Headlines

Air Berlin is in a "precarious" situation, German Economics Minister Brigitte Zypries said on Tuesday, as the loss-making airline seeks loan guarantees from regional states. Air Berlin, in which Gulf carrier Etihad Airways has an almost 30 percent stake, said last week it had asked Berlin and North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) to consider loan guarantees, Reuters reported. The German federal government said on Friday any support would be contingent on the airline showing it had a sustainable business model.

India is bracing for a dramatic but risky overhaul of the country’s tax system that authorities hope will draw millions of businesses into their tax net and boost the economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The initiative, set to kick off on July 1, aims to streamline India’s cumbersome network of state and federal levies and ease commerce across state borders. It is a big part of a larger effort, including the cancellation of large-denominated currencies last year, to improve tax collection from companies that make up India’s huge informal economy.

The Mongolian government is considering the establishment of an asset management company before the end of the year to offload onerous non-performing loans from domestic banks’ balance sheets, the Financial Times reported. Mongolia secured an International Monetary Fund financial package last month to slash a bulging debt load. That package included a requirement for an audit of the domestic banking sector as part of its fiscal discipline guidelines.

Protests against Chinese property controls have grown in intensity in recent weeks, underscoring the challenge for the government in preventing public eruptions of anger as it cracks down on housing speculation, The Wall Street Journal reported. In response to skyrocketing home prices, governments in China’s big cities have set limits on the buying of multiple homes and higher down-payment ratios, which has left many unable to sell their homes and others worried they won’t be able to buy in before prices rise further.

The German Economy Ministry on Monday said it would take time for the federal government and two state governments to evaluate Air Berlin's request for state loan guarantees, Reuters reported. "The process is underway. Now the formal paperwork must be submitted," spokeswoman Beate Baron told a regular government news conference. "The review will take several weeks and months.

Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund are likely to strike a compromise on Greece on Thursday, paving the way for new loans for Athens while leaving the contentious debt relief issue for later, officials said on Monday, Reuters reported. IMF head Christine Lagarde suggested a plan last week under which the Fund would join the Greek bailout now, because Athens is delivering on agreed reforms, but would not disburse any IMF money until the euro zone clarifies what debt relief it can offer Greece.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is drawing up a list of debtors with bad loans that need to be resolved under the insolvency law, The Economic Times reported. “Under the new ordinance issued, the RBI is at a fairly advanced stage of preparing a list of those debtors where a resolution is required through the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) process,” he said after reviewing the quarterly performance of state-run lenders and financial institutions.

Investors in Qatari stocks, bonds and currency forwards were saddled with losses since the country was thrust into the epicenter of an unprecedented spat with its neighbors. The country’s stock market shrank by about $11 billion in value on Tuesday, the most since 2010, after Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut ties with the Gulf nation, Bloomberg News reported. The country’s most liquid bonds tumbled last week as its sovereign rating was cut and bets against its currency surged.

CSN’s failure to deliver its financial statements is stymieing talks with creditors, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Latin America’s most indebted steelmaker has yet to file audited financial statements for 2016 and the first quarter of 2017 amid a review of its accounting practices, Bloomberg News reported. Now, state banks Caixa Economica Federal and Banco do Brasil are balking at requests to renegotiate Cia. Siderurgica Nacional SA’s loans, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private.

Greece’s parliament has approved a handful of extra reforms demanded by creditors in order to unlock more than €7bn of aid and complete a much delayed second review of the country’s €86bn current bailout programme, the Financial Times reported. While the leftwing Syriza government pushed a package of 120 fiscal and structural reforms through parliament last month, another 20 measures still had to be implemented either through legislation or administrative decrees. The five amendments voted on Friday included several measures delayed because of opposition from Syriza politicians.