Headlines

Retail sales unexpectedly fell in June in the eurozone as a consumption-led recovery continued to prove elusive, the Wall Street Journal reported. Total retail trade was 0.3% lower than in May, figures from the EU statistics agency showed Tuesday, bucking economists’ expectations for a continued rise in sales. Indeed, the eurozone has failed to book two consecutive months of higher retail sales so far this year despite a steady increase in real incomes as inflation eases and wages rise. Spending both on food and other goods declined compared with May, while fuel sales increased.

German manufacturing orders climbed for the first time in six months in June, driven by a revival in orders in the car industry, a potential sign of hope for the beleaguered industrial sector, the Wall Street Journal reported. Industrial orders were 3.9% higher than the prior month, German statistics office Destatis said Tuesday, rebounding after they fell 1.7% in May. That was better than the 0.5% rise expected by a consensus of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. The uptick was the first since December last year.

South African municipalities owe Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. a total of 82.3 billion rand ($4.5 billion) in arrears, which the embattled state power utility is struggling to collect, Bloomberg News reported. Eskom supplies electricity to the municipalities, which in turn sell it on to households and businesses — and both have seen a rapid rise in outstanding debts.

The Reserve Bank of Australia left interest rates on hold at its August policy meeting, stopping well short of joining other major central banks in talking about coming rate cuts and instead warning that inflation will remain a problem for some time yet, the Wall Street Journal reported. The RBA’s official cash rate was held at a 12-year high of 4.35%, where it has remained since November.

Ethiopia has earmarked several billion dollars to cushion the cost-of-living impact of economic reforms being implemented to win support from the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg News reported. It plans 550 billion birr ($5.9 billion) in additional spending, of which 40% will go into food, fuel and fertilizer subsidies, as well as increasing salaries for government workers, according to Eyob Tekalign Tolina, state minister in the finance ministry. “The government has prepared a big package for social spending,” Eyob said in an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Jennifer Zabasajja.

Pakistan has secured commitments from China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to rollover debt for a year, a boost for the nation as it awaits a final approval for its new $7 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg News reported. The amount of rollovers will be the same as last year, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told reporters in Islamabad after a parliamentary committee meeting. Pakistan has $12 billion in bilateral loans that have been extended for the past few years.

China Evergrande's electric vehicle group said on Monday a Chinese court had ruled that two of its subsidiaries should enter bankruptcy and be reorganised, sending the EV group's shares plunging 7.9%, the lowest since May 16, Reuters reported. The news about the subsidiaries of the embattled real estate developer's New Energy Vehicle operation came after creditors filed for the proceedings last month. Their filings did not spell out reasons.

China has given the green light to Anbang Insurance Group Co. Ltd. to start bankruptcy proceedings, marking the latest step in the government’s years-long efforts to manage the collapse of the sprawling financial conglomerate, CaixinGlobal.com reported. The National Financial Regulatory Administration, China’s top financial regulator, announced the in-principle approval on Friday.

Personal insolvencies are at a four-year high in Canada as consumers struggle with lingering inflation, high interest rates and debt they can no longer handle, the Toronto Star reported. The Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals (CAIRP) report for the second quarter shows a rise of 12.4 per cent in insolvencies compared to the year prior. And the numbers for business are even worse with insolvencies spiking 41.4 per cent year-over-year.