Headlines

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a decree establishing temporary control of the Russian assets of two foreign energy firms, signaling Moscow could take similar action against other companies if need be. The decree - outlining possible retaliation if Russian assets abroad are seized - showed Moscow had already taken action against Uniper SE's Russian division and the assets of Finland's Fortum Oyj. The decree said Russia needed to take urgent measures to respond to unspecified actions from the United States and others it said were "unfriendly and contrary to international law".

Credit Suisse Group earned solid marks for crisis preparedness as recently as last year, underscoring how quickly the plunge in confidence blindsided regulators and investors before the bank’s near collapse, Bloomberg News reported. “It is clear that there are important lessons to be learned from the Credit Suisse crisis for future crisis preparations,” Urban Angehrn, chief executive officer of Swiss financial markets regulator Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma), said in a statement on Wednesday (Apr 26). The regulator will “contribute to this objective”, he said.

China's cabinet on Wednesday unveiled plans to boost employment, including supporting financial institutions to offer loans to small firms and issuing subsidies to firms that hire college graduates or unemployed young people, Reuters reported. The world's second-largest economy reported better-than-expected growth in the first quarter after the lifting of stringent COVID-19 curbs, but the jobless rate for those aged 16 to 24 rebounded close to a record high in March, creating a headache for policymakers.

Should a slowing economy lead to a weak stock market? Not judging by the performance of South Korea’s benchmark index this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The country’s stock market is the best performer in Asia and one of the top indexes in the world so far this year. The Kospi Composite Index has risen more than 11% since Jan. 1, fueled by a rally in the shares of big technology companies such as Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc., which together account for a fifth of the index.

The UK received a record level of demand for debt that acts as protection against inflation, with concerns mounting that rising prices aren’t slowing down despite the Bank of England’s interest rate hikes, Bloomberg News reported. The £46 billion ($57 billion) order book for £4.5 billion of so-called inflation-linked notes sold on Wednesday was far bigger than any previous UK sale of similar debt tracked by Bloomberg. Data last week showed consumer prices in Britain accelerated 10.1% from a year ago, driven by the strongest increase in food costs in more than four decades.

Canadian inflation excluding food and energy costs is expected to remain above 3% until the fourth quarter of this year, the median forecast of seven economists recently surveyed by Reuters showed, which could dash hopes of an early Bank of Canada shift to cutting interest rates, Reuters reported. The readings for core, or underlying, inflation, such as the widely-tracked Consumer Price Index excluding food and energy, are showing greater persistence than the headline rate after price pressures spread from goods into slower-moving items, such as wages and services.

Some investors of Ghana's 2030 Eurobond have received coupon payments which had been due on April 14, Reuters reported. The country announced it would default on some its external debt in December and has not made payments on its international bonds since. However, the bond maturing in 2030 with a coupon of 10.75% is partially guaranteed by the World Bank, so payment kicked in this week via the bank's International Development Association.

Creditors contesting Adler Group SA’s €6 billion ($6.6 billion) debt restructuring were denied permission to appeal, helping the embattled real estate firm move ahead with the plan, Bloomberg News reported. A judge at the High Court in London said Tuesday the tribunal wasn’t convinced by any of the reasons for permission to appeal. The decision follows a ruling at the same court last week allowing Adler to extend maturities of bonds due next year and borrow around €900 million, despite opposition from some of its creditors including DWS Group and Strategic Value Partners.

China has finished building a national and unified system for real estate registration, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday, in a landmark move that will boost transparency in ownership, Reuters reported. In 2014, China issued rules requiring real estate owners to register their holdings with authorities but faced heavy resistance from local governments unwilling to open up their books.

The Ukrainian government will provide state guarantees to revitalise its export credit agency, a move designed to help domestic exporters and lift the economy after 14 months of war, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Before Russia's full-scale invasion in February last year, Ukraine's economy was export-led, but Moscow's war in Ukraine has disrupted supply chains and logistics. "We are intensifying the work of the export credit agency. We want as many Ukrainian businesses as possible to export their products abroad," Shmyhal told a government meeting.