Headlines

Ireland has re-emerged as one of Europe’s top performers but high debt levels continue to pose an “uncertainty”, according to the European Commission. The commission forecast economic activity here would remain “resilient” in 2015 and 2106 with domestic demand taking over from exports as the main driver of growth. In its Spring statement, the Commission revised downwards slightly its growth forecast for Ireland for next year, predicting growth of 3.5 per cent next year compared to 3.6 per cent forecast four months ago.

In cutting interest rates to a fresh record low of 2.0% Tuesday, Australia’s central bank is hoping to give a jolt to an economy that’s suffering from the end of a decadelong mining boom, The Wall Street Journal reported. But a series of rate cuts in the past three years have failed to achieve the Reserve Bank of Australia’s goal of fostering manufacturing and other businesses that lost out during the era of high commodity prices. Weighed down by high costs, weak consumer demand and other worries—many of which are hangovers of the boom—businesses are reluctant to invest.

Lawmakers in Cyprus on Saturday passed key insolvency laws designed to open the taps for more international bailout cash, WTVQ reported on an Associated Press story. The vote makes it possible to operate foreclosure laws that international creditors have demanded as a condition for extending more loans to Cyprus. Recession, high unemployment and declining incomes have produced defaults on more than half of all private loans. The new laws should make it easier for banks to demand payment or seize assets, thereby reducing the banks' own liabilities.

Greece has vowed to honour heavy debt repayments over the coming weeks but says it is counting on international creditors to release billions of euros in rescue funds before the end of the month as crisis talks between the two sides grind on, The Guardian reported. But as the European commission described discussions over the long weekend as constructive, albeit with more work to be done, one Greek minister criticised the International Monetary Fund’s “extreme” demands for austerity cuts.

As debt has grown across Asia, an increasing portion of the lending has come from nonbank lenders—raising regulators’ concerns about the stability of their financial systems, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Shadow banking” has been a well-documented driver of China’s debt boom, accounting for about a fifth of total lending since 2008. But shadow banks also have boosted lending in South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, all places where consumers have grown increasingly indebted.

Barclays Plc is entitled to $4 billion in assets stemming from the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapse, as the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the bankruptcy trustee for the firm’s brokerage business, Bloomberg News reported. The justices left intact a federal appeals court ruling that said Barclays acquired the assets as part of a hastily drafted purchase agreement in September 2008. Barclays bought most of Lehman’s North American brokerage assets in that deal. The trustee, James Giddens, sought to recoup the money, most of which is already in Barclays’ possession.

The local court in Freiburg (Germany) on May 4th, 2015 communicated that it decided on May 1st, 2015, to open the insolvency proceedings regarding the assets of Solar-Fabrik AG (Freiburg), the PV company announced in an Ad hoc-News. The court ordered Dr. Thomas Kaiser of the law firm Kaiser & Sozien (Freiburg) as the insolvency administrator of the assets of Solar-Fabrik AG.

Swamped by credit card debt, a growing number of seniors and those approaching retirement are filing for insolvency in Ontario, according to a new report released on Monday, The Toronto Star reported. Bankruptcy trustee firm Hoyes, Michalos & Associates Inc. reviewed data from nearly 6,000 personal insolvencies filed in 2013 and 2014. Three in 10 insolvencies were filed by debtors who were 50 or older, the report found. That’s up from 27 per cent in the firm’s previous study, published in 2013.

Five years into the biggest bailout of a debtor in history, Greece is closer to the brink than ever, with time running out to avert a bankruptcy that could destabilize not only the eurozone, but the global economy as well, The Wall Street Journal reported. When Europe and the International Monetary Fund first agreed to bail Greece out on May 2, 2010, the plan was to return Greece to growth and bond markets within three years. Instead, after half a decade and €245 billion ($274 billion) in promised loans, the two sides have reached an impasse.

If anyone was going to blink over Greece, one might think it would be Spain or Portugal—the two countries widely considered most at risk if Greece leaves the eurozone. Indeed, both saw a slight rise in their borrowing costs last week at a particularly bleak moment in Greece’s negotiations with other eurozone members. And Goldman Sachs warned in an eye-catching report this week that if Greece does exit the euro, Spain’s borrowing costs could rise to four percentage points above Germany’s, compared with a spread of one percentage point now.