Headlines

Brazil’s representative to the International Monetary Fund’s executive board abstained from approving the fund’s new €1.8bn contribution to Greece this week and issued a stinging criticism, arguing that Athens might be unable to repay its rescue loans, the Financial Times reported.

Three quarters of China's solar-grade polysilicon producers face closure as Beijing looks to overhaul a bloated and inefficient industry, resulting in fewer but better companies to compete against Germany's Wacker Chemie AG and South Korea's OCI Co Ltd., Reuters reported. The polysilicon sector, which has around 40 companies employing 30,000 people and has received investment of 100 billion yuan ($16 billion), suffers from low quality and chronic over-capacity as local governments poured in money to feed a fast-growing solar panel industry, for which polysilicon is a key feedstock.

IVG Immobilien AG (IVG) is examining whether it qualifies for a court-supervised restructuring after the debt-laden German real estate company’s creditors failed to offer an alternative by yesterday’s deadline, a person with knowledge of the matter said, Bloomberg reported. IVG hired a law firm that will determine whether the Bonn-based company meets the criteria for a “Schutzschirmverfahren,” Germany’s equivalent of the U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy, said the person, who asked not to be named because the information is private.

The Bank of England and its new governor Mark Carney will put the finishing touches to a fresh approach to nurturing Britain's nascent economic recovery on Thursday, when the central bank wraps up a policy meeting, Reuters reported. But financial markets will probably have wait a few more days before getting details of the long-awaited steer on how long interest rates are likely to stay at their record low. At his Bank first policy meeting nearly a month ago, Carney surprised investors with a warning that they were pricing in a rate hike too soon.

Cyprus’s economic reform programme is on track, but substantial risks remain, according to EU and International Monetary Fund monitors, the Financial Times reported. The island’s prospects are regarded as remaining uncertain as authorities struggle to contain a deepening recession and rebuild confidence in the battered banking system. “While the authorities have started to implement the programme with determination, risks remain substantial. . .

The Economic Affairs Committee has called for an “urgent review” of the UK’s corporate tax regime, greater parliamentary oversight of HMRC and stricter regulation of tax advisers, economia reported. In its report today the cross-party Economic Affairs Committee said it was “unclear” that the global tax reforms proposed by the OECD went far enough to tackle tax avoidance. It urged government to conduct its own review now, rather than wait for the OECD recommendations due in two years time.

The Cyprus government and central bank on Tuesday announced milder than expected final terms of a bail-in for uninsured depositors at Bank of Cyprus but signalled it could take years before their remaining funds are fully unfrozen, the Financial Times reported. Deposits above the guaranteed limit of €100,000 will face a 47.5 per cent haircut, while an additional 5 per cent of total deposits would be made available for withdrawal by account holders on top of the 10 per cent already returned in cash, according to a joint statement by the finance bank and the central bank.

British bank Barclays PLC unveiled plans Tuesday to increase its capital levels by nearly $20 billion, one of the boldest recent attempts by a European bank to put to rest questions about its financial strength, The Wall Street Journal reported. Even as Barclays addressed one of regulators' main concerns about the bank, however, a new problem emerged: A British regulatory agency is planning an enforcement action against the bank over a 2008 fundraising deal with Qatari investors, people familiar with the probe said.

The insolvency administrators of German DIY store chain Praktiker have stepped up the search for an investor by appointing Macquarie as advisor, they said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The administrators hope that by finding an investor they can secure as many jobs and stores as possible at the group, which has around 20,000 full and part-time employees. The group filed for insolvency earlier this month for the Praktiker-branded units, but spared its more successful Max Bahr chain.

The Chinese state owes a lot of money – but even in Zhongnanhai, the secluded compound where the Communist Party’s top brass have their headquarters, no one really knows how much, The Wall Street Journal China Real Time Report blog reported. Sovereign debt issued by the central government in Beijing stands at 8.4 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion), or 16% of GDP, as of the end of last year – wonderfully low by western standards.