Headlines

The United Arab Emirates' highest court Tuesday ordered a British hedge fund trader convicted of orchestrating a $1.7 billion tax fraud to pay that amount to Denmark's tax authority, the Associated Press reported. Financier Sanjay Shah was convicted in a lower court of masterminding a scheme that ran from 2012 to 2015. Under it, foreign businesses pretended to own shares in Danish companies and claimed tax refunds for which they were not eligible. He was arrested in Dubai last year.

The European Union's executive body said on Wednesday it has formally adopted a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) to allow financial regulators from Britain and the bloc to cooperate more closely, though stopping short of market access, Reuters reported. Britain has left the EU, largely severing its financial sector's previously unfettered access to the bloc. As part of Britain's Brexit terms with the bloc, the EU agreed to formalise cooperation between financial watchdogs, but it was put on hold by Brussels following disagreements between the bloc and Britain over Northern Ireland.

The UK government laid out a series of extra protections for tenants in the biggest shake-up of the private rental market for a generation, Bloomberg News reported. Under the Renters’ Reform Bill introduced to Parliament on Wednesday, the government will abolish the existing “section 21” provision allowing landlords to remove tenants via so-called no-fault evictions, according to a statement from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. It will also give renters more power to challenge poor living standards without fear of losing their homes.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has set aside the insolvency proceedings against leading bulk tea producer McLeod Russel following a settlement between the promoter and IL&FS Infrastructure Debt Fund, the Economic Times of India reported. A supplementary affidavit was filed before NCLAT by the appellant (Aditya Khaitan), whereby an agreement between the parties dated May 5, 2023 was brought on record.

China’s post-Covid growth spurt is sputtering and its youth unemployment rate hit a record high, signaling trouble for a recovery that was expected to boost global growth, the Wall Street Journal reported. A bundle of economic indicators for April, including retail sales, factory production and fixed-asset investment, fell short of economists’ expectations, according to data released Tuesday by China’s National Bureau of Statistics. Investment in the country’s property sector also dropped in the first four months of the year.

The Philippines central bank will likely leave its key interest rate unchanged at 6.25% on Thursday, and keep it there for the rest of 2023, marking an end to a year-long tightening cycle as inflation shows signs of cooling, a Reuters poll found. Although annual inflation slowed to 6.6% in April from a peak of 8.7% in January, it remained well above the central bank's target range of 2-4%, suggesting the cumulative rate hikes of 425 basis points are yet to have an impact.

Brazil's Finance Minister Fernando Haddad emphasized on Wednesday that there is room for interest rate cuts in the country, contrasting the central bank chief's acknowledgment of ongoing challenges in achieving disinflation, Reuters reported. "My understanding that there is room for a cut cycle is no offense," he said during a hearing at the Lower House, adding that he is not questioning the central bank's power to set rates.

SAS's rescue has moved a step closer after a U.S. court approved a revised plan from the Scandinavian airline to raise equity, Reuters reported. The long-suffering airline filed for chapter 11 protection last year. The court approval of the fundraising proposal - a key element of the "SAS Forward" rescue plan - means investors may start placing bids for a stake in the airline.

Inflation unexpectedly reaccelerated in Canada but core measures continued to ease, potentially giving the central bank room to keep rates on pause as it waits for the tight labor market to cool, Bloomberg News reported. The consumer price index rose 4.4% in April from a year ago, the first increase in the rate of headline inflation since June 2022, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday in Ottawa. That’s faster than the 4.1% gain expected in a Bloomberg survey of economists, and up from 4.3% in March.

European Union states on Tuesday gave the final nod to the world's first comprehensive set of rules to regulate cryptoassets on Tuesday, piling pressure on countries such as Britain and the United States to play catch up, Reuters reported. An EU finance minister meeting in Brussels approved rules that were thrashed out with the European Parliament, which gave its approval in April. The rules are expected to be rolled out from 2024. Regulating crypto has become more urgent for regulators after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.