Headlines

Things are not looking good for the Dutch economy. The Dutch statistics agency on Thursday said the euro zone’s fifth-largest economy contracted 1.1% in the third quarter. It was one of the European Union’s worst third-quarter GDP outcomes and much worse than the flat growth for the quarter that the European Commission forecast just last week, The Wall Street Journal Brussels Beat blog reported. Were there any bright spots? No. Consumption fell 1.8% compared to the quarter a year ago. Investment was down a whopping 6.4%. Export growth slowed substantially.

Greece’s eurozone lenders are in a bind: how can they further trim the country’s unsustainable debt pile, but not take any losses themselves? the Financial Times reported. One proposal floating around European policy circles is a voluntary debt buyback of Greek bonds held by the private sector. A painful restructuring of more than €200bn of debt has still left about €62bn of bonds of varying maturities held by investors.

Centrais Eletricas do Para SA, a Brazilian utility know as Celpa that was acquired this month by Equatorial Energia SA, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in New York, Bloomberg reported. The company, based in Belem, Brazil, listed both debt and assets of more than $1 billion in documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Chapter 15 protects foreign companies from U.S. lawsuits and creditor claims while a company reorganizes abroad. Celpa is asking the U.S.

Yesterday, Argentina filed for a re-hearing of its arguments against hedge fund manager Paul Singer and other investors in its sovereign debt that neglected to restructure their debt in 2005 and 2010 (exchange bondholders), Business Insider reported. Argentina is making two arguments for why their case should be heard (before a panel of judges) again.

China’s placement of a North Korean- educated economist and an exemplar of debt-fueled infrastructure on its ruling body may add to challenges for Communist Party leader Xi Jinping as he seeks to deepen the nation’s development, Bloomberg reported. Zhang Dejiang, who studied economics at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, and Zhang Gaoli, whose city began building a mini-Manhattan under his watch, were appointed to the paramount Politburo Standing Committee in Beijing yesterday in the most important phase of a once-a-decade power transition.

Britain's housebuilders face a dose of harsh economic reality next year as government steps to kickstart sales falter and strategies to bolster their balance sheets run out of steam, Reuters reported. Housebuilders have enjoyed stable sales for 18 months as the government put housing centre-stage in its battle to spark economic growth, with plans like NewBuy and Funding for Lending, and any slump would hit these wider ambitions.

General strikes and sporadic violence against government austerity programs racked Spain, Portugal and Greece, but they appeared unlikely to sway the leaders of countries that are becoming inured to protests after four years of economic distress, The Wall Street Journal reported. Protest fatigue, declining levels of unionization and factionalism within the labor movement have combined to take much of the bite out of strikes as tools for changing government policy, analysts said.

Spain will need no further austerity measures until the end of next year even though it will easily miss its deficit targets, the EU’s top economic official announced on Wednesday in the clearest sign yet Brussels is backing away from an austerity-focused crisis response, the Financial Times reported. The clean bill of health from Olli Rehn, EU economic commissioner, does not set new budget targets for this year or next. Instead, his assessment gives approval based on the structural reforms proposed by Madrid as part of its budget plan unveiled in September.

Nervous investors Wednesday paid Germany for the privilege of parking their funds at a bond sale for the first time since July as renewed concerns over Greek finances stoked an appetite for the euro zone's safest securities, The Wall Street Journal reported. Investors are flocking back to German debt as Greece's problems intensify and the positive impact of the European Central Bank's bond-buy pledge starts to fade.

Eight months after he lobbied on behalf of Greece's creditors during the biggest debt restructuring in the history of world finance, Charles Dallara launched a withering attack on the policies of austerity, saying a "new course" was needed to stop Greece's economic death spiral, The Guardian reported. As thousands marched through the streets of Athens on a day of co-ordinated pan-European protests against measures that have seen Greek wages drop by an average of 35%, the American head of the Institute of International Finance said a new strategy was vital.