Headlines

The African Development Bank is poised to expand lending across Africa in response to the sharp decline in earnings faced by many states and the rise in the cost of borrowing on international markets, the bank’s president says. Africa’s main commodity exporters have been hit hard by the slump in demand for natural resources from China and the drop in the price of oil and other minerals, with many countries struggling to plug growing budget deficits, the Financial Times reported.

Shares in leading global banks fell further on Wednesday with investors selling a sector seen exposed to slowing economic growth and rising credit losses, the Irish Times reported. Global share markets are enduring a torrid year, with financials leading the way, alongside other key sectors that reflect prospects for the broad economy, such as energy, materials, transports and industrials.

Junior oilsands developer Laricina Energy has been granted a final court order from the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta, exiting from protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada), Oilweek reported. The company has paid in full all accounts in respect of its CCAA proceedings and has set aside a reserve of $1.8 million to pay the remaining unpaid proven claims and outstanding disputed claim. Resolution of the disputed claim will continue on a timetable set by the parties or the court.

Global steelmakers face another year of pain with more capacity closures and job losses expected, even as steel prices start to stabilise thanks to painful production cuts, depleted stockpiles and rising trade barriers, Reuters reported. Capacity closures and bankruptcies picked up across the globe last year and top producers like ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel slashed earnings forecasts as prices lost a third of their value, sliding to 12-year lows.

Conspicuous consumers helped some luxury brands report their best-ever results in Russia in 2015, even as overall retail sales dropped 10 percent, Bloomberg News reported. About half of Russians can barely afford purchases beyond food and other basics, according to national polls. Some global luxury brands are betting the trend will continue, opening new shops across the Russian capital. GUM, the ornate department store across Red square from the Kremlin, saw Bulgari and Jimmy Choo boutiques open late last year, while Hermes doubled its selling space, according to a GUM spokeswoman.

Argentina made its first agreement with a group of “holdout” creditors that rejected debt restructurings after the 2001 default on Tuesday, moving a step closer to regaining unfettered access to international capital markets, the Financial Times reported. The new government of President Mauricio Macri, who has vowed to normalise relations with the rest of the world, will pay a group of Italian bondholders $1.35bn in cash. That represents 150 per cent of the value of the $900m in bonds that Argentina defaulted on 15 years ago.

Embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called on Congress to approve a new tax on financial transactions and other potentially unpopular bills to balance the nation’s finances and reverse a deep recession, The Wall Street Journal reported. Ms. Rousseff, who is being targeted for impeachment by the lower house, addressed the congress in the legislative year’s opening ceremony for the first time since 2011, a sign of the high stakes for her administration. “Growth requires fiscal stability,” she said at the opening ceremony.

Spanish energy and engineering firm Abengoa will present its long-awaited viability plan to creditors on Wednesday in a bid to avoid becoming Spain's biggest bankruptcy, three sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The Seville-based company must agree on a restructuring plan with creditors before the end of March or enter into a full-blown insolvency process.

Angola’s central bank has pledged to tighten financial regulation and step up anti-money laundering measures after two international banks halted US dollar supplies to the southern African nation. Bank of America and Standard Chartered decided to stop supplying greenbacks to Angolan banks late last year, apparently over concerns about lax regulation. The oil-dependent nation was one of Africa’s fastest growing economies over the last decade, but it is now grappling with the collapse in crude prices, which has led to a shortage of dollars in the economy.

The uncertain future of Baha Mar, a $3.5 billion mega-resort nearing completion on Nassau’s white-sand Cable Beach, points to the challenges China faces as it finances and builds large-scale construction projects overseas amid language and cultural barriers, lack of regulation and allegations of graft. “The more problems there are and, in a way, the more media attention these problems attract, they erode positive attitudes towards Chinese presence in the region,” said Ariel C.