Headlines

The U.K. tax authority needs to aggressively pursue multinational firms that avoid paying corporation tax and prosecute offending companies, a parliamentary committee said Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported. In a report on corporate tax avoidance, the Public Accounts Committee said Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, or HMRC, lacked determination to stop large international companies avoiding tax and was also too lenient.

Some of the loudest objections to EU banking union plans have come from Germany, and particularly from its savings banks, or Sparkassen, which believe they are central to the country’s tradition of strong regional industries, the Financial Times reported. They say home regulators better understand their characteristics and way of doing business.

The Spanish government said it won't make extra payments expected by more than five million retirees to adjust for this year's inflation, one of the toughest austerity steps yet in its struggle to slash a gaping budget deficit, The Wall Street Journal reported. The measure announced Friday means the government will withhold an estimated €3.86 billion ($5 billion) from older Spaniards, sending ripple effects throughout society. With more than one-quarter of the workforce unemployed, families rely increasingly on the retirement income of their elders to buttress household finances.

Greece will unveil details of a bond buy-back crucial to efforts by foreign lenders to trim the country's ballooning debt, hoping the terms will draw enough investors and unblock vital aid, Reuters reported. Since plans for the buy-back were announced on Tuesday, questions have swirled about whether it will tempt enough bondholders to cut Greek debt by a net 20 billion euros (16.2 billion pounds).

Investors suing over Argentina's 2002 debt default have asked a U.S. court to order the country to post a security deposit of at least $250 million by December 10, while an appeal of a lower court's order is pending, The Chicago Tribune reported on a Reuters story. In an emergency motion filed late on Friday, the "holdout" creditors urged the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to modify its ruling from Wednesday that halted an order for Argentina to deposit $1.33 billion into an escrow account by December 15 on the investors' behalf.

The Crafar family farms put into receivership three years ago are now legally in the hands of their new Chinese owner, Radio New Zealand reported. The Shanghai Pengxin group had to overcome legal challenges from New Zealand farming and Maori interests but finally took possession of the 16 North Island farms on Friday. Spokesman Cedric Allan says the aim is to lift production on the 13 dairy and three dry stock farms under the management of the state owned farming enterprise LandCorp.

Japan has unleashed a new barrage of stimulus at its stagnant economy as debate over how to revive growth heats up ahead of a general election, The Australian reported on an AAP story. The stimulus package announced by the cabinet on Friday totals Y880.3 billion ($A10.34 billion). It is earmarked mainly for spending on social programs, employment creation and support for small and medium-size enterprises. The economy shrank 3.5 per cent in July-September, and many economists say they expect a further contraction in the current quarter.

Belize's government released two new proposals Thursday detailing how it could restructure the country's debt, Dow Jones reported. Belize and its creditors have been negotiating a debt restructuring ever since the Central American country defaulted in September, a month after it failed to make a payment on its $548.3 million debt. Thursday's statement was the first public restructuring proposal since the default. The new restructuring scenario asks creditors to forgive 33% of what they are owed, or allow the country to delay debt payments for 10 years.

Lenders to UK waste management firm Biffa will take the keys from its private equity owners in a restructuring that will cut its 1.1 billion pound ($1.8 billion) debt pile by 55 percent, Reuters reported. Montagu Private Equity and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which bought Biffa in 2008, backed by 1.1 billion pounds of debt, unsuccessfully tried to sell the business this year. As part of the restructuring, Biffa's existing debt will be reduced to 520 million pounds, the company said on Thursday.

British house prices were flat month-on-month in November and they are likely to stay that way or edge slightly lower over the next year, mortgage lender Nationwide said today, the Irish Times reported. The average UK house price stands at £163,853, showing a 1.2 per cent decline on a year ago and prices have been dropping on an annual basis for nine months in a row, Nationwide said. The 0 per cent month-on-month change in November follows a small 0.6 per cent monthly increase recorded by the study in October.