Headlines

European Central Bank policy makers signaled in October that they were ready to boost their €1.7 trillion ($1.8 trillion) stimulus again if needed, warning of uncertainties in the global economy and stubbornly low inflation. ECB officials agreed that the eurozone’s economy was recovering steadily, but expressed concerns that underlying inflation “still lacked a convincing upward trend,” according to minutes of the Oct. 20 policy meeting, published on Thursday. The ECB aims to keep inflation just below 2%, but it has missed that target for more than three years.

In its never-ending quest to rein in profligate local officials, China this week ordered its indebted cities and provinces to draw up detailed repayment plans. But for these rules to work, the central government must prove that it is willing to let the miscreants default. Creditors doubt its resolve and expect it to go on bailing out the spendthrifts. As a result, they systematically give more generous lending terms to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) than to their private peers, The Economist reported. The bias is not immediately obvious.

The European Commission said on Wednesday it will not suspend EU funds for Spain and Portugal next year following their breach of EU budget rules, as it also called for looser fiscal policy across the euro zone. The European Union's executive Commission has the power to impose fines and to suspend EU funds for countries that run deficits above 3 percent of their gross domestic product and do not take measures to correct their excessive gaps.

Bank of Ireland has told the Oireachtas finance committee that it would utilise any extra lending capacity if the current rules on mortgage lending were relaxed by the Central Bank, the Irish Times reported. In a document submitted to the committee in advance of Richie Boucher’s appearance on Thursday, the bank said it would make use of any relaxation in the current rule, which allows it to exempt 15 per cent of loans from the loan-to-value limits imposed by the regulator.

The European Commission has sanctioned a 0.5 per cent “fiscal expansion” across the euro area next year, in the first signal of a shift in the EU’s policy of austerity, the Irish Times reported. A communique issued today as it launched its autumn economic package in Brussels said, “at this point in time, the commission considers that there is a case for a significantly more positive fiscal stance for the euro area”, though it noted that the recovery is still not accelerating.

Prime Minister Theresa May came under international and domestic pressure to bring order to her Brexit strategy amid accusations it’s in disarray, Bloomberg News reported. “There’s lots of chaos and we don’t understand what the position is,” Italy’s economic development minister, Carlo Calenda, said in an interview. “Somebody needs to tell us something, and it needs to be something that makes sense.” Calenda was not alone in expressing concern that there is confusion and disagreement within the U.K.

Criminal prosecutions have been opened against more than 100,000 businesspeople in Russia in the first half of this year as part of a growing problem that is devastating the Russian economy, an expert on the topic has told a Dublin audience, the Irish Times reported.

The Chinese company that’s said to be in exclusive discussions to acquire English Premier League soccer team Southampton for as much as 200 million pounds ($248.8 million) has requested a halt to trading in its shares for a further month pending the conclusion of efforts to acquire sports assets, Bloomberg News reported. Shares in Lander Sports Development Co. have not traded since October, and the company requires the suspension to remain pending “major asset restructuring,” it said Wednesday in a regulatory filing.

The EU’s Brexit negotiators are pushing for a draft UK exit deal by mid-2018 as part of a narrow, divorce-first negotiating approach that would demand an exit bill of as much as €40-€60 billion, the Irish Times reported. Brussels’ rigid plans for the process show it is making a priority of a clean separation settlement – and Britain’s payment of a hefty exit charge – over London’s desire to focus on refashioning trading relations.

Hedge funds investors holding some of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena's riskiest bonds said they would take part in the bank's proposed tender but the trade is still riddled with execution risk with Tier 2 holders' participation in the balance, Reuters reported. The Italian lender announced late on Monday that it was looking to target up to 5.3bn of subordinated debt in a debt-for-equity swap aimed at getting the bank back on its feet .