Headlines

Kevin Rudd is ditching the optimism of his predecessor and selling himself as the best leader to steer Australia through a downturn as Chinese demand wanes, Bloomberg reported. The new prime minister, who ousted Julia Gillard last week as the ruling Labor party headed toward a landslide election loss, is channeling his ex-boss Ross Garnaut in flagging that the end of a China-led mining boom could lead to a recession.

Greece and its international lenders resume talks to unlock 8.1 billion euros (6.9 billion pounds) of rescue loans on Monday after a two-week break in which the government almost collapsed over bailout-related firings at state broadcaster ERT, Reuters reported. Greek officials including Prime Minister Antonis Samaras have said they expect the talks to conclude successfully, despite setbacks to the country's privatisation programme and delays in public sector reform. The stakes are high.

Singapore will from Monday make it a money-laundering offence for banks to assist tax-evaders stash their funds in the Asian city-state, in the latest move by the region’s fastest-growing wealth management hub to join the global crackdown on tax evasion and illicit funds, the Financial Times reported. The fight against tax evasion is playing out against a backdrop of rising wealth among the world’s richest people, creating a scramble by banks to offer services in tax-efficient jurisdictions such as Singapore.

China-based solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd, whose main unit is in insolvency proceedings, said it had struck a deal with a majority of its bondholders to defer payment on a $541 million loan until Aug. 30, the third time the company has reached such an agreement, Reuters reported. Suntech defaulted on a principal payment on the 3 percent convertible notes on March 15, prompting the company's Chinese lenders to drag its main manufacturing unit into insolvency proceedings.

Spain's government raised its long-term economic growth projections slightly and said it would boost taxes and public spending next year, following a relaxation of deficit targets by the European Union, but signaled that recovery from the country's recession would be slow, The Wall Street Journal reported. Spanish officials said Friday they would raise the ceiling for 2014 public spending by 2.7%, to €133 billion euros ($173.41 billion).

Trade unions asked the Italian government this week to promote a production alliance between Italy's two largest steel producers, ILVA and Lucchini, to help the troubled firms stave off further declines, Reuters reported. The Italian steel sector, the second largest in Europe after Germany, has been hard hit by a drop in demand that has been exacerbated by tough austerity policies. Its output contracted by more than 11 percent in May from a year before. "Only by pushing forward production integration among the largest Italian steel players can we think of getting out of this tough situation.

Creditors are expected to support a rescue plan for Spring Gully Foods that will hand back control of the 60-year-old company to the Webb family, News.com.au reported. About 300 creditors will meet tomorrow to consider an offer for full payment of debts, saving the company from collapse and lifting it out of administration. The company will put forward a Deed of Company Agreement that would see all creditors paid 100c in the dollar with an initial down payment and regular quarterly payments until the debt is finalised.

Rules to force losses on creditors in failed banks were agreed by EU finance ministers early on Thursday, putting in place another piece of a eurozone banking union that could eventually share the costs of future bank bailouts, the Financial Times reported. After more than a year of complex and fraught talks on how to lift the burden of paying for bank rescues from taxpayers, ministers brokered terms in Brussels preserving some national discretion when dealing with lenders in trouble.

European leaders sparred Thursday over whether the region's fight against its youth unemployment crisis needs a big infusion of new money, with some of the bloc's financial powers resisting calls from other nations to do more, The Wall Street Journal reported. Meeting at their regular summit in the European Union capital, the leaders discussed proposals to reduce sky-high youth unemployment rates in countries hardest hit by the crisis: Greece, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal. Even in France, more than 25% of young workers are unemployed.

Britain did not suffer a double-dip recession early last year as previously thought, but household living standards suffered their biggest drop in a generation at the start of 2013. The Office for National Statistics said on Thursday that following a major annual revision of historic economic data, figures now showed that output flat-lined in the first three months of 2012 rather than contracting.