Headlines

Colombia is on track for its widest fiscal deficit since the Covid-19 pandemic as falling tax revenues leave a hole in the nation’s finances, Bloomberg News reported. The government said Friday it will target a 2024 deficit of 5.6% of gross domestic product this year, from a previous target of 5.3%. The peso and local currency bonds have dropped in recent days as nervous investors ditch the nation’s assets amid concerns over the ballooning fiscal deficit. The government will trim its 2024 budget by 20 trillion pesos ($5 billion), Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla said.

Germany's biggest industrial union said Monday it will seek a 7% pay increase for millions of workers in negotiations starting later this year, arguing that companies including automakers and machinery manufacturers are in a position to afford it, the Associated Press reported.

Argentina's largest oil union said on Saturday it will strike for 48 hours starting Tuesday to demand higher salaries, a move that will affect production at the giant Vaca Muerta shale formation, Reuters reported. The Vaca Muerta hydrocarbon formation is the world's second-largest shale gas reserve and the fourth largest for shale oil, and plays a central role in Argentina's plan to reverse a significant deficit in its energy trade balance and become a net energy exporter.

Emerging nations are contending with a staggering $29 trillion in public debt. Fifteen countries are spending more on interest payments than they do on education, according to a new report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; 46 spend more on debt payments than they do on health care, the New York Times reported. Unmanageable debts have been a recurring feature of the modern global economy, but the current wave may well be the worst so far. Overall, government debt worldwide is four times what it was in 2000.

In the first three months of the year 5,209 companies filed for bankruptcy in Germany, the Federal Statistical Office on Friday, continuing an upward trend, DPA International reported. This year's first quarter figure was 26.5% higher than in the same quarter last year. It was also 11.2% higher than in same quarter in 2020, before the coronavirus forced closures across the country. In May 2024, 25.9% more regular insolvencies were filed than a year earlier. Since June 2023, double-digit year-on-year growth rates have been recorded, according to the government statisticians.

The French government has offered to buy some of Atos SE’s operations in its big data and security unit for an enterprise value of €700 million ($751 million) as part of discussions to restructure the embattled IT company, Bloomberg News reported. The non-binding bid, part of talks previously disclosed in April, is for the company’s supercomputers, “mission-critical” systems and cybersecurity activities in the Atos unit known as BDS, the company said in a statement on Friday. No final deal has been reached and discussions are continuing.

U.K. fashion retailer Superdry has managed to avoid insolvency after shareholders backed a £10mn lifeline on Friday, the Financial Times reported. The results of the meeting with investors come after the company warned in April that it could go bust unless it launched a sweeping restructuring of the business, including negotiating rent reductions with landlords, and said it would delist from the London stock market.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has issued a notice to SpiceJet over an insolvency plea filed by Engine Lease Finance BV, an aircraft engine lessor of the debt-ridden air carrier, the Economic Times of India reported. The single-member NCLT bench has asked SpiceJet to file a response over the Engine Lease Finance (ELF) plea and directed listing the matter for hearing on August 2. During the proceedings, SpiceJet raised objections over the maintainability of the plea, in which ELF has claimed a payment default of over USD 12 million (around Rs 100 crore).

The Regional Court in Ostrava has opened insolvency proceedings with the Liberty Ostrava Steelworks, the largest steel producer in Czechia, Radio Prague International reported. The insolvency petition was filed by the company itself which said it was unable to meet overdue liabilities exceeding CZK 5 billion. Liberty has been struggling with severe financial problems since last autumn. Most of its operations have been closed since December of last year.

Lawyers appointed by the liquidators of China Evergrande Group (3333.HK), opens new tab are investigating some of the property developer's service providers including its former auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, to potentially recoup losses for creditors, Reuters reported. Evergrande, once China's largest property developer, was ordered to be liquidated by a Hong Kong court in January, after it failed to deliver a concrete restructuring plan for its $23 billion worth of offshore debt deemed to be in default.