Headlines

India will overtake Germany in 2022 as the world's fourth-largest economy and push Britain out of the top five, based on analysis of growth projections by the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg News reported. But the challenges the South Asian nation must surmount to get there are many.

DBS Group Holdings Ltd. cut senior executive pay by 13 percent last year to hold managers accountable for weaknesses in three areas including surging nonperforming loans, Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta said. Besides bad loans, the management of Singapore’s largest bank penalized executives for a weaker performance in Greater China and “control lapses” on the regulatory front, Gupta told shareholders Thursday at the lender’s annual meeting, Bloomberg News reported.

ECB president Mario Draghi acknowledged that there was some difference of opinion over the strength of the eurozone’s economic recovery within the governing council this month, but he said there was “unanimity” over the central bank’s belief that risks are “still tilted to the downside,” the Financial Times reported. Mr Draghi said “some members had a more sanguine view on the economic situation”, while “others believed that such improvements would not warrant any change in communication as far as the balance of risks are concerned”.

Italy's economic development minister says that failing airline Alitalia will receive a government bridge loan to keep it operational while a new owner is sought, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Carlo Calenda told Radio 24 on Wednesday that a loan of 300 million to 400 million euros ($326 million-$435 million) would keep the airline flying for six months under receivership.

Investors are becoming more discerning when it comes to the origin of Chinese debt, Bloomberg News reported. China saw its worst start to a year on record for corporate defaults, with companies headquartered in two eastern provinces -- Liaoning and Shandong -- responsible for the lion’s share. Money managers are taking notice, with a run of messy, high-profile company scandals helping sour sentiment toward certain regions. Beijing’s de-leveraging drive, which has been ramped up this month and has boosted borrowing costs, is also a factor.

The bankruptcy of Toshiba Corp's U.S. unit Westinghouse Electric Co will have no negative impact on the finances of its minority shareholder Kazatomprom, the Kazakh uranium miner said on Wednesday. Kazatomprom said in a statement that it held a put option that would allow the firm to sell its entire 10 percent stake in Westinghouse back to Toshiba at the price of the original purchase, Reuters reported. Kazatomprom, which paid $540 million for the stake in 2007, did not explicitly say whether it would execute the option.

European companies have been slow to capitalise on this week’s market rally — a pause in issuing new bonds that bankers do not expect to last with borrowers set to return as the spring earnings season progresses. There was no investment grade euro bond issuance from non-financial corporates last week as debt issuers sat on the sidelines ahead of the first round of the French presidential election on Sunday, the Financial Times reported.

The European Union's head office says Greece is delivering on its fiscal targets and that an agreement to hand more bailout cash to Athens could come next month, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said Wednesday that Greece continues to show progress on its budget targets and held out hope of an agreement between Greece and its bailout creditors from the 19-country eurozone and the International Monetary Fund soon.

French carmaker PSA Group said its first-quarter revenue rose 4.9 percent, as the first results of a new product offensive helped to overcome negative currency effects, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Revenue advanced to 13.63 billion euros (£11.62 billion) from 13 billion a year earlier, the maker of Peugeot, Citroen and DS cars said on Wednesday. At its core automotive division, revenue rose a more modest 2.5 percent to 9.02 billion euros.

The board of Alitalia has convened a shareholder meeting for April 27 to discuss the company’s future – including placing the Italian airline into administration – after workers rejected a rescue deal in a vote on Monday, the Financial Times reported. In a statement on Tuesday, Alitalia directors said they had noted the outcome of the referendum with “regret”, since it made a planned €2bn recapitalisation of the country’s flag carrier “impossible”.