Headlines

Chinese property giant Country Garden will sell a stake in a commercial center operator for about $428 million, using the proceeds to help restructure offshore debt, the Wall Street Journal reported. The indebted developer said Thursday that a group subsidiary will sell its entire 1.79% stake in Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group for 3.07 billion yuan ($428.0 million). Net proceeds of the disposal will be used to restructure offshore debt. Zhuhai operates 494 commercial centers, including 290 owned by Dalian Wanda.

A council in one of the wealthiest parts of the UK has warned it faces potential bankruptcy due to the “devastating” impact of cancelling the northern leg of HS2, the Guardian reported. Leaders of Cheshire East council in north-west England said the authority had spent £11m preparing for the high-speed rail link, and this would now have to be written off. Most of this money – £8.6m – had been funded by borrowing and would now have to be funded from the council’s already stretched revenue budget.

Insolvency tribunal NCLT Mumbai has approved the sale of some of the real estate assets of telecom company Reliance Communications, a regulatory filing said on Wednesday. The filing attached an order of the National Company Law Tribunal's Mumbai bench in the matter of application filed by the resolution professional of Reliance Communications, seeking approval from the NCLT for undertaking the sale of certain unencumbered assets of the company.

The European Central Bank and the Bank of England held interest rates steady as rich countries’ central banks begin to reposition themselves for a world in which inflation is under control, the Wall Street Journal reported. The shift marks a turning point for a global economy that for months had been laboring under high interest rates, high inflation and—outside the U.S.—low growth amid heightened geopolitical uncertainties as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza rage on.

Nearly a month after a court ruling left a hole in Germany’s 2024 budget, the government in Berlin introduced a new spending plan that included cuts in programs to address climate change, but confirmed its commitment to 8 billion euros ($8.6 billion) in direct military aid to Ukraine, the New York Times reported. The new budget will comply with the constitutional rules against taking on new debt, the government said. "We are forging ahead with the climate-neutral transformation of our country. We are strengthening social cohesion.

Argentina's economy has many problems, and dealing with a mountain of debt repayments over the next two years could determine whether the new government's economic road map succeeds, Reuters reported. The country's total sovereign debt exceeds $400 billion, some $110 billion of which is owed to the International Monetary Fund and to holders of restructured, privately-held eurobonds. With central bank reserves in the red by more than $10 billion and little chance of tapping the market, the country has some $16 billion in debt payments coming due next year.

Peru's inflation rate could converge to the central bank's target sooner than expected, the head of the bank said on Wednesday, arguing that the rate of rising prices in the Andean nation is now under control, Reuters reported. "We expect it to return to the (target) range, if not in December, in the first quarter or in April next year," central bank head Julio Velarde said, hinting at an earlier-than expected easing of inflation. The central bank had previously said inflation would converge to target in April.

Surging interest rates are saddling the world’s poorest countries with record levels of debt and complicating investments in public health, education and infrastructure initiatives that are key to helping their populations emerge from poverty, the World Bank warned on Wednesday, the New York Times reported. In its latest report on international debt, the World Bank said that low- and middle-income countries had paid $443.5 billion toward principal and interest in 2022. That is the highest level in history and a 5 percent increase from 2021.

Somalia on Wednesday secured a $4.5 billion debt relief deal from its international creditors, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank said, which will allow the nation to develop economically and take on new projects, the Associated Press reported. The deal comes as part of a debt forgiveness program —called the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative— overseen by both organizations.

New Zealand’s agriculture-rich economy contracted unexpectedly in the third quarter, raising questions about whether interest rates have risen too far with the economy on track for a return to recession, the Wall Street Journal reported. The economy contracted 0.3% in the quarter, following a revised 0.5% increase in GDP in the second quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ on Thursday. Economists had expected the economy to grow by 0.2% over the quarter. From a year earlier, the economy contracted by 0.6%, Stats NZ added.