Headlines

A year ago Angela Merkel, German chancellor, and Wolfgang Schäuble, her finance minister, sold the Greek bailout to their party and parliament as a loan only. They argued that once you accept a debt writedown, you turn a loan into a transfer. And once you accept the principle of a one-off transfer to Greece, you are on a slippery road to what the Germans call a transfer union, one where they pay and others receive. In private, senior German government officials agree that Athens needs debt relief. They are not blind.

Argentina’s opposition-dominated Congress on Thursday approved legislation that would double the cost of laying off private and public employees over the next six months, handing President Mauricio Macri his first legislative setback since taking office, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Macri, who said the law would spook investors and destroy jobs, is expected to veto it on Friday. The setback for Mr. Macri comes as pollsters say Argentines are increasingly worried about the prospect of losing their jobs.

Chinese banks are justifiably on investors' radar for shuffling some of their more wobbly credit risk into wealth management products. However, when it comes to misery camped off balance sheet, the People's Republic has company elsewhere in Asia: More than 11 percent of the bad assets reported by Singapore's largest lender aren't loans at all but contingent liabilities, Bloomberg News reported. In just one year, the difference between ``nonperforming assets'' and ``nonperforming loans'' at DBS Group Holdings has more than quadrupled to S$355 million ($257 million).

The container shipping industry, a vital link in the world’s supply of manufactured goods, is suffering what could well turn out to be the deepest and longest downturn in its 60-year history, the Financial Times reported. Container shipping lines have made a series of investments in new, giant vessels, and this glut of capacity has sent freight rates tumbling. The Shanghai Containerised Freight Index — one of the few public sources of information on what lines are charging to ship a container — last month reached the lowest level since its inception in 1998.

Poland's fourth biggest power group Energa said on Thursday it was not interested in buying assets or shares in state-run coal miner JSW as part of a rescue plan, Reuters reported. Poland's energy minister said on Wednesday that JSW, EU's biggest coking coal producer, may need a share issue as it needs more money than estimated last year. This has sent JSW shares 13 percent down on Wednesday and a further four percent on Thursday. Analysts also said that the comments have weighed on Energa's share price on fears that it will have to continue to help rescue state-controlled coal mining firms.

The stepson of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak bought a £23.25 million ($33.6 million) house in central London in 2012 with money originating from the troubled Malaysian state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd., according to people familiar with the situation, The Wall Street Journal reported. The redbrick four-story house, built around 1900, is part of a row set back from the road and protected by security gates, a short walk from Malaysia’s diplomatic mission in London’s exclusive Belgravia neighborhood.

A senior International Monetary Fund official on Thursday cooled European hopes to secure IMF backing for a Greek bailout plan soon and opened the door for emergency financing without new loans from the fund, The Wall Street Journal reported. “For the IMF to participate in the program with financing, both credible policies and substantial debt relief will be needed,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters in a briefing.

China is joining an international effort to tackle tax evasion, with plans to require multinationals to disclose more detailed information on their overseas affiliates, according to taxation consultants who advised the government on the new rules, The Wall Street Journal reported.

There is no minimum level of banks' assets that can be wiped out by regulators when a lender is wound down, the European Commission said in draft legislation which softens requirements for lenders. The regulation, seen by Reuters, sets the EU executive on collision course with the recently-established EU body in charge of winding down failing banks, the Single Resolution Board (SRB).

The European Commission has put off a contentious decision on imposing financial sanctions on Spain and Portugal for failing to bring their budget deficits within European Union rules, saying it would revisit the issue in July, after Spain had held a general election, The Wall Street Journal reported. The commission, the EU’s executive arm, said Wednesday the two Iberian countries should take more measures to reduce their budget deficits in 2016 and 2017, and gave them an extra year to get their deficits within 3% of gross domestic product, the bloc’s ceiling.