Headlines

Sri Lanka secured initial approval for the next loan tranche from a $3 billion International Monetary Fund bailout program, as the nation seeks to complete its debt restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. The staff-level agreement for the second review of the program gives the nation access to a payout of about $337 million — subject to approval from the IMF’s executive board, the Washington-based lender said in a statement. Funding is also contingent on implementation of prior actions, completion of financing assurances and adequate progress on debt restructuring, according to the statement.

Aircraft lessor Wilmington Trust SP Services has moved NCLAT, filing an appeal against an earlier order of NCLT, which had dismissed its insolvency plea against low-cost carrier SpiceJet. Wilmington Trust's petition has been listed for hearing on Thursday before a bench headed by the Chairperson Justice Ashok Bhushan of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), the Economic Times of India reported.

After backing a restructuring plan on Monday, bondholders of one of Signa Holding GmbH’s key property units are still demanding answers over a missing batch of funds worth around €675 million ($737 million.), Bloomberg News reported. The funds, equivalent to about 30% of Signa Development Selection AG’s total assets, were siphoned off in loans to other parts of Austrian tycoon Rene Benko’s business empire, according to a report by the administrator seen by Bloomberg News.

China's tightening of rules for consumer finance companies is likely to force consolidation in the roughly $120 billion sector that provides high-interest loans for millions of people shut out of traditional banking, Reuters reported. The National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) announced revamped and stricter rules for the sector on Monday, measures that are expected to drive China's consumer finance companies to seek deeper-pocketed investors or merge.

Turkey’s central bank raised its key interest rate by 5 percentage points on Thursday, resuming a policy of rate hikes aimed at combating soaring inflation that is causing households severe economic pain, the Associated Press reported. In a surprise decision, the central bank said it was raising the benchmark one-week repo rate to 50%. The bank had been widely expected to keep the benchmark rate steady for a second month, ahead of mayoral elections on March 31.

The Swiss National Bank cut its main interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.50% on Thursday, a surprise move which made it the first major central bank to dial back tighter monetary policy aimed at tackling inflation, Reuters reported. The central bank, in the first rate decision since long-serving Chairman Thomas Jordan said he would step down in September, also cut its interest rate on sight deposits to 1.50%.

The Bank of England took another step toward cutting interest rates in the coming months after two of its most ardent hawks dropped their demands for hikes, Bloomberg News reported. Catherine Mann and Jonathan Haskel joined an 8-1 majority on the Monetary Policy Committee to keep rates at a 16-year high of 5.25%, the latest sign that the BOE was edging toward easing policy later this year. That represented the first time since September 2021 that no member of the panel had supported an increase.

Argentina’s economy shrank in the fourth quarter, consolidating a full year of negative growth, even before incoming President Javier Milei slashed spending as part of his shock therapy, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product fell 1.9% compared to the period between July and September, according to official government data published Wednesday. Activity contracted 1.4% from a year earlier, slightly less the median estimate of a 1.5% decline of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

KCB Group Plc.’s efforts to clean up its loan book of legacy bad debt is being frustrated by government delays in paying suppliers and court injunctions slowing down the sale of collateral to recoup losses, Bloomberg News reported. The Nairobi-based bank with operations across seven African nations posted a 29% jump in gross non-performing loans to 208.3 billion shillings ($1.57 billion) in its full-year earnings.

Some western banks have begun lobbying against EU proposals to redistribute billions of euros in interest earned on frozen Russian assets, senior industry sources said, fearing it could lead to costly litigation, Reuters reported. European Union leaders are on Thursday discussing a plan to use up to 3 billion euros ($3.26 billion) a year to supply arms to Ukraine as they try to bolster Kyiv's fight against Russia, which would still own the underlying frozen assets.