Headlines

Brazil’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate for a third straight meeting following on the passing of a key reform that spurred hopes of a recovery in the country’s sluggish economy amid low inflation, the Financial Times reported. The Selic rate hit a new low of 5 per cent on Wednesday after the monetary policy committee, known as “Copom”, approved a cut of 50 basis points following their first cut in over a year in July, on the day the US Federal Reserve also eased its monetary policy.

The mysterious Malaysian financier at the center of an international money laundering scandal that toppled a prime minister and rocked Goldman Sachs has given up his claim to hundreds of millions of dollars in luxury apartments, yachts, jets and artwork that prosecutors say were bought with stolen money, the International New York Times reported.

Christine Lagarde has called on Germany and the Netherlands to use their budget surpluses to fund investments that would help stimulate the economy, in a sharp rebuke that comes only days before she becomes European Central Bank president, the Financial Times reported.

China has long been a nation of savers. For decades, its citizens socked away much more of their incomes than Americans do. The pool of capital that was created powered China’s economic rise, The Wall Street Journal reported. Banks used their bulging deposits to fund factories and roads. The government became a key global creditor, bankrolling infrastructure overseas and buying up more than $1 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds. The savings also fueled tensions with other countries. Western leaders said China was discouraging spending to tilt the global economy in its favor.

Mortgage lenders can no longer impose legal fees and other charges on borrowers in arrears who are co-operating with their bank to resolve the issue, The Irish Times reported. The Central Bank has written to all the main Irish lenders, reminding them of their obligation not to impose charges on borrowers ahead of a decision by a court on whether to repossess a property, or of a settlement between the two parties. It also said costs cannot be added to a mortgage account until a borrower was in a position to redeem the debt and had requested to do so.

We are a long way from the end-game in Venezuela’s debt resolution. In a recent twist, the United States Office of Foreign Asset Control precluded, for 90 days, the enforcement of a bond owed by the Venezuela oil company PDVSA, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. Payment of the bond is secured against PDVSA’s shares in its US subsidiary, the energy giant CITGO. The policy notion was to approximate the effective standstill faced by other bondholders whose legal and financial positions have been affected by US sanctions.

Airbus cut its full-year delivery target and said cash flow will be lower than expected as it struggles to capitalise on the grounding of Boeing’s 737 Max, The Irish Times reported. The European manufacturer now expects to hand over about 860 aircraft this year, down from a previous range of 880 to 890 aircraft, as production challenges slow output of A320neo-series models. Free cash flow is likely to be about €3 billion, rather than €4 billion, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Almost half of frontier market countries are either at high risk of falling into debt distress or are already distressed, the IMF has said, up from zero as recently as 2014, the Financial Times reported. The warning comes as issuance of hard currency frontier market debt is set to hit a record high this year, with $38bn set to be raised, according to the IMF.

Brazilian carriers Telefonica Brasil and TIM Participações will consider acquiring assets from struggling rival Oi SA if they are put up for sale, executives from both companies said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. In September, Reuters reported that Oi was in talks with the local subsidiaries of Spain’s Telefonica SA and Telecom Italia SpA to sell assets and avoid insolvency.

The European Union's euro economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Tuesday that Brussels was not considering asking for changes to Italy's 2020 budget, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Under EU regulations, the European Commission can force countries to amend their budgetary plans if they are found to be in serious breach of fiscal rules. Such a request would be made by the end of October, if at all.