Headlines

Din Ruenmeesang spends about half his monthly income making minimum payments on his seven credit cards and multiple bank loans. That isn’t stopping the 33-year-old from borrowing again to buy a new car next year. Spenders like Din are making it hard for Thailand’s central bank to cut interest rates even as Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy struggles with weakening growth. Thai household debt has more than tripled in a decade to a record high 83.5 percent of gross domestic product, and lower borrowing costs may exacerbate that.

Spain has unveiled a series of measures to combat long-term unemployment, including a new monthly payment for about 450,000 jobless who currently receive no form of state support and face a growing risk of social exclusion, the Financial Times reported. The package comes amid rising concern over the fate of Spain’s long-term unemployed, and warnings that the country is facing a deepening social crisis.

Germany could be left with a €500 million compensation bill after a Munich court ruled that property lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE) falsified accounts and misled investors about its exposure to the financial crisis, the Irish Times reported. The German lender and its Dublin subsidiary Depfa went into a tailspin after the collapse of Lehmann Brothers in September 2008. The HRE group survived only after a state-led bailout before it was eventually nationalised.

Russia has a new enemy: the currency markets. Russia’s government is in the middle of an all-out fight to preserve the value of the ruble in the face of plummeting oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, the International New York Times reported. In the boldest move yet to stanch the bleeding, the Central Bank of Russia announced a stunning interest rate increase in the middle of the night. Its main deposit rate is now 17 percent, up from 10.5 percent when Russian banks closed for business on Monday.

A key gauge of household debt in Canada climbed to a record high in the third quarter as Canadians accumulated debt faster than their incomes grew, illustrating what the central bank has deemed the top risk to the domestic financial system, The Wall Street Journal reported. The ratio of household credit-market debt to personal disposable income rose to 162.60% from a revised 161.45% in the second quarter, Statistics Canada said Monday. That means Canadians owe roughly 1.63 Canadian dollars ($1.41) on every dollar of disposable income.

The Central Bank has urged banks to adopt caution when writing back problem loans due to the improving property market, as it also warns that the forthcoming maturity of a large proportion of bank debt could impact negatively on bank profitability, the Irish Times reported. At the publication of the Central Bank’s second Macro Financial Review for 2014, the Central Bank urged banks “to be cautious” when it comes to releasing loss provisions.

German Burger King restaurants that were shut down last month in a row between their operator and the U.S. fast food company will re-open this week, Burger King Germany said on Monday, Reuters reported. Twenty-six of the 89 outlets will open their doors again on Monday and the rest by Wednesday, it said in a statement. Burger King had told Yi-Ko Holding, formerly the biggest operator of the restaurants in Germany, to shut down the restaurants immediately last month, saying the franchisee had violated its rules on the treatment of employees.

Poland's financial regulator KNF is seeking court approval for ailing credit union SKOK Wolomin to be declared bankrupt, a step that would allow depositors to get their money back through the country's bank guarantee fund, Reuters reported. SKOK Wolomin has 2.3 billion zlotys ($684 million) of deposits covered by Poland's Banking Guarantee Fund. It is the latest Polish credit union to run into trouble in an industry which has come under fire for weak management and poor supervision in the past.

Germany’s family-owned companies, the backbone of the country’s economic strength, fear they may have to scale back investments and cut jobs if a top court this week orders an overhaul of inheritance tax rules, the Financial Times reported. The federal constitutional court in Karlsruhe is set to decide on Wednesday whether it is fair that beneficiaries of inherited corporate wealth in Germany enjoy sweeping tax exemptions. Around 90 per cent of businesses in Germany are family-owned, providing about 60 per cent of jobs with social insurance.

London house prices plunged in December and may barely increase next year after the “froth” came off the market, according to Rightmove Plc, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Asking prices in the capital fell 5.1 percent from November, it said in the last of its monthly property reports for 2014. It forecast a 2015 gain of 1 percent to 3 percent after an 11 percent surge this year. The weakness in December wasn’t confined to London, with a record 3.3 percent monthly drop recorded nationally.