Headlines

Global trade disruptions could make it harder for the Bank of Canada to consistently meet its 2% inflation target, and it will have to balance the risks of controlling higher prices with ensuring economic growth, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Inflation in Canada has been consistently falling this year, pushed down by interest rates that were at a two-decade high of 5% for more than a year before the central bank cut rates three times in a row from June.

Two major Chinese developers are moving closer to unveiling plans to overhaul their local debt, as defaulters shift their restructuring focus from global creditors, Bloomberg New reported. Representatives of Sunac China Holdings Ltd. and Logan Group Co. told creditors in recent days that they aim to finalize and present their debt proposals covering local bonds and loans in the coming months.

China’s exports in August beat expectations and accelerated despite growing trade barriers, giving Beijing a little breathing room in its efforts to lift domestic demand and reawaken the anemic economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. Outbound shipments in August rose 8.7% compared with the same period a year earlier, picking up from July’s 7.0% increase, the General Administration of Customs said on Tuesday.

The average household debt in Thailand is seen rising to the highest in at least 16 years as an uneven post-pandemic economic recovery hurts family incomes, according to a survey, Bloomberg News reported. The debt pile per household is set to jump 8.4% to 606,378 baht ($17,959) this year, according to a survey by the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce. That’s the highest family debt obligation since the university began the survey in 2009. The findings are based on survey of 1,300 respondents during Sept. 1 and 7.

Increased protectionism will hit the world’s poorest countries hardest, and is a costly and counterproductive way of protecting jobs in rich countries, the World Trade Organization said on Monday as it called for a period of “reglobaliziation” to reduce global inequality, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Australia’s banking regulator has proposed lenders scrap the use of AT1 bonds in capital requirements, potentially becoming the first jurisdiction to phase out the securities that were wiped out after Credit Suisse’s collapse last year, Bloomberg News reported. Replacing additional tier 1 bonds with existing, more reliable securities would simplify and improve the effectiveness of bank capital in a crisis, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority said in a statement on Tuesday.

Alternative asset manager Balbec Capital Management has bought a portfolio worth over €4 billion ($4.4 billion) of soured Portuguese loans from Luxembourg-based LX Partners, according to a statement seen by Bloomberg News. The portfolio has more than 300,000 restructured and non-performing loans, and its purchase is one of the largest such loan transactions in recent years, Balbec said. It’s one of the biggest portfolio purchases of non-performing loans for the firm since it was founded in 2010.

Indian tax authorities are seeking dues of $101 million from education-technology company Byju’s, once the country's biggest startup which is now undergoing an insolvency process, claim documents reviewed by Reuters on Friday showed. Backed by General Atlantic, Byju's was valued at $22 billion in 2022, but has seen its fortunes dwindle due to many regulatory issues and more recently a dispute with U.S. lenders who are demanding $1 billion in unpaid dues, triggering the company's insolvency that led to an assets freeze.

The bankruptcy court in Ahmedabad has admitted Essar Group entity Essar Oil and Gas Exploration & Production Ltd under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), the Economic Times of India reported. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has admitted the company in an application filed by the company’s operational creditor Greka Green Solutions (India) Ltd, after the Essar Group entity defaulted on its dues of about Rs 24.38 crore. The tribunal has also appointed Mohit B.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), on Friday, annulled banking license of Industrial Development Bank Limited (IDBL) and directed its de-scheduling as it has gone into liquidation, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported. A notification issued by Banking Policy and Regulations Department of the central bank, reads “In exercise of powers conferred upon State Bank of Pakistan by Section 27 (4) of Banking Companies Ordinance, 1962 the banking license issued to Industrial Development Bank Limited (license No.