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The last time a freshly minted Labour government unabashedly campaigned on an ambitious national industrial policy to revive the British economy was 50 years ago, and the results were generally viewed as disastrous, the New York Times reported. The 1974 program of subsidies, state ownership and power sharing among business, unions and government resulted in strikes that paralyzed the nation. And the government’s goal of picking industrial winners turned into a policy of backing losers like the automaker British Leyland and British Steel Corporation.

Inflation in New Zealand softened by more than expected in the three months through June, raising the prospect that the official cash rate could be cut as soon as next month, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices rose by 0.4% in the second quarter of this year, and by 3.3% from the same period a year earlier, Stats NZ said Wednesday. The annual rise was lower than the 3.6% increase expected by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, which has turned more dovish recently as the South Pacific economy struggles to emerge from a postpandemic slump.

Chinese developer Hopson Development Holdings Ltd. has received a maturity extension of a loan from 2023 that backed the purchase of some commercial real estate space in a Hong Kong office building, Bloomberg News reported. Seatown Holdings Pte Ltd., a subsidiary of Singaporean sovereign fund Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd., has extended around $100 million to $115 million of a $165 million loan for Hopson. The developer had paid down a portion of the facility, originally due in May, to obtain a lower interest rate.

The World Trade Organization said on Wednesday that it was unable to get a clear picture of China's financial support for key industrial sectors, such as electric vehicles or aluminium and steel production due to an "overall lack of transparency," Reuters reported. The WTO noted that the world's second-largest economy gave financial support and other incentives to industries over the 2021-2024 review period but said that Beijing did not provide enough information for the WTO to have a clear picture of the programmes.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva cast doubt on the need to meet Brazil’s fiscal targets, saying in an interview with a local TV station that he is “not obligated to set a goal and stick to it” if he decides he “has more important things to do,” Bloomberg News reported. “It’s just a matter of vision,” Lula said in the Tuesday interview with Record TV. “This country has no problem if it is a zero deficit, if it is a 0.1% deficit, if it is a 0.2% deficit. There is no problem for the country.

A fresh wave of tariffs could revive inflation and pressure central banks to keep their key interest rates high, the International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. In its latest report on the outlook for the global economy, the Fund said borrowing costs could also be pushed higher by a series of elections that may lead to a surge in already high levels of government borrowing. The Fund left its forecast for world economic growth this year unchanged at 3.2%, and raised its forecast for next year to 3.3% from 3.2%.

With many Canadian homeowners facing a sharp rise in mortgage payments, many of them have decided to bail, resulting in the highest number of Toronto housing units for sale in more than a decade and signaling a big drop in prices in the coming months, Reuters reported. In Toronto, a city where two-thirds of the country's condominiums are sold, considered a bellwether for other big metropolitan areas, inventories have pushed past highs reached 10 years ago, data showed. At the same time, sales have lagged.

The number of companies filing for bankruptcy in Finland continues to climb, with June witnessing a significant rise. A total of 252 bankruptcy filings were recorded, an increase of 13 compared to the same month last year. The service sector remains the hardest hit, accounting for approximately half of all filings, the Helsinki Times reported. This upward trend in bankruptcy filings has been ongoing for over two years.

Atos agreed to 1.675 billion euros ($1.83 billion) of financing as part of its restructuring plan, backed by a group of banks and bondholders, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The French IT firm said on Monday that interim financing of EUR800 million is secured, providing the liquidity necessary to fund the business until close of the financial restructuring plan, and that EUR450 million is already accessible by the company.

An Indian tribunal on Tuesday started insolvency proceedings for edtech firm Byju's after the country's cricket board complained about failure to recover $19 million in dues, dealing another blow to a company that was once India's biggest startup, Reuters reported. Byju's has suffered numerous setbacks in the past few years, leading to a crisis of investor confidence, thousands of job cuts and a collapse in its valuation to less than $3 billion from $22 billion in 2022.