Headlines

A brief rebound in China’s struggling economy showed worrying new signs of flickering out, heaping pressure on Beijing to take bolder steps to rev up growth, the Wall Street Journal reported. Factory activity slid deeper into contraction in November as domestic and foreign orders dried up, while, in an ominous sign for consumer spending, activity in the services sector shrank for the first time this year, according to business surveys released Thursday. Only construction registered any expansion compared with the previous month as government spending on infrastructure increased.

Inflation in the eurozone fell to a new two-year low in November, dropping much faster than expected as a result of high interest rates and efforts by European countries to ease prices for energy and food, setting the stage for the European Central Bank to hold interest rates steady at its next meeting, the New York Times reported. Inflation in the 20 countries that use the euro fell to 2.4 percent in November from a year earlier, Europe’s statistics agency reported Thursday. Inflation over the year through October was 2.9 percent. Even so, consumers are still feeling the pinch.

Hungary has not made sufficient progress on the European Union's concerns about its respect for the rule of law for the EU to release frozen funds, the EU's budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The EU has frozen billions of euros that Hungary could receive from the EU's budget over concerns about corruption and the country's lack of respect for the independence of the judiciary and non-governmental organisations.

Euro-zone countries haven’t broken the link between public finances and banks that dominated the region’s sovereign debt crisis, and investors could refocus on that vulnerability next year, S&P Global Ratings said, Bloomberg News reported. Despite the establishment of common supervision and resolution mechanisms aimed to eradicate such dangers, the entangled relationship that bred turmoil in several members of the single currency is “here to stay,” the company said in a report on Thursday.

Canada’s economy unexpectedly contracted in the third quarter and consumption flatlined, confirming the central bank’s aggressive interest-rate hikes have slammed the brakes on growth, Bloomberg News reported. Even as preliminary data from Statistics Canada suggest gross domestic product rose 0.2% in October, after a better-than-expected 0.1% expansion the month before, Thursday’s report points to an economy that has substantially weakened. Third-quarter GDP fell at a 1.1% annualized pace, missing the 0.1% rise expected by economists and the Bank of Canada’s forecast of 0.8%.

Unemployment rates in Brazil and Mexico fell in October, as strong labor markets underpin the outperformance of Latin America’s largest economies in the face of high interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. Official data released Thursday showed Brazil’s unemployment rate declined to 7.6% from a month earlier, with the number of out-of-work people falling to 8.3 million — both figures the lowest since 2015. In Mexico, the jobless rate dropped to 2.75% in the same period. Robust job markets are helping to propel growth well above estimates from the start of the year.

A judge has dismissed a bankruptcy petition lodged by tax officials against former Liverpool and England footballer John Barnes, YahooFinance.com reported. Judge Mark Mullen was told by an official from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) at an Insolvency and Companies Court hearing on Wednesday that a tax debt had been paid and a settlement reached. But the judge was also told that Barnes, 60, was facing another claim, from the liquidators of a company he used to run.

Austrian tycoon Rene Benko’s Signa filed for insolvency after a last-ditch attempt to raise emergency funding failed, making the co-owner of New York’s Chrysler building one of the most prominent casualties of Europe’s property crisis, Bloomberg News reported. The filing is a bitter blow for the self-made mogul, who was known to boast that only the British royal family and the Catholic church could rival his array of exclusive properties.

More Dutch business owners are seeking help for financial problems despite the relatively low level of bankruptcy, Dutch News reported. The Dutch tax office has referred 1,465 companies this year to Over Rood, a volunteer-run organisation that helps companies in difficulty. In 2020, when the government bankrolled businesses that were unable to trade during lockdown, the number dropped to 607. The figure is relatively low despite the Netherlands being in recession, with the economy contracting in each of the first three quarters of 2023.

Sri Lanka said on Wednesday that it has reached an agreement in principle with a group of creditors including India and Japan on debt restructuring, a crucial move toward unlocking a second instalment of a $2.9 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund, the Associated Press reported. The agreement with the Official Creditor Committee covers approximately $5.9 billion of outstanding public debt and consists of a mix of long-term maturity extension and reduction in interest rates, a statement from the country's Finance Ministry said.