Headlines

Finnish e-bike drive system Revonte has filed for bankruptcy and is selling its IP, Tech.EU reported. The startup successfully raised a €2 million Seed round in 2019 but has struggled to secure further funding forcing the decision. The unease in the e-bike market could be a result of the slowdown of sales post-Covid boom but it might also be about time there is some consolidation in the market — for companies like Revonte their hand has been forced in these trickier fundraising times.

Brazil is bringing an urgent message to next week’s meetings of the International Monetary Fund: Western-backed lenders must give developing nations more say if they want to remain relevant, Bloomberg News reported. A major redistribution of IMF quotas to correct the underrepresentation of large emerging-market economies has been a decades-old demand from Brazil and other key developing countries, but the price of inaction is growing higher, according to Tatiana Rosito, international affairs secretary at the Brazilian Finance Ministry.

Poland’s central bank lowered its key interest rate Wednesday, pointing to a drop in inflation despite a still-high rate of 8.2% last month, raising concerns about the cut being a political move, the Associated Press reported. The National Bank of Poland cut its benchmark rate a quarter of a percentage point to 5.75%. Analysts were expecting it after annual inflation dropped last month from 10.1% in August. Inflation was over 18% earlier this year. It was the second rate cut since Sept. 9, when the central bank surprisingly slashed rates by three-quarters of a point.

Newly licensed private businesses are becoming a lifeline for Cuba, bringing in about half of the country’s total food imports as the cash-strapped Communist government struggles to keep power plants running and provide public transport because of acute fuel shortages, the Wall Street Journal reported. Havana passed laws allowing Cubans to form small businesses that can employ up to 100 people in the wake of countrywide protests that shook the impoverished island two years ago. Since then, more than 8,000 small and midsize businesses have registered with the government.

After weathering decades of deflation and stagnant growth, Japan is seeing an investment boom that has made apartments in central Tokyo unaffordable for young Japanese professionals, Reuters reported. The flood of investment drove the average price for a new condominium in central Tokyo up 60% to a record 129.6 million yen ($865,000) in the first half of this year, according to the Real Estate Economic Institute. For locals, the surge in prices has made Tokyo the second most unaffordable city worldwide, only behind Hong Kong, according to a UBS global real estate report.

The Dominican Republic's economy is expected to grow 3% this year, its presidency said in a statement on Wednesday, marking a slowdown from previous levels and below recent forecasts, Reuters reported. The growth forecast would mark a slowdown from the 4.9% posted last year and the International Monetary Fund's June estimate of 4%. The IMF had forecast that growth would return to around 5% next year. The Caribbean country's inflation should meanwhile remain "within normal parameters" this year, the presidency said in the statement.

South Africa's overall mining profits slipped by more than $5 billion in the last financial year, while the country that was once the world's largest gold producer might have less than 30 years of a viable gold industry left without renewed investment, according to a new report by big four auditing firm PwC, the Associated Press reported. The report released Tuesday also estimated that South Africa's iron ore mining industry may only last 13 more years without further commitment from companies to identify, pursue and extract new deposits.

Quantitative easing, the policy tool deployed across the Group of Seven to stimulate economies through the financial crisis and pandemic, is rapidly falling out of favor in Britain, Bloomberg News reported. From politicians and the finance minister to economists and a former Bank of England governor, many are cooling rapidly on the merits of the tool as its cost to taxpayers and side effects become apparent. The result is likely to make it more difficult for the UK central bank to pull the QE lever in the same way again if the economy sours.

The lenders of Future Retail Ltd have rejected the bid submitted by Space Mantra for the debt-ridden firm, which is currently going through Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), the Economic Times of India reported. The Resolution Plan submitted by Space Mantra for Future Retail Ltd (FRL), failed to get the required number of votes in the e-voting process of the Committee of creditors (CoC). It was put "for the consideration of the CoC on July 19, 2023...

The number of instances of greenwashing by banks and financial services companies around the world rose 70% in the past 12 months from the previous 12 months, a report on Tuesday showed, Reuters reported. European financial institutions accounted for most instances and much of the greenwashing involved claims about fossil fuels.