Headlines

A new report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) argues New Zealand to favour a capital gains tax, and lift the retirement age, The New Zealand Herald reported. The OECD's latest economic survey of New Zealand, published today, said lacklustre growth reflected structural shortcomings of the economy. As the 2000s progressed, the main sources of rising prosperity had increasingly become commodity-based terms of trade improvements, credit-fuelled capital gains on property, and rising government spending, the OECD said.

A fund controlled by billionaire investor Len Blavatnik has been asked to return EUR100 million ($145.8 million) to the bankruptcy estate of chemical giant LyondellBasell Industries, which emerged from Chapter 11 protection last year but left a trustee to file lawsuits to recover funds for the company's unsecured creditors, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In a lawsuit filed Friday with the U.S.

Struggling insurer AMI says it does not yet know if any government bailout will be necessary and its boss says it will be weeks before that becomes clear, The New Zealand Herald reported. John Balmforth, chief executive of Christchurch-headquartered AMI Insurance, said the outlook remained uncertain. "The purpose of the Government support was to provide our customers with confidence in AMI and provide us with time to fully assess the situation, particularly that relating to overall claims from the Christchurch 22 February earthquake.

HSBC on Monday became the latest foreign bank to pull out of retail banking in Russia as large state-owned banks have come to dominate a business that had been expected to provide a rich growth opportunity for foreign institutions, The New York Times DealBook blog reported. HSBC, Europe’s largest bank by assets, said it would close five retail branches in Moscow and St. Petersburg and focus instead on providing global lending services to industrial and corporate clients.

Quebec-based forestry company Tembec Inc. is liquidating its U.S. subsidiary, nearly four years after shuttering its Louisiana coated paper mill, The Canadian Press reported. Tembec USA, a division of the company that no longer has any operating assets, has applied to a U.S. bankruptcy court for Chapter 7 protection, Tembec announced Monday. Unlike Chapter 11, this section is designed for companies seeking liquidation rather than restructuring. Tembec said its U.S. division has US$81 million in debt and assets worth $1 million.

European Central Bank Chief Economist Juergen Stark said a debt restructuring by a euro country risked triggering a banking crisis that could “worst case” exceed the effects of the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., according to the transcript of an interview posted by German television station ZDF on its website, Bloomberg reported. There is “no painless way” for countries that sought aid to reduce debt, while a restructuring may cut off the respective country from the financial markets for an unforeseeable time, Stark was quoted as saying.

Collapsed insurer Western Pacific has had its policies cancelled by liquidators, The National Business Review reported. Western Pacific had 7000 policyholders, and entered liquidation on April 1 after receiving 78 claims following the Christchurch earthquake. Liquidators David Ruscoe and Simon Thorn of Grant Thornton said they were unable to sell, transfer or assign Western Pacific's business. "We disclaim the insurance policies as onerous property, the effect of which is the cancellation of all policies immediately," they said.

With the property market becoming toxic, government officials are considering forcing big commercial banks to create and finance a new firm that would purchase soured construction loans, The Korea Times reported. But it’s debatable whether the so-called ``bad’’ bank would be enough to defuse the risks to financial stability posed by the decaying construction and real-estate market when a recovery seems unlikely in the foreseeable future.

Lights in Lisbon’s finance ministry will burn late into the night this weekend as European Union, International Monetary Fund and Portuguese officials toil over the details of the country’s €80bn ($116bn) bail-out agreement, the Financial Times reported. Outside, the streets have been deserted since Thursday, when the caretaker government granted public administration workers an extra half-day holiday so they could leave early for the long Easter weekend.

As protests by truckers flared into a third day in China's biggest port city and shippers offered the first indications that trade is being slowed, idled trucks illustrated how inflation worries could gum up the world's No. 2 economy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The truckers' demonstrations and work stoppages, which began Wednesday, are perhaps the starkest sign yet of the widespread public frustration over inflation in China that has persisted despite six months of tightening moves by the government.