Headlines

The number of foreclosed properties for sale in China rose at a faster pace in January, in a sign of the country’s continued economic slowdown, Bloomberg News reported. New listings of foreclosed properties nationwide rose 48% in January from a year earlier, compared with 37% in 2023, according to a report by real estate agency China Index Holdings published Thursday. The 100,400 properties listed for sale last month include residential, commercial and industrial real estate. Transactions in January also rose about 18% on-year.

As the annual meeting of China's parliament approaches next month, its leaders are facing the greatest pressure in almost a decade to take bold policy decisions that safeguard the economy's long-term growth potential, Reuters reported. The start of the year saw Chinese stocks tumbling to five-year lows on growth concerns and deflation deepening to levels unseen since the global financial crisis, prompting comparisons with the 2015 turmoil that forced policymakers into action.

Argentina must pay a large deposit in a case brought by hedge funds seeking $1.5 billion in compensation for losses in the nation’s growth-linked securities, London’s Court of Appeal ruled, Bloomberg News reported. The South American nation must pay down €310 million ($337 million) before a full appeal is heard. Hedge funds, including Palladian Partners LP, won the case for compensation in a lower court last year. Argentina has until April 5 to deposit the cash in a trustee account, a judge ruled Thursday.

Thailand’s prime minister pledged to keep up his campaign to pressure the central bank into a rate cut, fueling a buildup of market sentiment that the dispute will result in monetary easing, Bloomberg News reported. “There is plenty of room” to cut the benchmark rate, leaving enough monetary policy space in case of future crisis, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin told reporters in Bangkok. He cited Thailand’s shrinking economy and negative inflation as evidence of weak business and consumption activity, that’s compelling enough for an off-cycle rate decision.

Disgraced cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon should be extradited to the U.S. to face trial on fraud charges, rather than to his native South Korea, a court in the tiny Balkan country of Montenegro has ruled, the Wall Street Journal reported. Kwon’s lawyers have three days to appeal the ruling by the High Court in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, a spokeswoman for the court said Wednesday. The appeals court will have the final word in the case, she added. A local lawyer for Kwon, Goran Rodić, called the ruling illegal and pledged to appeal.

Indian central bank officials rejected the International Monetary Fund’s view that government debt could exceed the size of the economy, predicting a more rapid easing in the debt ratio than the Washington, D.C.-based lender estimates, Bloomberg News reported. General government debt — which is the combined borrowing of the central government and the states — can be reduced to 73.4% of gross domestic product by 2030-31, nearly 5 percentage points below the IMF’s projected trajectory of 78.2% for the period, central bank officials led by Deputy Governor Michael Patra wrote in a paper.

The European Central Bank on Thursday reported a record annual loss for 2023 and said further losses were likely as its aggressive interest rate hikes force it to pay out billions of euros to banks, Reuters reported. The ECB, which has raised rates at an unprecedented pace over the past two years, has a bloated balance sheet after a decade of financial stimulus and commercial banks now earn hefty interest on the trillions of euros it printed during the era of anaemic inflation. "The loss...

Mexico’s headline inflation eased much more than expected earlier this month, reinforcing bets that central bankers in Latin America’s second-largest economy could soon join the region’s wave of interest rate cuts, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 4.45% in the first half of February compared to the same period a year prior, down from 4.87% in late January, the national statistics institute reported Thursday. The reading was below all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey that had a 4.7% median estimate.

Canada's December retail sales slightly beat expectations as people spent more on cars, food and beverages, and at supermarkets during the holiday season, data showed on Thursday, but likely declined at the start of the year, Reuters reported. Retail sales grew by 0.9% in December from November, more than a forecast for a 0.8% gain, from a flat reading in November, which was upwardly revised from -0.2% previously, Statistics Canada said. January's preliminary estimate pointed to a 0.4% decline on the month, Statscan said.

Turkey’s central bank left its key interest rate unchanged at 45% on Thursday, pausing a series of aggressive rate hikes aimed at taming high inflation, the Associated Press reported. The central bank said it was keeping the benchmark one-week repo rate on hold, according to a statement. It was the bank's first interest rate decision under its newly appointed governor, Fatih Karahan. The move was in line with expectations that the rate would be kept constant after the bank said last month that monetary tightness needed to “establish the disinflation course” was achieved.