Headlines

Country Garden Holdings Co. missed a coupon payment on a yuan bond for the first time, adding to the woes of the Chinese developer that is facing a lawsuit seeking its liquidation offshore, Bloomberg News reported. The builder’s main onshore unit hasn’t fully prepared a 96 million yuan ($13 million) coupon that came due on Tuesday for a 4.8% yuan bond maturing in 2026, the company said in a response to Bloomberg. There is a 30 trading-day grace period for the payment, it added.

China should rely more on structural reforms and less on economic stimulus to drive economic growth this year, Liu Shijin, a policy adviser to the central bank, said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Liu, a member of the People's Bank of China monetary policy committee, said the economy can achieve its growth target of around 5% this year but that more effort is needed on both stimulus and structural reforms.

SaltWire Network, the largest newspaper business in Atlantic Canada, has filed for creditor protection, the Globe and Mail reported. Documents filed in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia on Monday say the company, which runs 23 titles including its 150-year-old flagship newspaper, the Halifax Chronicle Herald, is more than $94-million in debt. Private debt firm Fiera, SaltWire’s largest creditor, also filed an application in court Monday, saying the media company owes it more than $32-million.

The Signa luxury unit that co-owns the Selfridges department store in London plans to offer creditors a 30% repayment on their debt under the current restructuring proposal, Bloomberg News reported. According to a document from administrators seen by Bloomberg News, Signa Prime Selection AG will transfer assets to a trustee, who will oversee their sale with all proceeds flowing to creditors. While the proposal offers an initial 30% of their claims, the creditors may receive further payments if revenue from disposals allow.

The U.K. economy rebounded in January, registering modest growth after falling into a technical recession in the second half of last year, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product rose 0.2% following a 0.1% decline in December, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. Services and construction delivered the gains, offsetting a drop in industrial production. The figures leave Britain on track to grow over the first quarter as a whole, bringing the recession to an end.

The European Central Bank presented a new framework for how it implements monetary policy, preserving the current system of steering interest rates while giving lenders more of a say over how much cash they need to operate, Bloomberg News reported. The revamp of the plumbing that underpins the ECB’s key task of maintaining stable prices in the 20-nation euro zone will see banks decide how much liquidity they need from the Frankfurt-based institution on top of what’s provided through a new permanent portfolio of bonds.

Europe moved closer to adopting the world's first artificial intelligence rules on Wednesday as EU lawmakers endorsed a provisional agreement for a technology whose use is rapidly growing across a wide swathe of industries and in everyday life, Reuters reported. Three years in the making, the AI Act comes as generative AI systems such as Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Google's chatbot Gemini become more popular, fuelling concerns about misinformation and fake news.

Bank of Mexico Deputy Governor Omar Mejia argued in a podcast published on Wednesday that it is not premature to consider lowering the bank's benchmark interest rate, though he cautioned that any future cuts should remain restrictive, Reuters reported. The bank's interest rate currently stands at a historic high of 11.25%, and the monetary authority is set to meet later this month.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Wednesday it projects the average structural balance in Latin America and the Caribbean to reach pre-pandemic levels by 2025, Reuters reported. The regions are expected to see a steady improvement from 2022 to 2025, with forecasts indicating a return to -3.4% of potential GDP by 2025. This figure aligns with projections for OECD countries and mirrors the -3.4% recorded in 2019.

The Latin American high-yield bond rally that started in El Salvador and expanded to Venezuela, Argentina and Ecuador has now swept up Bolivia in its wake. That’s a step too far for some investors, Bloomberg News reported. El Salvador gained after unexpectedly meeting all its debt payments, while Venezuela rallied after the US lifted sanctions. Ecuador and Argentina jumped as they imposed radical free-market reforms following years of mismanagement.