Headlines

Greece has wrapped up a deal with creditors on details of reforms to unlock the next disbursement from its €86bn bailout programme, the Financial Times reported. The deal covers a wide range of fiscal and structural measures, from fresh cuts in pensions to liberalising Sunday trading. It cheered markets and potentially opens the door to talks on debt relief for Greece. Pierre Moscovici, the EU economics commissioner, suggested on Tuesday that progress was possible, saying the time had come to turn the page on “this long and difficult austerity chapter” for Greeks.

Brazilian phone company Oi SA said on Tuesday that Orascom TMT Holdings SAE, controlled by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, and a group of bondholder have given the carrier until June 1 to put together a restructuring plan to help it exit bankruptcy protection, Reuters reported. This is the fourth extension granted Oi by Orascom, which offered in December an exchange of debt for shares and a capital injection of as much as $1.25 billion in the phone company. Oi filed for bankruptcy protection in June last year under the burden of debts totaling 65 billion reais ($20.6 billion).

The Government will argue that the Republic could need special EU support to cope with the economic shock from Brexit, according to a new official strategy document, which says that Irish negotiators are now turning their attention to the key economic issues, the Irish Times reported. Another key issue highlighted in the new document is that the State will argue strongly for proper arrangements for a transitional period after Britain leaves the EU but before a new trade deal between Britain and Europe is finalised, to try to minimise the disruption of Brexit.

Swiss commodities trading group ECOM has received approval from German cartel authorities to purchase German cocoa grinder Euromar Commodities GmbH which declared insolvency in December, Euromar's insolvency administrator said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Production at Euromar's plant at Fehrbellin near Berlin could resume in coming days, the administrator, Rolf Rattunde, said in a statement. A sale contract for Euromar's factory, equipment and site had been signed and approved by Euromar's creditors in March but German cartel authorities had to approve the purchase.

The financial crisis of 2007-2008 precipitated the biggest reversal in real earnings in Ireland since the second World War, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the Irish Times reported. The agency has collated data on the average earnings of industrial workers between 1938 and 2015, providing an insight into the shifting fortunes of workers here over the past 70 years. The recent financial crisis saw real weekly earnings drop by 4 per cent from €642 in 2008 to €616 in 2011.

The world is suddenly paying attention to Home Capital Group Inc., the tiny Canadian mortgage lender that’s on the ropes. The stock is plunging, it faces a run on deposits and regulators are probing management’s disclosure of fraudulent mortgages, Bloomberg News reported. Its troubles are raising questions: Is this an isolated case of a struggling mortgage company, or early signs of cracks forming in Canada’s red-hot housing market? It started in 2014 when the company, formed 31 years ago by Gerald Soloway, failed to screen a pile of questionable mortgages brought in by outside brokers.

The business year 2016 and the first quarter 2017 at airberlin were dominated by the transition to a new business model at the airline, Aviation Tribune reported. Structural issues of the old business model and high restructuring costs have impacted the reporting periods. airberlin CEO Thomas Winkelmann said: “Old airberlin’s indistinct market position, the strongly season-dependent route network and the high operating costs have together led to highly unsatisfactory financial results. The new strategy we launched in autumn 2016 is a major step to turn around the airline’s fortunes.

No one expects negotiations over Britain’s exit from the European Union to go smoothly over the next two years, but a German newspaper’s account of a dinner last Wednesday between the British prime minister, Theresa May, and senior European Union officials suggests that round one, at least, was particularly discordant, the International New York Times reported. On Sunday, the German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, ran an article, clearly leaked by officials in the European Commission, that described a considerable gulf between Mrs.

When a policy is applied for more than four years, and consistently fails to produce the intended result, it is tempting to declare it a failure. Critics of Japan’s economic stimulus declare exactly that. They are wrong. So-called Abenomics has not failed, and it should be sustained, not abandoned, the Financial Times reported. Critics of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic policy, which aims to combine monetary and fiscal stimulus with structural economic reforms, make a simple case. Abenomics began in the spring of 2013.

Veneto Banca, the troubled Italian lender which is in the process of requesting state aid to secure its future, has liquidated its Irish wholesale banking operation, Veneto Ireland Financial Services, the Irish Times reported. The move comes as Dublin ups its efforts to compete with Paris and Frankfurt and attract more financial services companies looking to relocate from post-Brexit London to remain in the European single market.