Headlines

To stem an ongoing fall in foreign reserves caused by the oil price crash, Nigeria’s central bank introduced restrictions last summer that have effectively blocked imports of hundreds of items that typically enter Nigeria through its ports, the Financial Times reported. The policy, backed by President Muhammadu Buhari, also aims to boost local manufacturing and agriculture. The country has long used its oil revenues to bring in essential items such as steel and palm oil that the Buhari administration says should be made locally.

Emerging markets’ private sector debt burden reached new highs in 2015 according to new data that highlight mounting problems for companies in developing countries, the Financial Times reported. In a report to be published on Wednesday, Fitch Ratings, one of the world’s three large credit rating agencies, says total private-sector debt in big EMs rose to the equivalent of about 78 per cent of gross domestic product in 2015, up from 71 per cent at the end of 2014.

Times have changed for Yu Xingzhi since China’s economic boom years. Despite the slowing economy, sales at Shanghai Caison Color Material Chemical are holding up. The trouble is, her customers — garment manufacturers and packaging producers buying her dyes and inks — are taking more time to pay for what they buy, the Financial Times reported. “Receivables are the unavoidable problem for traditional manufacturers. If you don’t accept receivables, you have no business. It’s standard industry practice, even though no one likes it,” says Ms Yu, the dyemaker’s general manager.

Instead of China fixing a corporate zombie problem threatening to overwhelm the world’s second largest economy, Beijing may be about to create a bigger one, The Wall Street Journal reported. That is the implicit warning in a new paper published by the International Monetary Fund late Tuesday. Authorities in China are just starting to tackle the systemic buildup of two decades of credit-fueled and state-directed growth.

Negotiations between Greece and its international creditors ran into trouble on Tuesday over demands for extra austerity measures, denting hopes for a quick end to the monthslong deadlock over the country’s bailout, The Wall Street Journal reported. The impasse is the latest in a saga of troubled talks. The Greek government and the International Monetary Fund are at loggerheads over how to find up to €3.6 billion ($4 billion) in so-called contingency measures, or additional austerity, if Greece misses its budget targets.

One of Britain's iconic tailoring brand Austin Reed has collapsed into administration, or insolvency, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk, The Economic Times reported. The 116-year-old tailoring brand, which once counted former British prime minister Winston Churchill and Elizabeth Taylor among its customers, appointed AlixPartners today to explore options for the business after it ran out of cash.

Officials and market participants agree that the Bank of Japan ought to do more to beat deflation, but they are divided over whether the central bank’s policy-setting board members have to do so this week, The Wall Street Journal reported. Economic data offer plenty of reasons for easing at the central bank’s two-day meeting, which concludes Thursday. The economy is at risk of shrinking in the second quarter because of earthquakes that shook southern Japan recently.

Some of Europe's smaller peripheral lenders will attempt to sell subordinated debt in the coming days, as they take advantage of investors' demand for yield to bolster their balance sheets. Subordinated bank bonds took a serious hit in the early part of the year as investors flew out of the asset class, leaving banks locked out of that market, with second and third-tier financials in a precarious position. The market has staged a stunning comeback since then, particularly after the European Central Bank announced in March that it would start purchasing corporate bonds in June.

British lawmakers expect to question retail billionaire Philip Green in the course of an inquiry into failed department store chain BHS's pension liabilities after the firm was put into administration on Monday, Reuters reported. The Work and Pensions Committee launched the investigation on Tuesday. Asked if the chairman of the committee, opposition Labour lawmaker Frank Field, would invite Green to be questioned, Field's office said: "He's very sure he will be invited." Green sold BHS last year for one pound to a collection of little known investors called Retail Acquisitions.

A partner of troubled Malaysian government investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd. said Monday it would pay $50 million in overdue interest owed on a 1MDB bond, but only after the bond is declared in default. The default could trigger further defaults on billions more in debt. The partner, Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth fund International Petroleum Investment Corp., is a guarantor of the $1.75 billion bond privately issued by 1MDB in 2012, and will pay the interest under those obligations, IPIC said in a filing to the London Stock Exchange.