembly lines in Asia, Europe and the United States could grind to a halt because of shortages of components, the International New York Times reported. The hit to the auto industry, which employs eight million people worldwide, comes as output from the world’s factories is already sagging. It is likely to amplify the already alarming human and economic cost of the outbreak.

After decades of dominating its oil industry, the Venezuelan government is quietly surrendering control to foreign companies in a desperate bid to keep the economy afloat and hold on to power, the International New York Times reported. The opening is a startling reversal for Venezuela, breaking decades of state command over its crude reserves, the world’s biggest. The government’s power and legitimacy have always rested on its ability to control its oil fields — the backbone of the country’s economy — and use their profits for the benefit of its people.

After Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting Union Budget 2020 on 1st February, said the government has asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to extend the debt restructuring window by another year ending March 31, 2021, RBI in its Monetary Policy Review Meeting today said that it would be extending the scheme to 31st December 2020, Mint reported.

European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde has warned that the world's central banks have less room to stimulate the economy in case there's a recession, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Lagarde said in an appearance Thursday before the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee that interest rates and inflation are already low, meaning there is less room to reduce rates further and make credit cheaper to support business activity.