Headlines

Standard Chartered, an Asia-focused bank based in London, reported on Tuesday an unexpectedly large loss of $2.36 billion for 2015 after being pummeled by its exposure to emerging markets and bad loans, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. It was the latest in a series of weak performances by global banks, amid concerns over a slowing world economy. Standard Chartered also warned that more than 150 current or former executives were at risk of having their bonuses clawed back if they were found to be responsible for the bank’s poor performance.

Twenty years ago, a dangerous cocktail of debt accumulated in foreign money and deteriorating exchange rates led emerging markets into financial meltdown, the Financial Times reported. In the aftermath, countries vowed to repent of the “original sin” of borrowing huge sums in non-domestic currencies. Major emerging markets went from having more than three-quarters of their debt in foreign currencies to around half. Finance ministers were applauded for better protecting economies from swings in global market sentiment.

Tajikistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, is discussing a possible International Monetary Fund bailout programme worth as much as $500m as its economy suffers the fallout from Russia’s recession. Jamoliddin Nuraliev, deputy head of Tajikistan’s central bank, told the Financial Times that the IMF could lend to the central Asian country under its extended-credit facility and that $500m would be a “reasonable” amount, although he added the government had not yet decided whether to make a formal request for assistance. “We are in a dialogue with the fund,” he said.

Europe’s largest economy is experiencing a best-of-times worst-of-times moment, with solid growth and its biggest budget surplus since unification overshadowed by growing jitters about the months ahead, the Irish Times reported. The federal statistics office released figures on Tuesday showing “solid and consistent” growth of 1.7 per cent last year and a combined € 19.4 billion surplus on all federal, state and local public budgets. “That is, in absolute terms, the highest since unification”, the statistics office said, around 0.6 per cent of overall economic output.

Administrators have moved to sell assets owned by companies belonging to federal MP Clive Palmer, including a Bombardier Global Express aircraft that is the property of Palmer Aviation, which owes $26 million, ABC News reported. Creditors of Mr Palmer's aviation company met yesterday in Sydney and decided to put it into liquidation. Liquidators FTI Consulting said the process would start in March. "At that meeting, creditors resolved to place the company into liquidation, with FTI Consulting to act as liquidators," an FTI statement confirmed.

Brazil’s real weakened after inflation surprisingly accelerated and as Goldman Sachs said the currency is poised to drop another 11 percent this year while the government struggles to contain consumer-price increases and shore up its budget, Bloomberg News reported.

When Pravin Gordhan, South Africa’s finance minister, gives his budget on Wednesday, he not only has to deliver on the task of rebalancing revenues and spending, but also restore the credibility of one of the most traded emerging markets, the Financial Times reported. Analysts say the budget will arguably be the most intensely watched of South Africa’s democratic era as investors seek to gauge the trajectory the country is taking as an economic crisis grips.

Troubled oil and gas explorer Petroceltic, which owes more than $200 million (€179 million), has been given a two-week reprieve from its lenders, the Irish Times reported. In a statement to the Irish Stock Exchange this morning, the company said it had received a further waiver of repayments under its senior bank facility until March 4th. Meanwhile, the exploration company has announced the start of development drilling on the Ain Tsila gas field in Algeria.

Even by the standards of the Chinese financial system, the volume of funding provided by the People’s Bank of China to the banks in the run-up to the Chinese new year holiday was large. FT Confidential Research (FTCR), a research service from the Financial Times, estimates that a net Rmb2.7tn ($415bn) was pumped into the interbank market in January alone, including more than Rmb1tn through open market operations.

The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday urged energy exporters of the Middle East to raise more taxes as governments across the region grapple with a dramatic drop in oil revenues, The Wall Street Journal reported. “These economies need to strengthen their fiscal frameworks and re-engineer their tax systems by reducing their heavy reliance on oil revenues and by boosting non-hydrocarbon sources of revenues,” Christine Lagarde said at a finance forum in the United Arab Emirates capital.