Headlines

Ghana’s central bank is printing money to help finance the government’s budget deficit, threatening to fuel inflation and weaken a currency that’s already the worst performer in Africa this year, Bloomberg News reported. The first-quarter budget deficit of 2.1 percent of gross domestic product “was financed by the central bank, which provided funding equivalent to 10 percent of government revenue,” Carmen Altenkirch, an analyst at Fitch in London, said in an e-mailed statement today.

China has taken a fresh step to boost flagging growth by cutting the amount of cash reserves some lenders must hold at the central bank in a bid to boost lending to small businesses and the rural economy, the Financial Times reported. The People’s Bank of China said it would reduce the “required reserve ratio” by 0.5 per cent for banks that mainly lend to small businesses and rural borrowers. In the first quarter of this year, China’s economy grew by an annual 7.4 per cent, down from 7.7 per cent expansion in the final three months of 2013.

Nigeria is seeking buyers for the assets of distressed state-owned former telecom monopoly Nitel, the state-appointed liquidator said on Monday, Reuters reported. Nigeria opted to wind up Nitel in March after almost a decade of struggling to sell it, due to the shambolic state of its fixed lines and high levels of debt, despite the country having one of the world's fastest-growing telecoms markets. The liquidator, appointed by the government's National Council of Privatisation, said in an advert it wanted bidders with five years of telecom experience and a net worth of at least $200 million.

Italian carrier Alitalia is in for some "painful and arduous" restructuring but should see a deal with Etihad Airways in a matter of weeks, the airline's chief executive officer said Monday, Gazzetta del Sud reported. Gabriele Del Torchio said that changes were necessary to attract essential investment from Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, which he said is prepared to invest 560 million euros in the cash-strapped Alitalia.

The court-appointed trustee overseeing the US bankruptcy of property developer Sean Dunne intends to ask the American court’s permission to seek access to family law documents in Ireland, the Irish Times reported. Timothy Miltenberger, lawyer for Mr Dunne’s trustee Rich Coan, told the Connecticut bankruptcy court yesterday that he intended to apply under US bankruptcy law to obtain information about the Co Carlow developer’s finances under confidentiality conditions.

Bitcoin company CoinLab Inc. has thrown its support behind Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox's U.S. bankruptcy case, a change of course for CoinLab, which has sued Mt. Gox for $75 million, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lawyers for CoinLab said in court papers Friday that they wouldn't object to Mt. Gox's formal request for U.S. bankruptcy protection, despite earlier hints that they might challenge that request. Court documents offered no explanation for CoinLab's decision. Japanese insolvency expert Nobuaki Kobayashi, who is leading Mt.

Anglo Irish Bank, the institution that brought Ireland’s financial sector crashing down in 2008, has been “finally consigned to history” as liquidators prepare to sell the last of its assets and repay its outstanding debt, according to the country’s finance minister, the Financial Times reported. Michael Noonan’s comment came as Standard & Poor’s, the rating agency, on Friday raised its long-term rating on Ireland to A minus from BBB plus, citing “brightening prospects” for the Irish economy.

The IBRC liquidation has proved a highly lucrative process for some of the best known financial and law firms in the State, the Irish Times reported. KPMG, the firm overseeing the process, racked up fees of €52 million across its Irish and UK offices but knocked €5 million off the bill at the request of the Government. The firm appears to have accrued a total of 242,000 man hours on the liquidation, which works out at €194 per hour per person. A&L Goodbody, a blue-chip Dublin law firm, was the next best earner.

European Union (EU) Justice Ministers Friday reached a agreement on new rules to deal with cross-border insolvency issue, aiming at helping businesses overcome financial difficulties, Philstar.com reported on a Xinhua story. The new rules will allow the procedure of restructuring a business in a cross-border context to become easier, meaning more businesses will be saved from liquidation.

India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn’t waste much time: Among his first acts on his first day in office was to make it a priority to recover billions of dollars stashed overseas to avoid taxes, Bloomberg News reported. Within 24 hours of his May 26 inauguration, Modi created an investigative team of former judges and current regulators to find the concealed assets, known as black money, and bring them back. At stake is what’s estimated to be as much as $2 trillion, more than India’s annual gross domestic product.