Headlines

Global growth will see a slight improvement compared to previous International Monetary Fund projections but “many challenges still cloud the horizon, and it is too early to celebrate,” the organization's chief economist said Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. IMF economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas gave his assessment as the organization projected that global economic growth will slow to an estimated 3% in 2023 and 2024, down from 3.5% in 2022.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV shareholders had little choice but to vote to dissolve the shell of the scandal-hit global retailer on Wednesday, drawing a line under a 5-1/2 year saga that turned into a windfall for lawyers and advisers, Bloomberg News reported. Those who have held stock via listings in Frankfurt or Johannesburg stand to gain little after the creditors who control the company get paid. But outside parties have received €447 million ($495 million) since late 2017, according to annual reports, and managers have also continued to be remunerated.

National Company Law Tribunal has appointed EY-backed Shailendra Ajmera as resolution professional (RP) of Coffee Day Global, according to an order uploaded on its website, the Economic Times of India reported. The bankruptcy court has admitted Coffee Day Global company for insolvency proceedings on the behest of IndusInd Bank, which filed a claim in court that the company had defaulted on term loans of Rs 115 crore that were disbursed to it in 2019. Ajmera is also the resolution professional of insolvent Wadia group airline, Go First.

Brazil’s credit score was upgraded by Fitch Ratings as the emergence of a new fiscal framework stokes expectations for further reform, Bloomberg News reported. Fitch raised the South American nation’s debt rating to BB from BB- on Wednesday, putting it two notches below investment grade and on par with Guatemala and Vietnam. The outlook is stable. “Brazil has achieved progress on important reforms to address economic and fiscal challenges,” analysts including Todd Martinez and Shelly Shetty wrote in a statement.

More than one in five young people in China are jobless. The government casts much of the blame on the job seekers themselves, insisting that their expectations have gotten too high, the Wall Street Journal reported. Young people need to stiffen their spines and embrace hardship, says leader Xi Jinping, who labored in the countryside in China’s Cultural Revolution. If they can’t find jobs they want, they should work on factory lines or engage in poverty relief in rural China. The government’s guidance is ringing hollow with many young people.

City AM, the London-based business newspaper, is close to calling in administrators after a weeks-long search for a buyer failed to produce a solvent deal, SkyNews.com reported. Sky News has learnt that the directors of the title's parent company are preparing to appoint BDO, the accountancy firm, to commence an insolvency process in the coming days.

BRON, the Canadian holding company for animation studio Bron Digital, live-action production company Bron Studios, and feature film studio Bron Creative has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. and creditor’s protection in Canada, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Citing the pandemic as well as the current WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes, the company “had no choice but to take this step in light of its financial circumstances,” said CEO Aaron Gilbert in a letter to shareholders.

The Romanian Ministry of Economy announced that it sanctioned the tour operator Kusadasi with a fine and, in addition, withdrew its operating license following the inspection carried out after the agency filed for insolvency, Romania-Insider.com reported. Inspections found that the tour operator sold travel services whose total value exceeds the sum insured by guarantee instruments, thus breaching provisions of Art. 18, paragraph (1) of Government Ordinance nr. 2/2018.

The International Monetary Fund is working with Argentina to help stop its 116% inflation rate getting significantly worse, the Fund’s top economist said, Bloomberg News reported. “Inflation numbers at that level is always a very, very worrisome sign,” Chief Economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said Tuesday, in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

UBS Group AG will pay a total of about $387 million in fines related to misconduct by Credit Suisse Group AG in its dealings with Archegos Capital Management as the new owner of the collapsed Swiss rival starts picking up its legal tab, Bloomberg News reported. In a consent order with the Federal Reserve, UBS agreed to pay $268.5 million for “unsafe and unsound counterparty credit-risk management practices” at Credit Suisse, which UBS acquired in June.