Headlines

IBEC, the group which represents businesses and employers, has called on the Government to allow individuals to access certain classes of pensions earlier than scheduled as a “once-off crisis response” measure, the Irish Times reported. Noting the success of similar schemes in countries such as Denmark and Iceland, Ibec said such a measure would provide a domestic economic stimulus of €1.8 billion.

Despite complaints from insolvency practitioners that staff and budget cuts at the Insolvency Service are allowing unscrupulous directors to escape justice, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills shelved an initiative to streamline the process for reporting misconduct, The Telegraph reported. The Government said a drive to reduce red tape for the smallest companies was behind the decision.

Mumbai-based rating agency Crisil has sharply increased its estimate of restructured bank loans for this financial year, raising fresh concerns about the asset quality of banks, The Wall Street Journal Real Time India blog reported. Crisil estimates that the total loans to be restructured in this fiscal year will be 3.25 trillion rupees ($58.41 billion) compared to their earlier estimate of 2 trillion rupees. The rating agency said the revision is mainly because of the financial stress faced by state power companies and infrastructure sector.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy delayed seeking a second rescue for Spain while pledging to continue bailing out its regions as Valencia requested more money to settle bills and cover debt, Bloomberg reported. Rajoy spoke today following a meeting in Madrid with French President Francois Hollande. Catalonia, Valencia and Murcia this week claimed more than half of an 18 billion-euro ($23 billion) fund announced by Rajoy last month to help the regions face bond redemptions and finance their deficits in the second half.

China pledged to continue to buy European bonds in a bid to help the euro zone resolve its debt crisis, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Thursday after meeting with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, underscoring Europe's growing importance to the Chinese economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. But Mr. Wen stopped short of concrete pledges and noted that China's purchases would require "fully evaluating risk," suggesting that meaningful aid still can't be assured. Mr. Wen expressed worries over Europe's debt troubles at a news conference jointly held with Ms.

Residential property prices nationally fell by 13.6 per cent in the year to July but rose by 0.2 per cent in the month, new figures show, the Irish Times reported. This compares with an annual rate of decline of 14.4 per cent in June and a decline of 12. 5 per cent in the 12 months to July of last year. The slight rise in prices in the month of July compares with a drop of 1.1 per cent in June and a decline of 0.8 per cent in July 2011, according to the Residential Property Price Index published by the Central Statistics Office.

Brazil's banks abruptly slowed the pace of loan disbursements in July as caution took center stage among private sector lenders seeking to protect earnings from near record delinquencies and a drop in borrowing costs, Reuters reported. Outstanding loans in the nation's banking system rose 0.7 percent to 2.183 trillion reais ($1.06 trillion) in July from June, the slowest pace of credit expansion on a monthly basis since February, the central bank said in a report on Thursday. In the 12 months ended in July, credit grew 17.7 percent, the slowest since April 2010.

Debt-mired JJB Sports put itself up for sale on Thursday and warned investors their shares may be worthless, placing the sports goods retailer at risk of becoming another big-name British retail casualty, Reuters reported. The company has been rocked by funding issues, falling sales and stiff competition as UK store chains battle weak consumer spending, muted wage growth and government austerity measures. A string of household retail names including Woolworths and MFI have gone out of business in recent years, undermined by price-cutting from supermarkets and the Internet.

The leaders of Germany and Italy expressed confidence that they are making headway against the euro-zone debt crisis, but offered no new initiatives as Europe appears stuck until Germany's highest court and the European Central Bank make key decisions that are expected to have a major impact on the currency area's rescue efforts, The Wall Street Journal reported. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks in the Berlin chancellery on Wednesday, the latest in a series of bilateral consultations between Ms.

France’s biggest banks are preparing to pull out of Greece in the coming weeks, the latest large international business to abandon the country as it grapples with a debilitating recession and nagging questions about its future in the euro zone, the International Herald Tribune reported. Société Générale said Wednesday that it was in advanced discussions to sell its 99.1 percent stake in Geniki Bank, one of Greece’s biggest financial institutions, to Piraeus Bank of Greece.