Headlines

Dubai is reprimanding BitOasis, one of the largest crypto platforms focused on customers in the Middle East, for failing to meet mandated conditions set forth by the local regulator, Bloomberg News reported. The emirate, which pitches itself as a global crypto hub, has been tightening scrutiny of license seekers since last year’s bankruptcy of FTX. Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority issued an alert on Monday, saying it initiated an enforcement action against BitOasis.

Billionaire Gautam Adani is weighing a bid for the coal-fired power plants belonging to beleaguered Indian tycoon Anil Ambani that are currently being auctioned by an Indian bankruptcy court, Bloomberg News reported. Adani, fresh from a $2.8 billion capital raising, may face intense competition for Vidarbha Industries Power Ltd., which operates the 600-megawatt generation facilities in central India, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the plans are private. Ambani’s Reliance Power Ltd.

The State Bank of India-led lenders on the monitoring committee of debt laden airline Jet Airways on Monday told the Supreme Court that the Jalan Fritsch consortium’s approved resolution plan has been rendered “unviable” and “unworkable” as nothing has been paid to it so far and even no money has been infused for the revival of the grounded carrier, the Economic Times of India reported.

Egypt has signed contracts to sell stakes in state assets worth a total of $1.9 billion as part of a programme to boost the private sector and raise scarce hard currency, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The contracts include a deal to sell minority stakes in three companies to Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ for $800 million, and a deal to raise $700 million by increasing the capital of a company that owns a group of hotels in Egypt, said Planning Minister Hala el-Said.

China’s new loans accelerated in June after a central bank interest rate cut in the middle of the month aimed at boosting credit demand, Bloomberg News reported. Aggregate financing, a broad measure of credit, was 4.2 trillion yuan ($583 billion), the People’s Bank of China said Tuesday. That was higher than the median estimate of 3.1 trillion yuan in a Bloomberg survey of economists, and compares with 5.2 trillion yuan in the same month a year ago.

Brazil's annual inflation in June fell to its lowest level since September 2020, data from statistics agency IBGE showed on Tuesday, renewing bets that an interest rate cut is around the corner as consumer prices continue to trend down, Reuters reported. Annual inflation in Latin America's largest economy slowed to 3.16% in June from 3.94% in May, in line with a market consensus of 3.17%. Prices fell 0.08% on a month-on-month basis, the first deflation registered since September of last year.

Deutsche Bank said on Tuesday that it now expects the Bank of England to raise interest rates by half a percentage point at its August meeting, Reuters reported. Data released earlier in the day showed a key measure of British wages rose at the joint fastest pace on record. "For now, evidence of still more persistent wage pressures will keep the MPC's foot on the accelerator," Deutsche said in a note, referring to the BoE's rate setting body. "A second consecutive 50-bp hike now looks more likely than not.

The European Union and Australia have failed to conclude talks on a planned free trade agreement, a European Commission spokesperson said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The EU and Australia opened negotiations in 2018 and had hoped to conclude talks this week. However, differences remained, particularly over the degree to which the EU will open its markets to Australian farm products, notably beef. "We regret it was not possible to conclude our talks with Australia this week. We made progress but more work is required to address key outstanding issues," the spokesperson said.

Some 27 percent of nursing homes and related service facilities in Japan may go bankrupt or shut down operations in a few years if soaring prices and utility costs continue to put pressure on them, according to a survey by nursing care groups, Kyodo News reported. "Nursing care facilities are not able to pass along cost increases to consumers in the same way as other companies, and this has a significant impact on their business," said an official of Minkaikyo, an association of nursing care providers.

The quarterly MNP Consumer Debt Index out this morning showed that Canadians who report being insolvent have reached a record high, the Financial Post reported. More than half of the 2,000 Canadians interviewed for the survey conducted by Ipsos reported that they were $200 or less away from not being able to meet their financial obligations, up six percentage points from the last quarter.