Headlines

French consumers are becoming increasingly nervous. A closely watched indicator of consumer confidence dropped again in September and remains below its historical average, as citizens worried their financial stability and standard of living would decline over the coming year, the Financial Times reported. Households’ confidence in the economic situation declined by two points to 94, below analyst expectations of 97 according to a Thomson Reuters poll and its lowest level since April 2016, data released on Wednesday by Insee showed.

The Greek government is owed so much in tax arrears from households and companies that it could pay off more than half its massive public debts if it collected it all. Unfortunately for the government, that's unlikely to ever happen, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Data from the Independent Authority for Public Revenue show tax arrears totaled 182.5 billion euros ($214 billion) on Aug. 10, according to a note sent from the agency to parliament last week and seen by The Associated Press Wednesday.

Mitie’s shares fell as much as 8 percent on Wednesday after the British outsourcing group said it expects flat to lower operating profit and higher debt in the first half of the year, largely due to increased technology costs, Reuters reported. Mitie, which provides engineering, security and cleaning services to clients including Sainsbury’s, Vodafone and Rolls-Royce, is focused on technology investment and employee retention in a turnaround plan.

Banks in Ivory Coast are considering whether to offer a discount on the debt of failed giant cocoa exporter SAF-Cacao to entice buyers, three bankers involved in the negotiations told Reuters on Tuesday. A court ordered in July the liquidation of SAF-Cacao, the top exporter in the world’s leading cocoa grower, over defaults on cocoa contracts during the 2015-18 seasons, Reuters reported. Banks are ready to offer discounts to buyers if it allows them to recover part of their claims estimated to be around 160 billion CFA Francs ($289 million).

My understanding of Iceland proved dated and left me ill-prepared for what greeted me upon arrival: a booming economy, one that has been greatly transformed from the depths of the crisis. Growth has topped 4 percent in each of the past three years and the economy is forecast to expand 3.3 percent this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. How Iceland recovered from one of the most traumatic shocks experienced by any nation during the financial crisis is worth reviewing, a Bloomberg View reported.

A creditor is seeking to push India’s troubled Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. into insolvency, risking regulators’ efforts to calm financial markets and the group’s attempts to independently restructure its borrowings, Bloomberg News reported. Small Industries Development Bank of India on Tuesday filed an insolvency application against IL&FS and its unit at the National Company Law Tribunal in Mumbai, people familiar with the matter said. Separately, IL&FS’s biggest shareholder, Life Insurance Corp.

Argentine Central Bank President Luis Caputo resigned on Tuesday, a day after President Mauricio Macri said a revised aid deal with the International Monetary Fund would require a new approach to monetary policy, Bloomberg News reported. Just three months since moving to the central bank from the nation’s finance ministry, Caputo cited "personal issues" as the reason for his departure. He was immediately replaced by Economy Minister Nicolas Dujovne’s deputy, Guido Sandleris.

A push by Ireland’s richest man to refinance his heavily indebted Caribbean telecoms company has hit a wall after big investors rejected his bid to postpone repaying $3bn in bonds, the Financial Times reported. Denis O’Brien’s effort to buy more time for Digicel to repay the debt comes at a critical time for the company, amid anxiety about a possible default on a $2bn bond due in 2020. Now bondholders have dismissed Mr O’Brien’s proposal to extend by two years this debt and a $1bn 2022 note, saying the terms he has offered were “unacceptable”.

Confidence among French manufacturers deteriorated in September, as industrialists cut their expectations about how much they would produce, the Financial Times reported. The manufacturing business climate index fell to 107 in September, below analysts’ expectations of 109 in a Thomson Reuters poll. The figure was also down from August’s reading of 110, the data published by national statistics agency Insee showed. However, the composite indicator for manufacturing remains “well above” its long term average of 100, Insee said.

Britain's largest private healthcare group, BMI Healthcare, is nearing a 2 billion pounds restructuring deal that could cut millions of pounds from its annual rent bill, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. An announcement under which BMI's rent bill will be cut by about 60 million pounds is likely to be made imminently, the source told Reuters.