Headlines

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has narrowed on five arms of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) that may have been involved in fund diversion and mismanagement, the Economic Times reported on Wednesday. Indian government took control of the debt-laden IL&FS last week after defaults on a string of debt obligations triggered wider concerns about risks in the country’s financial sector, Reuters reported.

The World Bank and IMF have endorsed Zimbabwe’s plan to clear $2.2 billion in arrears to international creditors, the finance minister said on Wednesday, but U.S. sanctions may still prevent fresh loans to support the rebuilding of a shattered economy, Reuters reported. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has promised to revive the economy, pay foreign debts that the country has defaulted on since 1999 and end the international pariah status that Zimbabwe acquired under Robert Mugabe’s near four-decade rule.

Brussels has been “overly generous” to Italy’s government, allowing it to flout the EU’s budget rules last year, the head of an independent watchdog has said, fuelling criticism of the European Commission’s policing of the bloc’s public finances, the Financial Times reported. Niels Thygesen, the chair of the European Fiscal Board, told the Financial Times the European Commission had gone “beyond” the necessary flexibility allowed to Italy during the country’s budget negotiations with Brussels in 2017.

A six-month delay in the government’s decision over the future of Alitalia would only worsen the carrier’s situation, one of the state-appointed commissioners managing the ailing airline said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. “I am not aware that there is an intention to procrastinate, but postponing a decision that must be taken one way or the other would only make problems worse,” said Luigi Gubitosi. On Saturday a government source said that Italy was working on extending by as much as six months a Dec.

Italy’s finance minister has tried to stem growing concern over Italy’s budget plans as the country’s borrowing costs touched new four-year highs despite assurances that Rome wanted to calm tensions with investors and with the EU, the Financial Times reported. Speaking to Italian lawmakers, Giovanni Tria said the populist coalition would not deviate from plans to widen the country’s deficit to sharply increase spending.

Top lender State Bank of India said on Tuesday it is stepping up its target to buy “good quality” asset portfolios from non-banking financial companies (NBFC), Reuters reported. India’s NBFC sector has been in the spotlight after IL&FS, a major infrastructure financing and construction company, defaulted on a string of debt obligations in recent weeks triggering wider concerns about risks in the country’s financial sector. SBI said it believes that there is a “good opportunity” to expand its loan portfolio at “attractive rates”.

Chinese conglomerate HNA Group has put up for sale property assets worth at least $11 billion, according to documents seen by Reuters, accelerating a push to cut its large debt and restructure, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Two sets of documents reviewed by Reuters listed more than 80 assets that HNA has either put up for sale or intends to sell, including hotels, commercial and residential buildings. They are mostly within China, with the bulk of them located in Hainan Island, where HNA is headquartered.

Sri Lanka plans to put two state-owned hotel companies up for sale within the next six months in a sale that could raise $500 million for the island nation as it seeks to bolster its finances, the finance minister said on Tuesday. Sri Lanka faces repayments on expensive infrastructure foreign loans starting this year and already has a hefty debt burden, while its rupee currency has plumbed record lows, Reuters reported. “We’re going through the legal hoops of preparing (the sales),” State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne said in an interview.

A sharp fall in imports pushed Germany’s trade surplus sharply higher in August, according to new data released on Tuesday that underscore the summer slowdown in parts of the global manufacturing sector, the Financial Times reported. The trade balance reached €18.3bn in August on seasonal and calendar adjusted terms, according to the Federal Statistics Office. The jolt higher represented a bounceback from a steep fall during the previous month. Imports dropped 2.7 per cent in August from July to €92bn, while exports slipped 0.1 per cent to €110.3bn.