Headlines

Fresh evidence of rapidly rising house prices underlined the role a resurgent property sector has played in supporting China's fragile growth, but also raised fears that a sharper correction would be required to bring prices into line with income. Prices rose an average 6.7% year-over-year in July, up from 6.1% in June, calculations by The Wall Street Journal based on official data released Sunday showed. On a month-to-month basis, the increase in prices moderated slightly.

Much of Ireland has been riveted this summer by recordings of phone conversations from 2008 that revealed not only shocking levels of greed and bad breeding among some of the country’s top bankers, but a deliberate effort to snooker the government into bailing out the country’s banks by concealing the extent of their insolvency, The Washington Post reported.

Leading Hungarian tour operator Best Reisen Ltd, hit by big losses on holidays to Egypt and Tunisia, said on Friday it had gone bankrupt, leaving hundreds of passengers in Red Sea resorts in Egypt, Reuters reported. The company said it had financial deposits of 1.3 billion forints ($5.75 million) which would cover the costs of bringing passengers home and compensating clients with booked trips. "Best Reisen specialised in North African countries and the Arab spring did them no good," said Judit Molnar, vice chair of the association of Hungarian tour operators.

AIB is putting together a panel of receivers and insolvency experts to move in on heavily indebted small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and other commercial businesses with assets of value, the Independent reported. The bank is seeking tenders from insolvency experts who will take on the work on a fixed-fee basis. Much of the focus of the new drive will be on loans being managed by AIB on behalf of the State 'bad bank', Nama.

Haarlem, officially the best shopping city in the Netherlands, looks like many picturesque Dutch towns: a medieval church surrounded by a hedonistic cornucopia of pedestrian shopping streets. Normally those streets are filled with confident window-shoppers, but these are not normal times, and Dutch consumers are feeling anything but confident, the Financial Times reported. Household spending has been falling for three straight years, and it dropped again 2.4 per cent year on year in the second quarter, dragging the entire economy down with it.

The Canadian province of Quebec has ordered Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd to help pay clean-up costs after a train disaster that killed 47 people and said on Thursday the company has no choice in the matter. The disaster, North America's deadliest rail crash in two decades, destroyed the center of the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic last month after a runaway oil tanker train derailed on a curve and exploded. Crews are still cleaning up the 1.48 million U.S. gallons (5.6 million liters) of oil that spilled. "Let's be clear.

The euro-zone economy is showing signs of sputtering to life, but doubts abound about whether growth can pick up. A big reason economists are skeptical is the huge cargo tethered to the currency bloc's rear bumper: trillions of euros in private-sector debt accumulated over the previous decade that policy makers have done little to address, The Wall Street Journal Brussels Beat blog reported. Deleveraging in the euro-zone's banking sector may prove to be one of the most powerful brakes on growth in the coming years.

Magyar Telecom BV, the owner of Hungarian telecommunications company Invitel, asked its bondholders to vote on a debt-for-equity swap today as the company seeks to reduce borrowings and attract new investment, Bloomberg reported. Magyar Telecom, controlled by Mid Europa Partners LLP, set an Aug. 15 deadline for responses to its restructuring proposal and has support from holders of as much as 65 percent of its notes, it said in an Aug. 13 statement. It’s preparing a scheme of arrangement, a U.K.

Lone Pine Resources Inc. failed to make a US$10.1-million, semi-annual interest payment on its senior secured notes Thursday, setting the clock ticking on a possible default the could force the natural gas and light oil developer to seek protection from creditors, Stockhouse reported. The company, incorporated in Delaware but headquartered in Calgary, said failure by Lone Pine Resources Canada Ltd. to make the payment will result in default on the 10.375 per cent senior notes maturing in 2017 unless remedied within 30 days.

Solarworld AG Chief Executive Officer Frank Asbeck expects business to improve in the second half as last week’s deal to restructure Germany’s biggest solar-panel maker boosts customers’ confidence, Bloomberg reported. The agreement will see shareholders lose 95 percent of their holdings and bring in a 35 million-euro ($46 million) investment from Qatar Solar S.P.C., Asbeck said today in a letter to shareholders. The restructuring will be completed by the end of this year or early next year, he said. While the solar market remains challenging, the deal “sent out a positive signal,” he said.