Headlines

India's Adani Group has appointed accountancy firm Grant Thornton for independent audits of some of its companies in a bid to discredit claims by short-seller Hindenburg Research that have battered its stocks and bonds, two people familiar with the matter said on Monday, Reuters reported. The appointment marks the first major effort by Adani Group to defend itself in the wake of a Jan. 24 report by Hindenburg that accused it of improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation.

The next boss of Japan’s central bank may eventually chart a course away from the “yield-curve control” policy championed by the ancien regime. But investors probably shouldn’t expect a radical change in Japan’s monetary policy overnight, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Japanese government on Tuesday nominated Kazuo Ueda to become the next governor of the central bank, confirming last Friday’s media reports of the surprise pick. Current governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who oversaw a program of aggressive and unorthodox monetary easing, will end his 10-year stint in April.

Frederick Barclay, the reclusive tycoon who owes his former wife £100 million ($121 million), is discussing a financial settlement with her after being threatened with bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. The 88-year-old is yet to pay a penny of the divorce award, according to a lawyer for Hiroko Barclay, who told a London court on Monday her legal team was left with little choice but to prepare a bankruptcy petition against the “completely unrepentant” tycoon. The settlement offer to end the divorce fight was made on Feb. 10, the same day as Frederick was set to meet his nephew Howard.

Damages from deadly earthquakes in Turkey last week will probably exceed $20 billion, the risk modelling company Verisk estimated on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Only a fraction of the damages - likely more than $1 billion - is covered by insurance, Verisk said. The figures come on top of the enormous loss of life from the disaster, with the death toll having risen to 31,974 by Tuesday. Earthquakes are relatively common in Turkey, and despite regulations to build to protect against earthquakes, results have been "mixed", Verisk said.

The successful completion in December of Novo Banco's restructuring means Portugal's fourth-largest lender will no longer request funds from the country's Resolution Fund or the state, the finance ministry said on Monday, Reuters reported. The European Commission had agreed that the process involving the bank that emerged from the ashes of the collapsed Banco Espirito Santo in 2014 was over, a ministry statement said.

India's annual retail inflation in January rose above the central bank's upper threshold for the first time in three months, on higher food prices, vindicating last week's hawkish monetary policy stance, Reuters reported. India's annual retail inflation rate rose to 6.52% in January from 5.72% in December, government data showed on Monday. January's retail inflation was above the Reserve Bank of India's upper targeted limit of 6% for the first time since October and much higher than the 5.9% estimate, according to a Reuters poll of 44 analysts.

The euro-zone economy will fare better this year than previously feared as a mild winter and high levels of gas storage help to ease the energy crisis, and the labor market holds up, according to the European Commission, Bloomberg News reported. European Union officials in Brussels raised their forecast for growth this year, predicting a 0.9% expansion in the currency bloc, and said it would narrowly avoid a recession. They also cut their projection for consumer price growth, though it remains high at 5.6%.

Swiss consumer prices rose by 3.3% in January - marking a year that inflation has remained above the Swiss National Bank's 0-2% target range, data showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The increase was more than expected, with economists forecasting the year-on-year rate to rise to 2.9%, up from the 2.8% rate seen in December. Prices were 0.6% higher month-on-month due to more expensive electricity and gas. Hotel accommodation also recorded a price increase, as did bread and coffee.

The German economy will grow slightly this year, the European Commission said Monday, revising upwards its forecast for Europe's biggest economy which it had previously expected to contract by 0.6%, Reuters reported. In its winter forecasts, the European Commision envisages 0.2% GDP growth for Europe's biggest economy in 2023, more than expected in autumn due to the easing of energy prices and policy support to households and firms. German gross domestic product decreased 0.2% quarter on quarter in adjusted terms in the fourth quarter.