Headlines

Creditors of distressed Brazilian retailer Americanas SA approved a restructuring plan to overhaul 50 billion reais ($10.3 billion) of debt in a key step to applying a recovery plan nearly a year after its sudden implosion due to a multi-year fraud, Bloomberg News reported. With more than 97% of banks, bondholders and suppliers represented at the virtual meeting, the creditors gave the company the green light to proceed with the plan that envisions a capital injection of 24 billion reais in 2024 and recovery rates close to 30%.

English councils will receive a 6.5% funding boost next year to help them battle soaring costs, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government said, but the move failed to quell growing fears of a looming wave of bankruptcies, Bloomberg News reported. Michael Gove, the UK’s secretary of state for leveling up, housing and communities, on Monday announced almost £4 billion ($5.1 billion) of extra cash for local councils in 2024/25, taking their total central government funding to over £64 billion. While the government said this represented a rise in real terms, the sector criticized the uplift.

Tackling hidden leverage across the multi-trillion dollar "shadow banking" sector is next year's priority, global financial regulators said on Wednesday, but the challenge of accessing data could hamper the process, Reuters reported. The G20's Financial Stability Board (FSB) and IOSCO, a global grouping of securities markets regulators, on Wednesday issued tougher liquidity management guidance for asset managers of open-ended investment funds, adding to existing guidance for money market funds, which FSB and IOSCO members commit to applying.

A streak of unexpectedly good news on inflation has continued in Britain, as the annual rate of price increases dropped to its lowest level in more than two years, the New York Times reported. Consumer prices in Britain rose 3.9 percent in November from a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. That was down from 4.6 percent the previous month and the lowest since September 2021. Price growth slowed as fuel costs declined and food inflation continued to ease.

Chile’s central bank sped up the pace of its interest rate cuts with a reduction of three quarters of a percentage point and signaled borrowing costs could fall even faster as both inflation and the global economy improve, Bloomberg News reported. Policymakers led by Rosanna Costa voted unanimously to cut borrowing costs to 8.25% late on Tuesday, as expected by 12 of 20 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Eight others expected a second straight reduction of 50 basis points.

Economic activity in Brazil performed worse than expected in October, central bank data showed on Wednesday, corroborating broad readings of economic cooling, Reuters reported. The IBC-Br index, a key predictor of gross domestic product (GDP), fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.06% from September. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the IBC-Br was up 1.54% over October 2022 and grew by 2.19% in the 12 months. Latin America's largest economy has previously prospered this year on the strength of its agribusiness and extractive industries.

Colombia delivered its first interest rate cut in three years, lowering borrowing costs by 25 basis points as signs of a faltering economy overtake inflation concerns, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank reduced its benchmark rate to 13%, Governor Leonardo Villar told reporters in Bogota after Tuesday’s policy meeting. The decision was backed by five of the bank’s seven board members, with two voting to keep the rate at 13.25%. Twelve of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg correctly forecast the move, while the rest expected interest rates to remain unchanged.

S&P Global Ratings lifted Brazil’s credit score after the recent approval of an overhaul of the country’s tax code added to a series of economic reforms that have been implemented in the past few years, Bloomberg News reported. S&P raised Brazil’s sovereign rating by one notch to BB, two levels below investment grade, putting it on par with Guatemala and Dominican Republic. The outlook is stable.

Panama's economic growth next year is now estimated at about 2.5%, down "in light of new scenarios," Economy and Finance Minister Hector Alexander said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Speaking at a 2024 draft budget presentation, Alexander said the reduced figure did not include inflation. Alexander did not give further detail on the reasoning behind the cut, but a ministry official told Reuters earlier this month that the country could slash its 2024 GDP forecast after the closure of a lucrative copper mine.

An artificial intelligence system can't be registered as the inventor of a patent, Britain's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a decision that denies machines the same status as humans, the Associated Press reported. The U.K.'s highest court concluded that “an inventor must be a person” to apply for patents under the current law. The decision was the culmination of American technologist Stephen Thaler's long-running British legal battle to get his AI, dubbed DABUS, listed as the inventor of two patents.