Headlines

Chile signed a 15-year credit line for $1 billion with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to promote the development of small and medium-sized companies, the Ministry of Finance reported on Sunday, Reuters reported. The Washington, D.C.-based agency had approved the plan in early December to "increase productivity and promote sustainable development." Chilean Finance Minister Mario Marcel signed the agreement for the establishment of a conditional credit line for investment projects (CCLIP) during an annual IDB meeting in Panama.

Bank of Mexico's main focus is tackling inflation, deputy governor Galia Borja said on Thursday, when asked how fears of a banking crisis roiling U.S. and European markets could impact monetary policy at the central bank, Reuters reported. "Many variables come into play," Borja told Reuters on the sidelines of a banking convention in the city of Merida in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. "But the main one is inflation, which is our mandate." "The behavior of inflation is more important, but we take everything into account," she added.

Brazil's jobless rate rose to 8.4% in the three months through January, statistics agency IBGE said on Friday, slightly above market expectations, Reuters reported. The median forecast in a Reuters poll projected an unemployment rate of 8.3%. In the previous three months, the rate was also at 8.3%. "This stability still would be a repercussion of the reduction in the demand for work in the months of November and December 2022 over the beginning of 2023," said research manager, Adriana Beringuy.

China's central bank said on Friday it would cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves for the first time this year to help keep liquidity ample and support a nascent economic recovery, Reuters reported. Chinese leaders have pledged to step up support for the world's second-largest economy, which is gradually rebounding from a pandemic-induced slump after coronavirus-related curbs were abruptly lifted in December.

The Beijing office of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu has been fined $30.8 million for failing to adequately audit a Chinese state-owned asset management company whose former head was sentenced to death on corruption charges, Reuters reported. The office also was ordered to suspend operations for three months for mishandling audit and other work at China Huarong Asset Management Co. in 2014-19, the Ministry of Finance announced Friday. Deloitte was fined 211.9 million yuan ($30.8 million), the ministry said.

Canadian holidaymakers jetting south for spring break on red-eye flights with Flair Airlines Ltd were in for a surprise on March 11 when the Boeing Co. 737s they were about to board were seized by agents acting on behalf of a jet leasing firm that manages the planes, Bloomberg News reported. The episode emerged from a $50 million lawsuit filed by Flair in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, in which the budget carrier alleges Airborne Capital Ltd.

State Bank of India (SBI) has filed an insolvency petition against Kolkata-based engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company Simplex Infrastructures in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for recovery of its dues after attempts to restructure its loans did not succeed, the Economic Times of India reported. The company owes lenders led by Punjab National Bank (PNB) a total of ₹9,600 crore and is one of the largest accounts to be taken to the bankruptcy courts in recent times. The NCLT is likely to hear the petition later this month.

Credit Suisse said today that it would borrow up to $54 billion from Switzerland's central bank to shore up liquidity and investor confidence, after a slump in its shares had intensified fears about a global banking crisis, Reuters reported. The bank's announcement prompted a 24% rise in Credit Suisse shares and helped reverse some of the heavy losses on stock markets driven by investor fears over potential bank runs across the world.

The European Central Bank went ahead with a planned half-point increase in interest rates but offered few clues on what may follow amid market turmoil that roiled Credit Suisse Group AG, Bloomberg News reported. The deposit rate was lifted to 3% on Thursday — as officials have been flagging since their last meeting six weeks ago and as the majority of economists anticipated, but dropped language from its statement indicating where borrowing costs are headed.

China will set up a financial watchdog run by the Communist Party, state media reported on Thursday, as part of a broad reorganisation of governing bodies set to give the ruling party direct control and supervision over financial affairs, Reuters reported. The creation of the Central Financial Commission will see the dissolution of the state-run Financial Stability and Development Committee (FSDC), a powerful body set up in 2017 and headed by former Vice Premier Liu He to curb risks in China's complex and often opaque financial system.