Headlines
Resources Per Region
China Evergrande Group’s chief agitator calling for its liquidation is suddenly backpedaling, but the line of creditors who may take up the torch doesn’t end there, Bloomberg News reported. In Hong Kong’s insolvency system, liquidation lawsuits often start with a creditor’s petition. Top Shine Global Limited of Intershore Consult (Samoa) Ltd., one of Evergrande’s creditors, took up the petitioner’s role, only to surprisingly demur at what was assumed to be a final liquidation hearing Monday.
Read more
In January, more than 100 financial sleuths were dispatched to the Guangzhou headquarters of China Evergrande Group, a real estate giant that had defaulted a year earlier under $300 billion of debt. Its longtime auditor had just resigned, and a nation of home buyers had directed its ire at Evergrande, the New York Times reported. Police on watch for protesters stood guard outside the building, and the new team of auditors were issued permits to get in.
Read more
Another European Central Bank hike in borrowing costs probably won’t happen in light of last week’s consumer-price data, according to Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel, Bloomberg News reported. “The most recent inflation number has made a further rate increase rather unlikely,” she said in an interview with Reuters that was transcribed on the ECB’s website. The typically hawkish ECB official spoke days after a report showed euro-area consumer-price growth slowed to 2.4%, far less than economists had anticipated.
Read more
Brazil's economy avoided contraction in the third quarter, extending a run of better-than-expected growth, even as it slowed sharply due to falling investment and the fading impact of a robust harvest to start the year, Reuters reported. Latin America's largest economy grew by a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in the three months through September, government statistics agency IBGE said on Tuesday. Economists had forecast a 0.2% drop in a Reuters poll.
Read more
The Turkish Central Bank's total reserves have jumped to a record level exceeding $140 billion, five bankers' calculations showed on Tuesday, sustaining an uptrend after it adopted more orthodox policies following May elections, Reuters reported. The rising reserves, alongside 3,150 basis points in interest rate hikes since June, have marked a departure from years of unorthodox and at times erratic policymaking - and some foreign investors are taking note. Including the latest rise of $3.5-3.8 billion in the week to Dec.
Read more
Brazil's central bank chief, Roberto Campos Neto, said on Monday that the bank successfully overcame some challenges to its autonomy posed by the new administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, despite what he termed some "noises" in the past year, Reuters reported. Speaking at an institutional event, he said the central bank managed to maintain decisions based on technical guidelines throughout this new government in which, for the first time, the new executive branch had to coexist with a central bank chief chosen by the previous administration.
Read more
Australia’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged at its final meeting of the year on Tuesday as cooling inflation and a softening labor market suggest its policy tightening to date is gaining traction, Bloomberg News reported. Markets showed disappointment at the neutral tone of the post-meeting statement, sending the currency and government bond yields lower after the Reserve Bank held its cash rate at a 12-year high of 4.35%, as anticipated. “Higher interest rates are working to establish a more sustainable balance between aggregate supply and demand,” Governor Michele Bullock said.
Read more
South Korea’s consumer inflation cooled more than expected in November, offering central bank authorities latitude to moderate their hawkish policy tilt going into next year, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 3.3% from a year earlier, decelerating from 3.8% growth in October, the statistics office reported Tuesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting inflation to slow to 3.5%. The slowdown comes as oil price gains moderate while demand for agricultural products cools in the wake of the Chuseok holiday period.
Read more
Local authorities are at risk of bankruptcy if funding from the Scottish government is not improved, council leaders have said, BBC.com reported. Cosla issued the warning in a briefing paper ahead of the Scottish budget on 19 December. The local government body said councils need nearly £14.4bn in the budget just to "stand still". The Scottish government said it had given councils a real-terms increase of £376m, or 3%, this year. Cosla's comments came after Birmingham and Nottingham city councils effectively declared themselves bankrupt.
In a relief to low-cost carrier SpiceJet, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday dismissed an insolvency petition by aircraft lessor Willis Lease Finance Corporation which is claiming dues, the Business Standard reported. A two-member Delhi-based NCLT bench rejected the plea moved by U.S.-based Willis Lease Finance Corporation after SpiceJet questioned the maintainability of the petition. SpiceJet opposed the plea contending that Willis Lease Finance Corp. has withdrawn its insolvency plea for the same dispute in March 2023 and has approached again with a new plea.