Headlines

Argentina's monthly inflation rate for April is expected to clock in at 7.5% according to a Reuters poll of analysts, keeping the annual rate at its quickest pace since the country emerged from a hyperinflation crisis in the early 1990s, Reuters reported. Argentina, a major global grains supplier, is battling 12-month inflation above 100%, which is one of the highest rates globally. This is hurting the centre-left Peronist administration, which had hoped to ease financial pressure on voters ahead of a tough election challenge this October.

China's consumer prices rose at the slowest pace in more than two years in April, while factory gate deflation deepened, data showed on Thursday, suggesting more stimulus may be needed to boost a patchy post-COVID economic recovery, Reuters reported. The weak consumer price rise reinforces the signals from this week's trade data suggesting domestic demand remains lacklustre, while the deflationary impulse in producer prices underlines the strains on factories - a double-whammy for the world's second-biggest economy as it tries to shake off the COVID-induced damage.

China's securities watchdog on Thursday said that it was willing to work with its counterparts in the United States to promote regulatory cooperation on audits and safeguard the rights and interests of global investors, Reuters reported. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) was commenting a day after a U.S. accounting watchdog said that it found unacceptable deficiencies in audits of U.S.-listed Chinese companies. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) was commenting a day after a U.S.

Czech citizens will likely pay more for beer and medicine while businesses will face higher corporate taxes as part of a package of dozens of measures designed to keep the ballooning budget deficit under control, the government said today, the Associated Press. Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the proposed cuts, tax increases and austerity measures are necessary because the pace of the debt rise is “threatening.” Fiala said the measures should reduce the budget deficit for 2024 by 94 billion Czechs crowns ($4.4 billion) and for 2025 by 148 billion.

Manitoba (Canada) could see a spurt in people filing for bankruptcy over the summer months, an insolvency trustee warns, CBC.ca reported. New data from the federal government shows 200 individual Manitobans filed for bankruptcy in the first quarter of this year, which is up from the first quarters of 2021 and 2022. And experts say the second quarter could see even more.

The International Monetary Fund is in discussions with Ethiopian authorities, and any new program would require creditors' financial assurances, a spokeswoman said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The fund "welcomed" the progress toward restoring lasting peace in the East African country as well as the authorities' "homegrown economic reform agenda," said spokeswoman Julie Kozack in a scheduled press conference.

European lawmakers came a step closer to passing new rules regulating artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, following a crunch vote on Thursday where they agreed tougher draft legislation, Reuters reported. The European Union's highly anticipated AI Act looks set to be the world's first comprehensive legislation governing the technology, with new rules around the use of facial recognition, biometric surveillance, and other AI applications.

Go Airlines (India) Ltd was granted bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, bolstering the country's fourth largest carrier's chances of getting back on its feet, but lessors have started mounting legal challenges to repossess planes, Reuters reported. The low-cost carrier, recently rebranded as Go First, was plunged into financial crisis this year, sparked by what it called "faulty" Pratt & Whitney engines that grounded about half its 54 Airbus A320neos. The U.S. engine maker, part of Raytheon Technologies, in a statement said Go First's allegations were "without merit".

A European Union court toppled Germany’s massive bailout of Deutsche Lufthansa AG at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, backing Ryanair Holdings Plc’s claims that the package unfairly tilted competition toward its rival, Bloomberg News reported. Terms of a €6 billion-euro ($6.6 billion) recapitalization approved by the European Commission were too favorable to Lufthansa, and demands that Europe’s biggest network carrier forfeit take-off and landing rights in Frankfurt and Munich were structured in a way that didn’t provide a realistic chance for competition, the court ruled.

Sri Lankan authorities formally presented on Tuesday a request for debt treatment in the first meeting of the official bilateral creditors committee, the Paris Club said in a statement, Reuters reported. The committee, co-chaired by India, Japan and France, consists of 17 members and includes Paris Club creditors as well as other official bilateral creditors.