Headlines

After a two-year-long bankruptcy process, Scandinavia’s flagship airline SAS AB is now under the ownership of Air France-KLM and private equity firm Castlelake LP, with former Novo Nordisk A/S executive Kare Schultz at the helm of its new board, Bloomberg News reported. The move comes amid much overdue airline consolidation in Europe in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and a recent slowing in travel demand. It will also shore up Air France-KLM’s position in the Nordics, a reliable source of active travelers.

The electric vehicle unit of embattled real estate developer China Evergrande said on Tuesday it expected to report a bigger loss for the first half of 2024, reflecting an increase in provision for impairments, Reuters reported. China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle estimated a consolidated net loss of about 20.25 billion yuan ($2.84 billion) for the six months ended June 30, compared with 6.87 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier.

After a new tax increase incited weeks of deadly riots in Kenya early this summer, President William Ruto announced that he was reversing course. He abandoned the finance law he had proposed, and then he shook up his cabinet. Last week, the government reversed itself again, the New York Times reported. The newly appointed finance minister announced that some of those discarded tax increases would be reintroduced.

Bank of Japan Deputy Gov. Ryozo Himino has backed the case for further interest-rate hikes if the economy and prices grow as expected, echoing recent comments from the central bank’s chief, the Wall Street Journal reported. Himino’s remarks on Wednesday suggest that the BOJ’s top officials are on the same page about the bank’s future policy path.

Israel’s central bank left interest rates unchanged, seeking to balance the impact of rising inflation against weak growth as uncertainty surrounds fiscal policy, Bloomberg News reported. The monetary committee kept its benchmark rate at 4.5% on Wednesday for a fifth straight meeting. In a statement accompanying the decision, policymakers largely repeated previous guidance, saying the focus should be on stabilizing markets, controlling price rises and supporting economic activity. Inflation has been on the rise, mostly linked to the war against Hamas.

Australian inflation pressures eased in July supported by government rebates aimed at offsetting soaring electricity costs and rising rents, the Wall Street Journal reported. The monthly consumer-price index, which is only a partial reading of economy-wide inflation, rose 3.5% in the 12 months to July 2024, down from 3.8% in June, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday.

Canadian credit card holders carried over C$4,300 ($3,200) in balances on average in the second quarter, according to Equifax Canada, marking the highest level since the agency began collecting the data in 2007, Bloomberg News reported. A high interest-rate environment and rising unemployment are straining borrowers, especially younger Canadians, the credit bureau warned in a report released Tuesday. Consumer debt levels topped C$2.5 trillion last quarter, jumping 4.2% from a year earlier.

Ukraine received widespread support from private creditors to restructure its overseas bonds, allowing the nation to secure much-needed debt relief to finance its fight against Russian aggression, Bloomberg News reported. The agreement more than two years after Russia’s invasion marks a swift resolution of the debt revamp following two rounds of negotiations in June and July, in which Kyiv asked bondholders to accept bigger losses than they initially aimed for.

Switzerland's federal criminal court on Wednesday convicted two top managers of a Saudi oil company on charges including fraud and money laundering in a vast scam that swiped at least $1.8 billion from a Malaysian state-owned investment fund, the Associated Press reported. PetroSaudi executive Tarek Obaid, a Saudi-Swiss dual national, received a seven-year sentence and British-Swiss associate Patrick Mahony was handed a six-year sentence from the Federal Criminal Court in southern Bellinzona, officials said.

Malaysia is weighing the return of a broad-based consumption tax instead of implementing subsidy cuts for a commonly-used gasoline as the government seeks to bolster its finances, Bloomberg News reported. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s cabinet has been discussing the viability of bringing back the goods and services tax, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. No decision has been reached given the political sensitivities.