Headlines

Loan approval rates for small and medium sized firms are continuing to improve although access to credit remains a big issue for SMEs, a new survey reveals. The quarterly bank watch study compiled by Isme shows 35 per cent of small businesses who applied for funding were refused credit, down from 43 per cent at the end of February. Overall 41 per cent of fims surveyed said they required additional or new bank facilities in the last three months, as against 42 per cent in the preceding quarter.

Petroceltic chief executive Brian O’Cathain and chief financial officer Tom Hickey have resigned from the company after the High Court today approved an amended survival scheme for the exploration firm and two related companies, the Irish Times reported. A statement from the troubled explorer said Petroceltic’s board has stepped down and the company’s existing share capital been cancelled following conclusion of the examinership process.

The Bucharest Court has postponed the exit from insolvency procedures of Hidroelectrica to June 21. The decision was postponed numerous times already, since the energy supplier entered insolvency in February 2014 for the second time. Previously, the company was placed under judicial reorganization procedures between June 2012 – June 2013. The court was supposed to rule on the matter on June 8 and later on June 15.

Greece’s central bank has warned that new taxes introduced by the leftwing Syriza government in return for more bailout aid could derail the country’s chances of ending a seven-year-long economic contraction amid rising discontent with government policies, the Financial Times reported. The central bank warned on Wednesday that “the greatest risk [to future growth] relates to an excessive emphasis on tax increases” introduced as part of a €5.4bn austerity package approved by parliament last month.

Britain is a week away from its historic economic decision on EU membership. Economists have never been more united in supporting a vote to remain, yet the profession increasingly appears incapable of persuading the public of Britain’s national interest, the Financial Times reported. Economic history is clear. The UK’s growth of national income per head has been the fastest in the G7 since joining in 1973, having been the slowest between 1950 and 1973. EU membership has served Britain well and has not prevented domestic economic renewal.

Retail tycoon Philip Green admitted to British lawmakers on Wednesday he had erred in selling BHS to a former bankrupt and promised to help fix a gaping hole in the pension scheme of the collapsed department store chain he owned for 15 years, Reuters reported. The loss-making BHS fell into administration in April, little more than a year after Green sold it to Dominic Chappell's Retail Acquisitions Ltd for a nominal sum, resulting in the likely loss of 11,000 jobs as it is wound down. Chappell was a serial bankrupt with no retail experience.

China's Bohai Steel Group said it had paid the coupon on its yuan-denominated bonds, which was due on Wednesday, and gave assurance that it had sufficient funds to pay the coupon on dollar bonds due for payment on June 17. The 6.4 percent coupon is on its 1.5 billion yuan bond . China's steelmakers are in the eye of a storm as Beijing moves to slim down bloated industries, including steel and coal, to make the economy more efficient and address a supply glut that has hammered coal and steel prices.

The Central Bank’s new head of credit institutions supervision Ed Sibley said banks face “high levels of scrutiny and challenge” as they seek to free up money previously set aside for bad loans, the Irish Times reported. In his first speech his appointment to the role in April, Mr Sibley said that following the crisis “the patient is still weak and vulnerable” and banks still have much to do to address soured loans and risks posed by the “astonishing pace” of technological change.

Nigeria’s central bank abandoned a currency peg that economists and businesses had long blamed for exacerbating a slide toward recession in Africa’s largest economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. Central Bank of Nigeria Gov. Godwin Emefiele said Wednesday that the country’s naira currency will trade at a market-determined rate beginning Monday, rather than the 197-per-U.S.-dollar level the bank has mandated for more than a year. The black market exchange rate has shot to about 370 naira to the dollar after the central bank choked off most legal channels for procuring greenbacks.

The International Monetary Fund has issued its sternest warning to date on the risk from China’s rising debt burden, urged more aggressive action to curb credit growth and subject state-owned enterprises to the discipline of the market, the Financial Times reported. IMF deputy managing director David Lipton presented the fund’s annual assessment of China’s economy on Tuesday in Beijing, days after a speech in Shenzhen warning of possible risk spillovers to the broader global economy. “Corporate debt, though still manageable, is high and rising fast.