Headlines

Housing sales in China in the first eight months of the year fell 10.9% to 3.43 trillion yuan ($559 billion), according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics issued Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Sales in the first seven months of the year were down 10.5% from a year earlier at 2.98 trillion yuan. Property developers across the country have been struggling with weak sales, bulging inventories and tight credit conditions since the start of the year, and some authorities, mostly at the local level, have been loosening policies to support the sluggish market.

Failed South African lender African Bank Investments (Abil) plans to re-list on the Johannesburg exchange in February and may expand into secured lending and insurance, its government-appointed supervisor was quoted saying by a local newspaper on Friday, Reuters reported. Tom Winterboer, appointed by the central bank to restructure the unsecured lender after it faltered under a mountain of bad debts in August, also told Business Day the bank had collected "well over" 2 billion rand ($182 million) from borrowers over the past month.

Panic has hit the British market over the uncertainty around the upcoming Scottish referendum with investors pulling out $27 billion out of UK financial assets in August — the biggest capital outflow since the Lehman crisis in 2008, The Times of India reported. The London-based consultancy CrossBorder Capital has confirmed the biggest drain of financial assets since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. On Thursday, Scotland will vote in the historic referendum to decide whether it would continue to be part of the United Kingdom or become an independent country.

Brazil's federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against Eike Batista, a once high-flying Brazilian businessman, compounding his legal troubles. Prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro charged Mr. Batista with financial crimes and requested the freezing of 1.5 billion Brazilian reais ($640 million) in assets belonging to the businessman and people close to him, according to documents posted on the public prosecutor's website. A judge will now examine the charges and decide if the case should go ahead, according to Sergio Bermudes, Mr. Batista's lawyer. Mr.

The “good” bank created after the bailout of the Portuguese lender Banco Espírito Santo last month was dealt a setback on Saturday when the three-person management team selected to turn around its business abruptly resigned, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported.

An application by property developer Sean Dunne to end his US bankruptcy case will be heard by a Connecticut judge at trial in December, the Irish Times reported. Judge Alan Shiff set the trial date for December 3rd in a court filing yesterday. He had previous given parties until today to file objections to Mr Dunne’s bid not to seek a discharge from bankruptcy in the US in favour of proceeding with a single bankruptcy case in Ireland.

The board of Germany's department store chain Karstadt is meeting to agree on a rescue plan for the loss-making retailer. About 17,000 employees are hoping the group's new owner will turn around their fortunes, Deutsche Welle reported. For the first time since taking over Karstadt Group in August, Austrian billionaire investor Rene Benko will chair a meeting of the chain's supervisory board. The main item on the meeting's agenda is purportedly a restructuring blueprint drafted by interim chief executive Miguel Müllenbach.

Ireland has won German backing to refinance part of its bailout loans, according to Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin, the Irish Times reported. Speaking to reporters in Paris, Mr Howlin said the German parliament had set a date to ratify Ireland’s request to refinance its bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Government is seeking to repay up to €18 billion of its €22.5 billion loan from the IMF early, in a move that could save the Irish exchequer up to €400 million a year.

Banco Espírito Santo secretly lent money to its controlling shareholder for two years, documents have revealed – raising fresh questions over the Bank of Portugal’s supervision of a lender that went on to suffer one of Europe’s largest financial collapses, the Financial Times reported. BES, then Portugal’s largest listed bank, routed undeclared loans to Espírito Santo International (ESI) – then indirectly its 25 per cent shareholder – through Panama, the documents show. BES did not declare the loans to ESI in its accounts at the time.

President Nicolas Maduro said Venezuela could meet all its obligations to bondholders, as he sought to quell market fears that the Socialist-run country may opt to default when $5 billion of its foreign debt falls due for repayment next month, Reuters reported. Fears of a possible default had heightened, with bond yields spiking, after the publication of an article by two pro-opposition economists that suggested an orderly default could ultimately help the slumping economy of a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.