Headlines

Irish homeowners continue to pay above the odds for their mortgage borrowings and are being under-compensated for their deposits, new figures from the Central Bank show. Yes, despite another fall in variable mortgage rates in December, Irish homeowners are paying an average new business rate of 3.76 per cent on their mortgage. This compares with an average rate for the Euro area of just 1.99 per cent, with homeowners in Luxembourg for example, paying an average rate of just 1.76 per cent.

Russia's Gazprombank will receive Mechel's Elga coal project in exchange of paying off some of the coal and steel company's debt to Sberbank, according to preliminary debt restructuring deal, two banking sources told Reuters. The agreement is a part of a wider restructuring process, announced by Mechel this month, which involves Sberbank, Gazprombank, VTB and a consortium of international lenders. The restructuring process, if approved by Mechel's shareholders next month, will mark the end of two years of talks between the company and creditors.

A number of developer Seamus Ross’s Menolly Homes group companies look set to be placed in liquidation at a creditors’ meetings today, the Irish Times reported. Mr Ross was one of the most active housebuilders in Dublin, through the Menolly Homes group, over the last decade. Last December he became one of the well-known developers to exit Nama when Cardinal Capital refinanced the final part of his group’s debts.

Since the financial crisis, it has been gospel for many investors that some combination of actions by central banks — bond buying, bold promises or flirtations with negative interest rates — would be enough to keep the global economy out of recession, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported.

India’s central bank governor Raghuram Rajan has warned that the country must brace for more than a year of “deep surgery” to repair its damaged banking system, raising fears that tough action on bad loans could slow economic recovery, the Financial Times reported. On the surface, India appears to be a beacon of growth among struggling global emerging markets, posting an increase of 7.3 per cent in gross domestic product in the most recent quarter this week, underlining its position as the world’s fastest-growing big economy.

South Africa’s unraveling economy and a string of corruption scandals are coalescing into the gravest challenge for President Jacob Zuma in seven years in office, The Wall Street Journal reported. Those pressures transformed Mr. Zuma’s state-of-the-nation address Thursday into a chaotic condemnation of his policy blunders and a reflection of mounting public discontent, underscored by opposition calls to impeach him. Lawmakers from the firebrand Economic Freedom Fighters party shouted down Speaker Baleka Mbete before she could invite Mr. Zuma to speak.

Irish household debt continued to fall in the third quarter of 2015, reaching its lowest level since the early months of 2006, new data from the Central Bank has revealed. The figures showed debt declined to €151.2 billion, or €32,614 per capita, for the three month period, down €2.1 billion or 1.3 per cent overall from the preceding quarter, the Irish Times reported. This was partly due to continued repayments, write-offs and reclassifications, with repayments at their lowest level since the first quarter of 2010.

Ukraine has agreed a restructuring deal with Russia's Sberbank on $367.4 million of state-guaranteed debt, the government said in an online statement on Thursday, the Daily Mail reported on a Reuters story. The deal included a 25 percent writedown and maturity extensions to Sept. 1, 2019, it said. The debt of state-owned firms, Ukravtodor and Yuzhnoye State Design Office, was included in the external loans that Ukraine has sought to restructure under a $40 billion bailout programme coordinated by the International Monetary Fund.

The cost of insuring Deutsche Bank debt against default leapt on Thursday, while costs for other European banks also climbed as their shares plunged to multi-year lows, Reuters reported. Credit default swaps (CDS), used to insure debt, now imply a 24.5 percent probability that Germany's biggest bank will default on its subordinated, or junior, debt, according to data provider Markit, while on senior debt the probability has risen to 17 percent.

Chinese companies and residents sent more than $110bn out of the country in January alone, according to new estimates, as they continued to evade tightening capital controls amid another round of market turmoil, the Financial Times reported. Surging capital outflows from China have become a source of growing concern around the world and left Beijing scrambling to support its currency. Recently-released data showed the country’s foreign exchange reserves falling to their lowest level in almost four years in January.