Headlines

China will speed up the introduction of more policies to consolidate its economic recovery, state media CCTV reported on Wednesday, citing a cabinet meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang, after the economy showed tentative signs of stabilising, Reuters reported. With a flurry of support steps kicking in, the $18 trillion economy showed better-than-expected figures including bank lending, industrial production and consumption gauges last month, but the wobbling property sector still weighs on its economic outlook.

Fund managers keen to restart the lucrative collateralized loan obligation-making (CLO) machine are having to stretch the bounds of what counts as collateral behind these deals, Bloomberg News reported. The CLO machine broke down last year as the supply of leveraged loans dried up. Loans typically emerge from private equity led buyouts — but many M&A deals were stranded in Europe earlier this year as valuation expectations diverged. CLOs in Europe are now backed by a record 16% of junk bonds, according to data by Morgan Stanley.

Argentina's economy shrank 4.9% in the second-quarter of 2023 versus the year-ago period, the country's statistics agency said on Tuesday, slightly missing analysts' forecast of a 4.8% contraction and posting the first break in growth for years, Reuters reported. Tuesday's result marks the first time the country's growth was in the red since 2020. The agricultural sector registered the highest drop, with a 40.2% decrease compared to the same period the previous year.

Inflation in Britain slowed for a third consecutive month in August, unexpectedly continuing its downward trend despite a jump in fuel prices, the New York Times reported. Consumer prices rose 6.7 percent last month compared with a year earlier, slightly slower than the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. Economists had expected inflation to rise following a global surge in energy prices.

The Bank of Canada on Tuesday said recent volatility in headline inflation is not unusual but the underlying trend shown by core measures was inconsistent with bringing inflation down to the 2% target, Reuters reported. Earlier on Tuesday, August inflation figures showed a jump in the headline number to 4.0% from 3.3% in July - higher than most analysts had forecast - on rising gasoline prices. "Ups and downs of the size we've seen in the past couple of months are not that unusual," Deputy Governor Sharon Kozicki said in a speech at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan.

New Zealand’s economy probably emerged from a shallow recession in the second quarter as a surge in immigration fueled growth, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product increased 0.4% in the three months through June, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. From a year earlier, the economy expanded 1.2%, the survey shows. Statistics New Zealand publishes the report at 10:45 a.m. Thursday in Wellington.

The German government and European politicians in Brussels are leaning on Germany’s largest companies to reduce their exposure to China. The companies are instead doubling down, the Wall Street Journal reported. As government pressure intensifies, German companies with sizable Chinese operations in recent months have been scrambling to insulate those businesses from possible Western sanctions.

U.S. authorities are seeking evidence from Credit Suisse to assess whether the bank misled investors about its financial health as it teetered towards a state-backed rescue by UBS six months ago, Reuters reported. Credit Suisse "has received requests for documents and information" from agencies including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Justice Department and Swiss regulator FINMA, UBS said in a financial filing on Aug. 31. In the note, part of UBS's 124-page second-quarter report, UBS also said that three U.S.

Mexico's economy grew in August by 3.4% compared with the same month a year earlier, and by 0.2% from the previous month, according to a preliminary estimate published by national statistics agency INEGI on Tuesday, Reuters reported. A breakdown of INEGI's preliminary data showed that secondary activities, which include manufacturing, increased in August by 4.8% on the year, while tertiary activities, which encompass the service sector, were up by 2.8%. Read more.

Brazil’s development bank BNDES plans to provide 20 billion reais ($4.1 billion) in funds for infrastructure projects this year, two-thirds more than in 2022 and mostly through the purchase of local debt issued by companies that invest in the sector, Bloomberg News reported. The strategy is aimed at encouraging private investors to join in the purchase of infrastructure bonds, increasing the impact of financing by BNDES, according to Felipe Borim Villen, deputy managing director of infrastructure at the bank.