Headlines

Germany’s Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof has become the latest asset caught up in the bankruptcy spiral of Rene Benko’s Signa property and retail empire, Bloomberg News reported. The department store chain filed for insolvency at the Essen district court on Tuesday — the third such filing in less than four years for the embattled retailer. Stefan Denkhaus, named Galeria’s interim administrator, said in a statement that the move was the only way the company could “free itself” from Signa’s grip.

The U.K. government is pressuring councils to run down their reserves to help stave off a financial crisis beginning to rip through the country’s town halls, Bloomberg News reported. Simon Hoare, minister for local government, urged local authorities to tap into cash they set aside for emergencies to cover day-to-day services, noting many of them increased their rainy-day funds during the pandemic. However, the call was dubbed “ridiculous” by the Labour opposition and met with skepticism by councils.

Britain’s top smartphone maker, which has made JCB and Land Rover-branded handsets, is on the brink of insolvency as it struggles to compete with Apple and Samsung, The Telegraph reported. Bullitt, which specialises in toughened smartphones and had peak sales of more than £140m, has told the High Court it intends to appoint administrators, filings said. The company said that its satellite connectivity business and all its 100 employees would be transferred to a new company owned by its creditors.

Shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. recovered from a steep plunge on Tuesday after the company said that it was still working to close its planned merger with Sony Group Corp.’s India unit, Bloomberg News reported. The stock, which had lost as much as 13.6% while trading in Mumbai — the lowest level since Feb. 23, recouped bulk of the losses after the company’s exchange filing. It was trading 6.5% lower at 259.95 rupees at 1:58 pm in Mumbai, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was up.

China’s central bank signaled that it’s prepared to keep policy loose by lowering the amount of money banks must keep in reserve, reinforcing expectations among investors of more easing to come, Bloomberg News reported. The People’s Bank of China will use a variety of tools to provide “strong support” for a reasonable growth in credit, said Zou Lan, head of the central bank’s monetary policy department, in an interview with Xinhua News Agency late Monday.

Argentina's monthly inflation rate likely soared to 28% in December, which would be the highest since early 1990, driven by a sharp devaluation of the peso currency last month by the new government of libertarian President Javier Milei, Reuters reported. The median forecast from 20 local and foreign analysts polled by Reuters underscores the challenge facing the South American grains giant, with annual inflation set to top 200% for the year, one of the highest rates in the world.

The World Bank warned on Tuesday that global growth in 2024 is set to slow for a third year in a row, prolonging poverty and debilitating debt levels in many developing countries, Reuters reported. Hamstrung by the COVID-19 pandemic, then the war in Ukraine and ensuing spikes in inflation and interest rates around the world, the first half of the 2020s now looks like it will be the worst half-decade performance in 30 years, it added. Global GDP is likely to grow 2.4% this year, the World Bank forecast in its latest Global Economic Prospects report.

Mexico’s consumer prices rose more than expected in December with increased spending during the holiday season keeping pressure on the central bank as it starts considering an interest rate cut in coming months, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 4.66% compared to the same period a year earlier, up from 4.32% in November, the national statistics institute reported Tuesday. The print was also above the 4.57% median estimate of analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

German industrial production unexpectedly fell in November, the federal statistics office said on Tuesday, marking the sixth monthly decline in a row, Reuters reported. Industrial production decreased in November by 0.7% compared to the previous month. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a 0.2% rise. "The unexpected fall in German industrial production in November shows that companies are increasingly reacting to falling order books," Commerzbank's chief economist Joerg Kraemer said.

Armed with a multibillion-dollar war chest, Canada is offering money to cities to ditch zoning restrictions that thwart residential construction as the country deals with an acute housing shortage, the Wall Street Journal reported. Canada’s Liberal government is targeting municipal-government rules that, among other things, limit the number of units and stories per lot in a bid to increase density in the country’s cities.