Headlines

The number of corporate bankruptcies with debts of at least ¥10 million in Japan in August dropped 4.8% from a year earlier to 723, down for the first time in two years and five months, Tokyo Shoko Research data have shown, the Japan Times reported. The figure stood below 800 for the first time in four months, according to the data, released Monday. Growing moves by companies to pass on higher costs reflecting a rise in inflation are believed to have led to the decrease in bankruptcies.

Europe must increase public investment by nearly $900 billion a year in sectors like technology and defense, according to a long-awaited report published Monday in response to growing anxieties about the continental economy’s lagging behind that of the United States and China, the New York Times reported. The challenge for the European Union is “existential,” Mario Draghi, a former president of the European Central Bank, said on Monday in Brussels.

Brazil’s annual inflation eased roughly in line with expectations in August, offering limited relief to a central bank that’s under pressure to lift interest rates to contain above-target price increases, Bloomberg News reported. Official data released Tuesday showed prices rose 4.24% from a year earlier, just below the 4.27% median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. On the month, inflation stood at -0.02%. The robust pace of growth in Latin America’s largest economy has investors betting that a hike to the benchmark Selic from its current level of 10.5% is imminent next week.

Global trade disruptions could make it harder for the Bank of Canada to consistently meet its 2% inflation target, and it will have to balance the risks of controlling higher prices with ensuring economic growth, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Inflation in Canada has been consistently falling this year, pushed down by interest rates that were at a two-decade high of 5% for more than a year before the central bank cut rates three times in a row from June.

Two major Chinese developers are moving closer to unveiling plans to overhaul their local debt, as defaulters shift their restructuring focus from global creditors, Bloomberg New reported. Representatives of Sunac China Holdings Ltd. and Logan Group Co. told creditors in recent days that they aim to finalize and present their debt proposals covering local bonds and loans in the coming months.

China’s exports in August beat expectations and accelerated despite growing trade barriers, giving Beijing a little breathing room in its efforts to lift domestic demand and reawaken the anemic economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. Outbound shipments in August rose 8.7% compared with the same period a year earlier, picking up from July’s 7.0% increase, the General Administration of Customs said on Tuesday.

The average household debt in Thailand is seen rising to the highest in at least 16 years as an uneven post-pandemic economic recovery hurts family incomes, according to a survey, Bloomberg News reported. The debt pile per household is set to jump 8.4% to 606,378 baht ($17,959) this year, according to a survey by the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce. That’s the highest family debt obligation since the university began the survey in 2009. The findings are based on survey of 1,300 respondents during Sept. 1 and 7.

Increased protectionism will hit the world’s poorest countries hardest, and is a costly and counterproductive way of protecting jobs in rich countries, the World Trade Organization said on Monday as it called for a period of “reglobaliziation” to reduce global inequality, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Australia’s banking regulator has proposed lenders scrap the use of AT1 bonds in capital requirements, potentially becoming the first jurisdiction to phase out the securities that were wiped out after Credit Suisse’s collapse last year, Bloomberg News reported. Replacing additional tier 1 bonds with existing, more reliable securities would simplify and improve the effectiveness of bank capital in a crisis, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority said in a statement on Tuesday.

Alternative asset manager Balbec Capital Management has bought a portfolio worth over €4 billion ($4.4 billion) of soured Portuguese loans from Luxembourg-based LX Partners, according to a statement seen by Bloomberg News. The portfolio has more than 300,000 restructured and non-performing loans, and its purchase is one of the largest such loan transactions in recent years, Balbec said. It’s one of the biggest portfolio purchases of non-performing loans for the firm since it was founded in 2010.