Headlines

Egyptian officials plan to launch Asian and European tours starting in the week after next to market international bonds, which will be offered when the time is right, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said on Tuesday. Egypt plans to issue Eurobonds worth about $5 billion in the coming months, Reuters reported. “The week after next, we will start promotional tours in the Asian markets, then Europe in preparation for issuing Eurobonds bonds,” Maait said at a business event in Cairo.

India’s finance ministry wants the central bank to consider more steps to improve liquidity in the system, including reducing the amount of funds banks must set aside with it, a senior ministry official said on Tuesday, amid a bubbling credit crunch in the Indian shadow banking industry, Reuters reported. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) could also explore buying more bonds from the open market and open a special window for mutual funds to inject liquidity, the official told reporters.

Giovanni Tria turns 70 on Friday. Whether Italy’s finance minister gets to enjoy his celebrations will probably hinge on events the day before, when he will announce borrowing and spending targets with the potential to send tremors through financial markets and trigger the fury of Brussels.

Argentine President Mauricio Macri said a revised agreement with the International Monetary Fund will help shore up investor confidence in the nation after a currency rout pushed South America’s second-largest economy into recession, Bloomberg News reported. “We are working with the IMF and we are going to present something that will bring confidence,” Macri said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in New York.

Indian authorities vowed to support financial markets rocked by growing concerns of defaults by shadow banks, Bloomberg News reported. The government will provide adequate liquidity to mutual funds and non-bank financial companies, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday. His tweet followed a rare joint weekend statement from the central bank and capital markets regulator assuring investors they were monitoring the situation and would take necessary steps.

France’s budget deficit will temporarily increase again next year due to slowing growth and a changing tax regime, tightening president Emmanuel Macron’s room for manoeuvre as he pushes for European reforms, the Financial Times reported. In Mr Macron’s first budget since the country’s deficit finally fell below the European Union’s 3 per cent spending rules earlier this year, France said it would show a deficit of 2.8 per cent next year compared to 2.6 per cent this year.

HFW has won an appeal against a Supreme Court ruling with “significant implications” for insolvency proceedings in Australia, Australasian Lawyer reported. The firm helped Rio Tinto subsidiary Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd overturn a Supreme Court decision that Hamersley could not set off its claims against Forge Group Power Pty Ltd. "Today's decision is not only good news for Hamersley, but for many other unsecured creditors. The rights between contracting parties in the event of insolvency is something impacting almost all businesses,” said partner Matthew Blycha who led the HFW team.

Indian authorities are battling to contain growing fears of contagion from a major infrastructure lender struggling to service debts of $12.6bn, which has driven a sell-off of stocks in the country's huge non-bank financial sector, the Financial Times reported. The benchmark Nifty index declined 1.5 per cent on Monday for its fifth consecutive daily fall, with non-bank lenders among the biggest losers. The selling has reflected concerns about recent loan defaults by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services, one of the sector’s biggest companies.

Mario Draghi said that signals from Italy in recent months that it may flout EU budget rules have driven up borrowing costs for the country’s households and small businesses, in a warning shot as the government prepares its 2019 budget. Without directly criticising the Italian government, the European Central Bank president said that comments ministers had made on straying from previously agreed deficit targets “certainly did have an impact: households and companies are now paying higher rates than before as a result of the statement,” the Financial Times reported.

Cardboard box-maker Smurfit Kappa has decided to deconsolidate its troubled Venezuelan operations from its balance sheet, after losing control of the unit to the local government, which will result in the writedown of its €60 million of net assets, The Irish Times reported. The move comes a month after the Caracas government decided to seize Smurfit Kappa Carton de Venezuela (SKCV) for 90 days amid complaints about prices that the company was charging for its products in an alleged abuse of its dominant market position – at a time when the country is grappling with hyperinflation.