Headlines

An appeal by the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) against a High Court ruling that it must pay out on outstanding claims following the collapse of the Setanta Insurance Company in 2014 has opened before the Court of Appeal, the Irish Times reported. The MIBI is appealing against Mr Justice John Hedigan’s finding that it was liable to pay out in respect of claims against persons who were insured with Setanta at the time of its liquidation. The case has important implications for motor insurance premiums as well as parties involved in claims concerning Setanta.

About 35 multinationals, including brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, will be required to pay roughly €700 million ($765 million) in additional taxes in Belgium after European Union regulators ruled they had benefited from an illegal tax break, The Wall Street Journal reported. After an 11-month investigation, the European Commission, the bloc’s top antitrust regulator, concluded Monday that a Belgian tax-discount plan for multinationals amounted to “a very serious distortion of competition within the EU’s single market,” and ordered Belgium to recover the unpaid taxes.

Pack away the nipple tassels and dismantle the floats: carnival has been cancelled, the Financial Times reported. Towns and cities across Brazil are being forced to scrap the annual carnival parade as the country is braced for what is expected to be the worst recession since at least the 1930s. The traditional five-day celebration, set for early February this year, normally offers respite from Brazil’s troubles — even the 2008 global financial crisis failed to damp spirits and spending.

China guided its yuan currency higher on Monday, and offshore it surged against the dollar, spurred by what traders called aggressive intervention by Beijing, although Chinese stocks tumbled again as doubts persisted over policymakers’ intent, the Irish Times reported on a Reuters story. Perceived mis-steps by China’s authorities have stoked concerns in global markets that Beijing might lose its grip on economic policy, even as the country looks set to post its slowest growth in 25 years.

In a related story, the Financial Times reported in an insight that the volatility in China’s equity and currency markets in the first week of 2016 was reminiscent of August 2015, but more serious. Even though the Chinese equity market doesn’t actually matter that much fundamentally to China or to the global economy, financial policy and the drip-feed depreciation of the renminbi matter a lot. There is a rising anxiety about the credibility of policymakers and regulators, and also about the state of the economy, the reform agenda and now a looming credit crisis.

The long-awaited trial of Spain’s Princess Cristina de Borbón and her husband on tax-fraud charges opened Monday, presenting a challenge for King Felipe VI as he tries to rebuild the monarchy’s prestige and assert its influence in the country’s unsettled politics, The Wall Street Journal reported. The king’s 50-year-old sister—the first sibling of a Spanish monarch to ever be tried, according to historians—faces up to eight years in jail if convicted on two counts of tax fraud.

Dick Smith chief executive Nick Abboud has resigned a week after the failed Australian electronics retailer went into receivership with debt of A$390 million ($272.61 million), its receivers said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Don Grover has been appointed interim CEO, receivers Ferrier Hodgson said in a statement. Gover was formerly CEO of Retail Fusion brands and has more than 30 years experience in the industry. The receivers also launched advertisements on Tuesday seeking expressions of interest for the sale of the Dick Smith and Move businesses.

China’s financial system is “largely stable and healthy,” the country’s foreign exchange regulator said at the weekend in an effort to reassure global markets as investors braced for a possible resumption of last week’s market turmoil, the Financial Times reported. Attention is likely to focus on China’s central bank and its management of the renminbi this week, after the markets regulator appeared to stabilise last week’s stock sell-off by scrapping a controversial “circuit breaker” mechanism and extending a ban on share sales by large shareholders.

In a related story, The Wall Street Journal reported that the convulsions in China’s stock and currency markets this past week fanned investors’ worst fears: The world’s second biggest economy is in trouble and the authorities are powerless to fix it. The truth is less frightening, but still fraught. China is trying to shift economic growth to a slower, safer path, one less dependent on capital spending and debt. Chinese technocrats know that means opening to ever more market forces, but its ruling elite is still not willing to accept that loss of control.

A British referendum on whether to remain a member of the European Union is the single biggest “known unknown” hanging over the European economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The vote now seems almost certain to take place this year. Prime Minister David Cameron hopes to achieve a deal at a summit in February on the changes to the relationship that he thinks are necessary to persuade Britons to back continued membership. EU officials say the parameters of the deal are already hammered out.