Headlines

Beijing is planning major steps to revive the country’s flagging economy, including the possibility of billions of dollars in new infrastructure spending, and looser rules to encourage property investors to buy more homes, the Wall Street Journal reported. The push follows a series of interest rate cuts by China’s central bank this week, including one on Thursday which cut a key policy rate for the first time since August, as fresh data showed the country’s economic recovery is flickering out.

The European Central Bank raised euro zone borrowing costs to their highest level in 22 years on Thursday and said stubbornly high inflation all but guaranteed another move next month and likely beyond that too, Reuters reported. The quarter-percentage-point move was the ECB's eighth consecutive interest rate hike since it badly misjudged the tenaciousness of price rises early last year, and took its policy rate to 3.5%, a level not seen since 2001.

Bedlam in Britain's 1.5 trillion-pound ($1.9 trillion) mortgage market, fuelled by ructions in money markets, threatens to trigger a renewed slump in housing activity and financial pain for homeowners on a par with the late 1980s, Reuters reported. Lenders have repeatedly re-priced and pulled home loan offerings in recent weeks in a scramble to keep up with soaring funding costs, spurred by expectations for more interest rate hikes from the Bank of England as it battles stubbornly high inflation.

Argentina's annual inflation rate topped 114% in May, but in a silver lining for the embattled South American country the monthly rise came in well below analyst forecasts and posted a surprise slowdown versus a peak the month before, Reuters reported. The monthly rise in the consumer price index (CPI) clocked in at 7.8%, the country's statistics agency said on Wednesday, well below analyst estimates of an 8.9% increase and under the 8.4% posted in April, the largest monthly rise in decades.

New Zealand slipped into recession as the economy shrank in the first quarter, data showed on Thursday, reducing the risk the central bank would need to hike interest rates further but creating a new headwind for the government's re-election hopes, Reuters reported. Gross domestic product (GDP) matched analysts' expectations of a 0.1% contraction in the March quarter but was well below the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's (RBNZ) forecast of 0.3% growth. Furthermore, fourth-quarter GDP was revised to a contraction of 0.7% from a decline of 0.6%.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction with Pakistan’s recently presented budget, a blow for the cash-strapped country which has only two weeks left until its bailout programme expires, Reuters reported. Pakistan has barely enough currency reserves to cover one month's imports. It had hoped to have $1.1 billion of the funds released in November - but the IMF has insisted on a number of conditions before it makes any more disbursements.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government stopped Canada’s work with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank while it investigates claims the institution faces substantial interference from the Chinese government, Bloomberg News reported. “Canada will immediately halt all government-led activity at the bank,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters Wednesday in Ottawa.

Two crypto lenders with links to South Korea halted withdrawals in quick succession, a reminder of lingering risks even after regulators around the world tightened oversight of the industry, Bloomberg News reported. Token prices appeared to shrug off the statements from Delio and Haru Invest, underlining the relatively small corner of the crypto lending market affected by the trouble at the two companies.

The bankruptcy regulator will prepare a "common panel" of insolvency professionals (IPs) from those registered with it and share the list in advance with the adjudicating authority to choose from to oversee various cases of resolution or liquidation from July 1, the Economic Times of India reported. At present, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) is required to recommend the IP's name only after receiving reference from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in a corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP).

The previous management team at Brazilian retailer Americanas SA carried out fraudulent accounting practices and hid them from investors and the board of directors, according to a filing on Tuesday and comments from the current chief executive officer, Bloomberg News reported. The former executive team, led by then Chief Executive Officer Miguel Gutierrez, created false advertising contracts as a way to reduce costs on the balance sheet that ballooned to 21.7 billion reais ($4.5 billion) as of Sept.