Headlines

Future Consumer Ltd, part of the debt-ridden Future Group, is facing an insolvency plea filed by Resurgent India Special Situations Fund before the NCLT, claiming defaults, the Economic Times of India reported. The company, already grappling with a significant liquidity crunch and defaults on loan repayments totaling Rs 558.73 crore, acknowledged the filing and stated it would make appropriate representations. Future Consumer Ltd, the FMCG company owned by debt-ridden Future Group, faces an insolvency plea filed before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

Canada’s top capital markets regulator has filed applications to push David and Natasha Sharpe, the husband-and-wife team who once ran private lender Bridging Finance Inc., into bankruptcy after they failed to pay millions of dollars in sanctions, Bloomberg News reported. The Ontario Securities Commission said on Wednesday that it filed to appoint a trustee over the couple’s assets.

The Philippine central bank lowered its policy rate for a third consecutive time to bolster the economy, as low inflation provides room to keep supporting growth, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas cut its benchmark overnight reverse repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 5.00%. It also lowered its benchmark lending rate, to 5.50% from 5.75%. A backdrop of benign price pressure gives policymakers the space to keep easing monetary settings to prop up weak growth.

The Philippine central bank lowered its policy rate for a third consecutive time to bolster the economy, as low inflation provides room to keep supporting growth, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas cut its benchmark overnight reverse repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 5.00%. It also lowered its benchmark lending rate, to 5.50% from 5.75%. A backdrop of benign price pressure gives policymakers the space to keep easing monetary settings to prop up weak growth.

India has had less than a month to adjust to the fact that President Trump deemed it “not a good trading partner” and deserving of punishment. After months of hopeful negotiations over the details about soybeans and trade surpluses, on July 30 India found out that it was getting stuck with a 25 percent rate. A week later, the other shoe dropped: An additional 25 percent penalty would be applied because India buys Russian crude oil, the New York Times reported. Those tariffs took full effect on Wednesday.

Mexico's government is set to raise tariffs on Chinese imports, including cars, textiles and plastics, as part of its 2026 budget proposal next month, Bloomberg News reported. The tariff increases may also target other Asian countries, according to sources.

Confidence in the eurozone’s economic outlook fell back as sluggish growth weighed on sentiment, with little hope of a major rebound ahead, surveys of households and business showed, the Wall Street Journal reported. The European Commission said Thursday that its economic sentiment indicator for the currency area edged down to 95.2 this month from 95.7 in July, thwarting economists’ expectations of a slight uptick in sentiment. Consumer confidence fell back, as did sentiment in industry and construction.

The European Commission proposed on Thursday removing tariffs on imported U.S. industrial goods, part of a trade agreement with the United States that should result in retroactive cuts to U.S. tariffs on European cars, Reuters reported. The proposals are the first EU step in enacting the framework agreement between U.S. President Donald Trump and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on July 27, which saw the EU accept a broad 15% tariff to avoid a damaging trade war.

South Korea's central bank expects a "significant" economic shock from higher U.S. tariffs even after a trade deal, it said on Thursday, citing comparably steeper tariff hikes versus rival exporters and high exposure to product-specific duties, Reuters reported. "Despite a comparably successful negotiation, the average tariff rate the U.S. imposes on our country rose greatly to around 15%, from zero tariffs under the previous Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement," the Bank of Korea (BOK) said in a report.

Brazil's central bank is not competing with financial or payment institutions through its operation and regulation of the widely used instant payments system Pix, said Renato Gomes, the institution's financial system organization director, Reuters reported. In remarks released by the central bank on Wednesday, Gomes said the institution "plays the role of a neutral agent, providing a public digital infrastructure that allows the market to develop more efficiently, inclusively and competitively." Pix is among the Brazilian trade practices under formal investigation by U.S.