Headlines

Mexico’s annual inflation eased roughly in line with expectations in early August, a positive sign for the central bank as it continues holding its interest rate at a record high to slow price growth, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 4.67% in the first half of the month compared to the same period a year earlier, down from 4.78% in late July, the national statistics institute reported Thursday.

Indonesia’s central bank tapped tools other than interest rates to help the rupiah weather an emerging-market selloff triggered by the prospect of tighter US monetary policy, Bloomberg News reported. Bank Indonesia Thursday kept the benchmark seven-day reverse repurchase rate at a four-year high of 5.75%. While the decision was widely expected, Governor Perry Warjiyo announced a new tool to attract foreign funds to support the local currency. The decision came as data compiled by Bloomberg showed investors sold $127 million worth of Indonesian bonds so far this August.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Wednesday defended its plan to cut off a Puerto Rican lender's access to the U.S. central banking system following a federal crackdown on banks with links to Venezuela, Reuters reported. In July, Banco San Juan Internacional (BSJI) sued the New York Fed to halt the looming termination of its "master account," which lets banks access the Fed's electronic payment system, because of concerns about its compliance with U.S. sanctions and anti-money laundering rules.

The International Monetary Fund’s executive board approved a $7.5 billion disbursement to Argentina on Wednesday, extending a financial lifeline to the cash-strapped government ahead of a tight presidential race, Bloomberg News reported. The cash payments are part of a refinanced $44 billion program, the lender’s largest, that endured months of negotiations amid political uncertainty and wrangling over economic policy.

Brazil has submitted a proposal to Argentina aimed at securing Chinese yuan guarantees for Brazilian exports to the neighboring country in an initiative involving state-run lender Banco do Brasil , Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said yesterday, Reuters reported. Banco do Brasil under the proposal would oversee the conversion of yuan back into Brazilian reais, based on provided guarantees, Haddad told a press conference in Johannesburg on the sidelines of the BRICS nation summit.

Sweden’s housing starts extended a plunge into the second quarter as lower home prices and rising construction costs put the brakes on building activity, Bloomberg News reported. Construction started on about 14,550 new homes in the first half of the year, which represents a 57% decline from the year-ago period, Statistics Sweden said on Thursday. Housing starts have been on a downward trajectory since last year, hit by one of the world’s biggest declines in residential property prices that’s in recent months leveled off.

Switzerland's financial regulator looked into the risk of money laundering at 30 banks this spring, FINMA said in an analysis published on Thursday, after identifying shortcomings in the area, Reuters reported. "In particular, an adequate definition of the money laundering risk tolerance, which forms the limiting framework of a robust risk analysis through set limits, was lacking in some cases," FINMA said. Read more.

The New Development Bank created by BRICS countries during a summit in Johannesburg this week can help finance African countries' projects to tackle their most urgent challenges, the new bank's president Dilma Roussef said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The BRICS countries are "good partners" for Africa, former Brazilian President Roussef said in a speech in Johannesburg.

At an unfinished Country Garden residential complex on the outskirts of the northern Chinese metropolis of Tianjin, construction has slowed to a dull whirr and a few idle workers roam a near-empty site, Reuters reported. "They haven't paid us since Chinese New Year (in January). We are all worried," said a labourer surnamed Wang, 50, who said he had stopped work at the Yunhe Shangyuan site last week. The sprawling complex is one of two projects Reuters visited on Friday in Tianjin, a port city of 14 million people about 135 km (84 miles) southeast of Beijing.

After months of underperforming the broader market, Canada’s Big Six banks are likely to continue struggling as expenses and loan-loss provisions rise and consumer finances deteriorate, Bloomberg News reported. Higher interest rates are expected to hurt lenders’ fiscal third-quarter earnings when they begin to report Thursday. Inflation data on both sides of the border have ratcheted up bets that central banks could raise rates further still, which would further erode spending power and borrowing demand.