Headlines

China’s passenger car retail sales shrank almost 20% in the first two months of this year, underscoring the challenges facing manufacturers in the world’s largest but long-stuttering auto market, the Wall Street Journal reported. The nation’s auto makers sold 2.7 million passenger cars in January and February combined, according to the China Passenger Car Association, down from 3.3 million a year earlier. The association partly attributed the drop to the ending of tax cuts on autos that boosted sales during the pandemic, as well as the end of electric-vehicle subsidies.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said Sri Lanka had secured financing assurances from all its major bilateral creditors, paving the way for the IMF board to consider approval of a long-awaited $2.9 billion four-year bailout, Reuters reported. The IMF said its board will meet on March 20 to review a preliminary staff-level agreement first signed in September, offering a lifeline to the South Asian country which faces its worst financial crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.

The International Monetary Fund says its executive board has agreed to temporarily increase the limits on member countries' annual and cumulative access to IMF loan resources to help them cope with a particularly challenging and uncertain environment, Reuters reported. In an announcement late on Monday, the Fund said its cumulative lending limits were increased to 600% of a country's quota, or shareholding in the fund, from a previous limit of 435%. The 12-month borrowing limit was raised to 200% of quota from 145%.

Argentina will give investors the chance to exchange holdings of local debt into new bonds in a bid to ease fears of a default on the government’s $35 billion of local debt coming due in the second quarter, Bloomberg News reported. Economy Minister Sergio Massa said the government would offer investors two swap options to exchange local bonds coming due between April and June. The government is seeking to build the local bond curve to 2024 and 2025, Massa said in a broadcast video statement.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is scheduled to pass its judgement on Tuesday on Mumbai-based Suraksha group's bid to acquire Jaypee Infratech Ltd through the insolvency process, the Economic Times of India reported. In late November last year, the NCLT reserved its order on Suraksha group's bid to acquire Jaypee Infratech Ltd and complete around 20,000 flats for aggrieved homebuyers.

Thailand's cabinet on Tuesday agreed to waive corporate income tax and value-added tax for companies that issue digital tokens for investment, a government spokeswoman said, Reuters reported. Companies will have access to alternative ways of raising capital through investment tokens in addition to traditional methods like debentures, Rachada Dhnadirek told reporters at a news conference.

The European Union will seek to rein in generous spending by member states permitted to help households and businesses through the Covid pandemic and energy crisis as it sets out a return to stricter budgetary discipline, Bloomberg News reported. Governments will be instructed to withdraw support and consolidate national budgets when the European Commission adopts its fiscal guidance for 2024 on Wednesday, according to an EU official.

The turmoil in Brazil’s credit market has put several local bond sales on hold as banks and investors become more cautious with corporate borrowers in the aftermath of the sudden collapse of Americanas SA, Bloomberg News reported. Power company Coelba, a unit of Neoenergia SA, has pulled a planned debt sale after underwriters tapped the so-called “market flex” clause that allows for changes in conditions, according to people familiar with the matter. The firm had announced an issuance of 1.5 billion reais ($290 million) in local notes on Jan.

Brazil’s battered airlines got some relief on Monday after striking agreements that eased investors’ concern over their liquidity amid deteriorating credit conditions in their home market, Bloomberg News reported. Azul SA’s American depositary receipts closed 41% higher at $5.85 in New York, the most on record, and bonds due in 2026 climbed 16 cents to 67.5 cents on the dollar. The moves follow an agreement the company struck with most lessors allowing it to reduce its payments in exchange for a mix of stocks and bonds, according to a filing published Sunday.