Headlines

Companies are back in the market for credit but Irish consumers are still more concerned about paying back old debts than borrowing for fresh spending, according to Central Bank money and banking statistics, the Irish Times reported. The November data shows that household loan repayments exceeded loan drawdowns by €335 million during the month, while companies borrowed €139 million more than they repaid. Companies’ medium-term debt borrowings are the biggest climbers, up a net €205 million in November, suggesting a nascent puck-up in investment.

President Dilma Rousseff said she will tighten Brazil’s budget, increase investment and productivity in an effort to restart economic growth, while minimizing “sacrifices” by the population, Bloomberg News reported. “We will prove that economic adjustments are possible without revoking acquired rights or betraying our social obligations,” Rousseff said Thursday during the swearing-in ceremony for her second term.

About 1,000 companies will go bust and 12,000 Scots will be made bankrupt in the coming year, a report has predicted. Business advisers BDO said many companies had seen an economic improvement in the past year. But it warned there were signs that the economy was stalling. Cooling consumer demand, geopolitical and financial uncertainty and potential interest rate rises were cited as causes for concern.

A top official of the European Central Bank says measures taken to stimulate the euro zone economy might not be adequate and the central bank may need to do more, the Irish Times reported. The comments by Peter Praet, a member of the central bank’s executive board, strengthened expectations that the ECB is moving closer to broad-based government bond purchases as a way of pumping money into the economy. Added impetus, Mr Praet said, could come from the additional drag on consumer prices as a result of the recent drop in crude oil prices.

Ever since the euro crisis erupted in late 2009 Greece has been at or near its heart. It was the first country to receive a bail-out, in May 2010. It was the subject of repeated debate over a possible departure from the single currency (the so-called Grexit) in 2011 and again in 2012. It is the only euro country whose official debt has been restructured. On December 29th the Greek parliament failed to elect a president, forcing an early snap election to be called for January 25th. The euro crisis is entering a new, highly dangerous phase, and once again Greece finds itself at the centre.

Alexandra Nikolovieni, 55, lost her job escorting young children on a school bus four years ago and has not been able to find another one since. To help financially, her daughter and her son-in-law, who have two children, moved into her house. But now they have lost their jobs, too. Ms. Nikolovieni, who volunteers at a food pantry in this suburb of Athens, says that every month she sees more and more people like her, qualifying for bundles of groceries and picking out used shoes for themselves or their children. “Are things getting better?” she said.

Lending to euro zone households and companies contracted further in November, adding to concerns that the European Central Bank’s latest round of stimulus may not be enough to revive the currency bloc’s economy, the Irish Times reported. ECB data on Tuesday showed that loans to the private sector contracted by 0.9 per cent compared with November 2013, after a contraction of 1.1 per cent in October. The ECB has forced banks to clean up their balance sheets, offered them extremely cheap four-year loans and started purchasing secured private debt.

Pie Face, the fast food franchise placed in voluntary administration last month, looks set to survive following a deal struck with creditors at a meeting in Sydney, Business Insider reported. Fairfax Media reports that suppliers who are unsecured creditors will receive as little as 14 cents in the dollar owed and will wait two years for payment as part of the deal.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan is to establish a special working group to examine the costs to the State of financial regulation. This comes in the wake of revelations that the Irish taxpayer is being forced to plug a €58 million hole in the State’s annual regulatory bill, the Irish Times reported. Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the Central Bank confirmed to him that €57.9 million of the State’s €136 million bill for overseeing the sector in 2013 went “unrecovered”.

The personal hospitality business may be the most obvious sector of Sierra Leone’s economy that has been decimated by Ebola. After all, the main slogan in Freetown, the capital, these days is A.B.C. — avoid body contact. But all across the most affected nations — Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia — Ebola continues to lay waste not just to immune systems but also to balance sheets, the International New York Times reported.