Headlines

European Union finance ministers are on Thursday discussing new rules that would make it easier to restructure euro zone sovereign bonds, a draft document shows - a move that could drive up yields of high-debt states, Reuters reported. Under the measure, part of a set of reforms that could be approved at Thursday’s meeting, holders of debt issued by one of the 19 euro zone countries would find their power to block bond restructuring or haircuts vastly reduced. If approved, it would apply to bonds issued on or after Jan.

Kenya will more than double its capital gains tax rate to 12.5% from 5% to bring it in line with international standards, Finance Minister Henry Rotich said in budget proposals to parliament on Thursday, Reuters reported. Analysts said the move showed the government had opted to squeeze already hard-pressed taxpayers, rather than cut expenditure, to make ends meet. “They are basically trying to get more and more out of a small tax base,” said Kenneth Minjire, head of securities at Nairobi-based Genghis Capital.

Industrial output in the eurozone dropped in April, hit particularly by falling car production, adding to concerns of a prolonged slowdown in the region that may in turn apply pressure on the central bank, the Financial Times reported. Monthly output dropped 0.5 per cent, compared with March, the regional statistics office said on Thursday, in line with a Reuters poll of analysts. The Eurostat March figure showed a decline of a revised 0.4 per cent.

Three additional former executives of The Abraaj Group were charged in New York in a fraud investigation into the firm’s collapse last year that was the world’s biggest private-equity insolvency, Bloomberg News reported. Former Chief Financial Officer Ashish Dave, former Managing Director Rafique Lakhani and former Managing Director Waqar Siddique were charged with multiple counts including fraud and conspiracy, in an indictment unsealed Thursday. James Margolin, a spokesman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, declined to say whether any of the men are in custody.

The German government has said the country’s economy will face sustained headwinds in the coming months, as global trade tensions hit its export industries and the labour market shows signs of a slowdown, the Financial Times reported. Germany’s economy grew 0.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2019, in part because of strong consumer spending. But in a statement, the German economy ministry said the outlook for the second quarter “remains muted”.

EU finance ministers and officials have warned Italy that it needs to bring its public finances back into line with the bloc’s rules, saying previous commitments to rein in its debt must be honoured, the Financial Times reported. Arriving at an EU meeting in Luxembourg, France’s economy minister urged Rome to “accept the hand” extended by the European Commission, which last week warned Italy that it was in breach of its obligations while stressing that Brussels was open to discussions on what action needs to be taken.

Sub-Saharan African states have borrowed so much money since the debt forgiveness programmes earlier this century that they risk falling back into financial distress, Fitch warned today, the Financial TImes reported. However, the rating agency argued that multilateral debt relief had not been squandered, as some have argued, because it has “delivered lasting benefits” in the form of faster economic growth and improvements in measures of human development.

Faced with the choice of accepting rent cuts or hunting for new retailers to fill hundreds of stores, U.K. mall owners are swallowing their medicine, Bloomberg News reported. Some of Britain’s biggest commercial landlords including Hammerson Plc and British Land Co., voted in favor of a rescue plan for billionaire Philip Green’s Arcadia Group that meant having to accept dozens of store closures and rent cuts of at least 25% at almost 200 sites.

Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht SA’s construction unit expects to speed up talks with Petroleo Brasileiro SA to resume providing services to the state-run oil company and participate in its public auctions in the second half of 2019, an Odebrecht executive said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Olga Pontes, Odebrecht’s compliance director, says Odebrecht Engenharia e Construcao (OEC) should be able to resume its relationship with Petrobras because of steps taken by the conglomerate to improve governance and compliance in the wake of a 2016 leniency deal tied to a corruption scandal.

They have billions of dollars in funding, backing from China’s biggest tech companies and the world’s largest electric vehicle market at their doorstep. But Chinese EV start-ups face a struggle to survive in the face of intensifying competition and subsidy cuts, the Financial Times reported. Although analysts are reluctant to name companies that could disappear, the two dozen Chinese EV start-ups such as Nio and Xpeng, which have raised more than $10bn in recent years, are expected to be cut down to a handful.