Headlines

Germany saw a 10.7% increase in insolvencies in August compared to a year earlier, the federal statistics office reported on Wednesday, adding to data that show persistent difficulties for companies in Europe's largest economy, Reuters reported. The growth rate in insolvencies has been in double-digit territory since June 2023, with the exception of June 2024, when the year-on-year increase eased briefly to 6.3%, the office said. In the first half of 2024, German courts reported 10,702 corporate insolvencies, up 24.9% year on year, according to final data.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has suspended the order of the lower tribunal that admitted Essar Oil and Gas Exploration & Production Ltd under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process, the Economic Times of India reported. On Tuesday, the division bench of Justice Ashok Bhushan and technical members Barun Mitra and Arun Baroka, while suspending the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order observed that Section 9 Application has been resorted as a recovery mechanism which is not permissible under the IBC.

The board of ailing state-owned company Petroleos del Peru submitted its resignation on Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported. “As several days have passed without the government making a statement, the directors appointed by the general shareholders meeting, unanimously, have presented our resignation,” the members said in a statement.

China has opened a criminal investigation into Hywin Wealth Management Co. for alleged involvement in illegal fundraising, with “coercive measures” taken against multiple suspects at the firm, according to Shanghai police, Bloomberg News reported. The police didn’t specify on the measures in a statement that it released, but in China, “criminal coercive measures” could typically take the form of seizure or detention.

China's state council on Wednesday said it will issue concrete guidelines to strengthen supervision and prevent risks in the country's insurance industry, according to a statement, Reuters reported. The broad move will strictly approve the establishment of new insurance agencies, and improve the overall quality of the sector.

The Bank of Japan will continue to raise interest rates if inflation moves in line with its forecast, policymaker Junko Nakagawa said, signalling that last month's market rout has not derailed the bank's plan to hike borrowing costs steadily, Reuters reported. But the central bank must take into account the impact that such market moves could have on the outlook for the economy and prices when considering whether to raise rates, she added. Her comments pushed up the yen as markets took them as a renewed sign the BOJ could raise rates in coming months.

The Reserve Bank of Australia said it continues to anticipate the unemployment rate to rise only gradually over the coming months and for conditions in the job market to remain relatively tight, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Conditions in the labor market have eased since late 2022, but our assessment is that the labor market is still tight relative to full employment,” Sarah Hunter, RBA’s chief economist and Assistant Gov., told a financial markets conference Wednesday.

Britain's shift towards a services-dominated economy is accelerating, pushing manufacturing's share of economic output to a historic low and setting the nation apart from its global peers, Reuters reported. Recent data show the make-up of the world's sixth-biggest economy is changing fast, driven by global trends but also domestic factors such as Brexit and increasingly London-centric growth.

Hosting the Olympic Games gave a boost to France's service sector in August but the country's political crisis still clouds the economic outlook, the central bank said on Tuesday in its monthly business survey, Reuters reported. The euro zone's second-biggest economy is on course for underlying growth of 0.1-0.2% in the third quarter from the previous month, the Bank of France said, leaving its estimate unchanged. The Olympics could add another quarter percentage point of growth as the Games increased activity in hospitality, event management and security, particularly in the Paris region.