Headlines

The number of insolvent Romanian companies inched down by an annual 0.2% to 5,378 in the first ten months of 2023, the country's trade registry, ONRC, said, SeeNews.com reported. The highest number of insolvent companies and legal entities was registered in the capital Bucharest, jumping by 17.8% on the year to 1,084, data published on the ONRC website on Wednesday showed. The central county of Covasna saw the lowest number of insolvencies in the ten months through August, with only 21 firms becoming insolvent, compared to 26 insolvencies recorded in the same period of last year.

The UK government has drawn up a “watch list” of local authorities that are on the brink of financial collapse and acknowledged that a funding shortfall is causing “significant” strain on many councils, Bloomberg News reported. Michael Gove, the UK’s secretary of state for leveling up, distanced the central government from the growing crisis after cuts to real terms funding for councils since 2010, saying that the troubles were largely linked to mismanagement. The remarks follow findings from the Local Government Association that one in five councils are on the brink of going bust.

Argentina’s central bank limited the amount of foreign currency the nation’s commercial lenders can hold, in a push to discourage US dollar hoarding ahead of an expected devaluation by President-elect Javier Milei after his Sunday inauguration, Bloomberg News reported. The country’s central bank said that holdings may not be greater than the lowest amount recorded between Oct. 12 and Dec. 6, according to a rule published on its website Thursday. The measure — announced on the last business day of the current administration — goes into effect immediately and is valid until the end of the year.

The German government will not be able to finalise its 2024 budget before the end of the year, a senior ruling party official said on Thursday, as a fractious coalition tries to narrow differences on fixing a budget hole, Reuters reported. "This is however not a crisis," German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said, playing down the need to get the budget through parliament before the end of the year. "I have realised that the coalition partners have very ambitious timetables," Lindner said on Thursday in Brussels.

Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calvino expressed hope an agreement on the reform of EU fiscal rules could be clinched as soon as Thursday evening, while her German counterpart said he thought a deal was possible this week, Reuters reported. EU finance ministers are discussing changes to the rules on Thursday and Friday, aiming to agree on a joint position that would then be negotiated with the European Parliament early in 2024. Spain holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The International Monetary Fund said it is in ongoing discussions with Egypt's government on additional financing as part of a current program, the Fund´s spokesperson Julie Kozack said in a press conference on Thursday, Reuters reported. "The exact size of financing is part of the ongoing discussions that IMF staff is having with the Egyptian authorities," Kozack added.

Chilean consumer prices rose more than three times as fast as analysts expected in November, surprising investors ahead of the central bank’s final monetary policy meeting of the year. Swap rates and the peso soared in response, Bloomberg News reported. Prices climbed 0.7% in the month, above the 0.2% median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. While annual inflation slowed to 4.8%, it also exceeded the 4.2% forecast, the national statistics institute reported Thursday. Chile’s central bank targets cost-of-living increases at 3%.

Mexico's headline inflation accelerated in November while core inflation continued to ease, official data showed on Thursday, reinforcing expectations the central bank will cut interest rates starting next year, Reuters reported. Annual headline inflation in Latin America's second-largest economy hit 4.32% in November, statistics agency INEGI said, a slight rebound from 4.26% in the previous month, when it touched its lowest level since February 2021, but still below the forecast of 4.40% in a Reuters poll of economists.

Self-driving trucking company TuSimple Holdings said on Monday that it is winding down its U.S. business, reducing its workforce to about 30 people as it looks for a buyer for its assets that remain in the country, the Wall Street Journal reported. The demise of TuSimple’s U.S. operations marks a precipitous fall for the one-time leader in autonomous long-haul trucking. The San Diego-based company in the past year has had to grapple with safety concerns as well as government scrutiny of its dealings with a Chinese trucking startup.

A trust administrated by the Mexican government has bought back around $480 million in bonds issued to finance a partially built Mexico City airport that was later canceled, the trust's operator said late Wednesday, Reuters reported. Investors holding notes with maturities from 2026 to 2047 participated in the buyback, the Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de Mexico said, trimming the overall outstanding indebtedness to around $3.7 billion. The trust in late November had sweetened the tender offer, extending early bid premiums through the end of the buyback.