Headlines

Across eastern Europe, the financial toll of Vladimir Putin’s 14-month-old war on Ukraine is piling up. Energy subsidies are being doled out, armies built up and refugees housed, schooled and fed, Bloomberg News reported. To help pay those bills, Ukraine’s neighbors are tapping international debt markets like never before. Governments in eastern Europe have borrowed nearly $32 billion already this year, triple the amount from the same period last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Lebanese authorities and a European judicial team on Tuesday agreed to exchange information about their separate corruption probes of Lebanon's Central Bank governor, officials said, the Associated Press reported. The announcement came during a visit by a European delegation from France, Germany, and Luxembourg — its third visit to Lebanon to interrogate suspects and witnesses in an ongoing investigation of Governor Riad Salameh and associates over several financial crimes.

Lebanon’s first official devaluation in a quarter century fired up consumer prices in March, with food and beverage inflation exceeding an annual 350% as authorities struggle to contain the crash in the world’s worst performing currency this year, Bloomberg News reported. A decision in February to allow the pound to weaken by 90% has ended last year’s relative respite from galloping costs in Lebanon, whose economy cratered and forced the government to default on $30 billion of international debt in 2020.

UBS said on Tuesday it had set aside more money to draw a line under its involvement in toxic U.S. mortgages, halving its first-quarter profit as the bank girds itself for the "hard" task of swallowing fallen rival Credit Suisse, Reuters reported. Sergio Ermotti, brought back as UBS chief executive to steer the takeover, said it aims to close the deal with fellow Zurich-based bank Credit Suisse by May but warned that it could take four years for a full integration. "There is much to do and there will difficult decisions to be made in the coming months," he said during a call with analysts.

Brazil posted a current account surplus of $286 million in March, the strongest data for the month in 17 years, boosted by a strong trade balance performance, central bank data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The trade balance had a positive balance of $9.48 billion, the highest figure in the entire series, driven by a significant increase in exports, with emphasis on booming shipments of oil and soybean. This led the current account to record its first positive balance since June 2022, with a March surplus being the first since 2006.

Egyptian bonds slumped after S&P Global Ratings took a far more downbeat view of the nation’s finances than the International Monetary Fund, forecasting further currency depreciation and lowering its outlook to negative, Bloomberg News reported. Dollar bonds maturing in 2025 dropped 1.6 cents on Monday while notes maturing in 2032 fell 0.9 cents, pushing their yields to 20.2% and 17.4% respectively, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. As of 4 p.m. in London, Egyptian debt of varying maturities made up nine of the ten worst-performing bonds in emerging markets on the day.

P&O Ferries is confident of avoiding a fine for sacking nearly 800 seafarers without notice. The annual report of the DP World-owned ferry operator, seen by the PA news agency, said its directors think an ongoing inquiry by the Insolvency Service will not result in any punishment, PAMedia reported. Some 786 of the company’s workers were made redundant without consultation on March 17 2022, leading to widespread criticism from politicians and trade unions. They were replaced by cheaper agency staff. A criminal investigation into what happened did not result in a prosecution.

Corporate insolvencies in the Republic rose by 22 per cent in the first quarter of 2023, according to Deloitte. The consultancy said there were 146 business failures recorded in the first three months of the year, up from 120 in the same quarter last year, the Irish Times reported. However, Deloitte noted the number of insolvencies was marginally down from 152 reported in the final quarter of 2022, “which means we are not currently experiencing a steep increase in corporate insolvency activity, which many have forecasted”, it said.

A dozen entities, including Silver Stallion of Mauritius, FPI Opportunities Fund of Singapore and listed companies C.E. Info Systems and 3i Infotech India, have shown interest in acquiring bankrupt defence-focused software developer Rolta India, said people aware of the development, the Economic Times of India reported. Other bidders to have submitted expressions of interest (EoIs) to the resolution professional Mamta Binani include Rashmi Metaliks, Rohstoffe International, Lloyds Metals and Energy, Varanium Cloud, and three individuals.

China nudged banks this month to cut deposit interest rates further in the latest effort to channel the country's vast savings pool into spending and more productive investments, Reuters reported. Members of China's "interest rate self-regulatory mechanism," mostly banks, met this month and were urged to reduce deposit rates. China's central bank does not set bank rates directly but guides them through the market-based mechanism, which comprises banks big and small. The guidance comes as banks and the economy groan under the weight of huge inflows of savings and deposits.