Headlines

A decision on the future of the Elga coal project, one of the world’s largest coking coal deposits, is likely in the first quarter of 2020, the regional governor said in an interview, Reuters reported. Expansion of the mine, first developed by Russian steel and coal producer Mechel, has stalled in recent years as the project in the remote Yakutia region of Russia’s Far East demands significant investment to reach its annual operating capacity of 30 million tonnes.

The difference in the figures speaks for itself: 27,792 cases of mortgage arrears where a payment has not been paid for two years or more, and 3,841 personal insolvency arrangements since 2013 where in many cases banks and other creditors agree to debt write-down deals, The Irish Times reported. Michael McNaughton, the new director of the Insolvency Service of Ireland, which overseas the State’s still-nascent insolvency regime, has called for more collaborative, imaginative engagement between debtors and personal insolvency practitioners on one side, and creditors on the other.

India and China have been hit by a surge in consumer prices that, together with a slowdown in growth, has sparked fears of “stagflation” in the world’s two most populous countries, the Financial Times reported. If the Asian powerhouses were to be overtaken by the phenomenon — rising prices in a stagnant economy — their slowing economies would pose a grave threat to global growth. The prospect of stagflation has haunted Beijing for the past six months. China’s economic growth is at a 29-year low and consumer price inflation remains above 4 per cent.

Venezuela’s opposition-run congress said on Tuesday it had set aside $20 million held in accounts in the United States to pay for litigation abroad as part of efforts to protect the country’s offshore assets from lawsuits by creditors, Reuters reported. Offshore assets including U.S. refiner Citgo have long been seen as attractive by investors holding the country’s defaulted bonds and companies seeking to be paid back for the nationalisation of their holdings.

South African Airways’s business-rescue team said it’s been given access to 3.5 billion rand ($239 million) from the state-owned Development Bank of Southern Africa to avert the airline’s collapse, Bloomberg News reported. The team will immediately draw down 2 billion rand from the facility, they said in a statement on Tuesday. SAA has already canceled some flights this month to save cash after the government missed a deadline to provide the money as part of the terms of its bankruptcy protection. Bloomberg News earlier reported that the bank was considering providing funding.

Six eurozone banks have fallen below the European Central Bank’s capital requirements and been told to take action to fix the shortfalls, underlining the continuing fragility of Europe’s banking sector, the Financial Times reported. The number of banks falling short of their main capital requirements in the eurozone has increased from only one last year, illustrating how the sector remains under pressure from ultra-low interest rates, inefficient cost structures and fines for past misconduct.

Crisis-ridden Lebanon finally has a government again and top of its agenda will be whether to repay a Eurobond maturing in six weeks. After lawmakers passed the 2020 budget on Monday, the new cabinet’s next major decision will be what to do about the $1.2 billion of bonds due on March 9, Bloomberg News reported. The team of 20, led by Prime Minister Hassan Diab, a computing-engineering professor, will meet this week with nationwide protests continuing, the central bank’s foreign reserves falling and the diaspora inflows that have kept the economy afloat for decades slowing to a trickle.

Germany is working on a draft law on reducing risks in the banking sector which foresees the participation of creditors and shareholders in the event of a bankruptcy, the finance ministry said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The draft law provides for big banks to put aside 8% of their balance sheet total as a buffer during a crisis, the finance ministry said. The draft law is meant to implement parts of a wider European Union package of banking rules, which was agreed by member states last year, into national law.

Insolvency and bankruptcy rates in Saskatchewan are rising, according to the latest MNP Consumer Index Report, Global News reported. The report indicates about 52 per cent of residents say they could not cover a $200 expense at the end of the month. Forty-five per cent believe they won’t be able to cover their expenses in 2020 without diving deeper into debt.

A lack of trust between banks and personal insolvency advisers is blocking attempts to resolve long-term mortgage arrears cases, the State’s new insolvency agency chief Michael McNaughton has said, The Irish Times reported. Mr McNaughton, who took over as director of the Insolvency Service of Ireland last year, has urged banks and personal insolvency practitioners to be “more collaborative” in their dealings with each other in order to resolve the large post-crisis backlog of insolvent mortgage cases.