Headlines

Tunisia's government on Wednesday began discussions on a new foreign exchange bill it says will help to make international business dealings easier, following calls from Tunisian firms for reform, Reuters reported. "Tunisia looks to modernise the exchange system and to gradual liberalisation of financial relations toward a full liberalisation with the outside world," the government said on Wednesday in a statement following talks on the bill. Investors have to get central bank approval to access hard currency to fund operations abroad, or obtain credit letters to import goods.

A shuttered South African airline sued Boeing Co. for fraud over its agreement to buy eight 737 MAX planes and seeks damages of at least $83 million, Reuters reported. Boeing "placed profits over safety and led with a plan of deception," Comair's suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Seattle said. Boeing declined to comment. Comair said that Boeing committed fraud over its failure to disclose problems with a key flight control system tied to two fatal 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia that killed 346 people and led to the MAX's 20-month grounding.

Tax revenues from the country’s oil & gas sector will fall as fossil fuel prices drop, the UK government expects, restricting Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s spending power in the budget next month, Bloomberg News reported. Treasury officials estimate tax revenues in 2023-2024 from oil & gas will be £12.7 billion ($15.3 billion) lower than forecast in November as a result of the lower gas price, two people familiar with the matter said. That would wipe out the saving the government is due to make on supporting household energy bills as a result of the same price decrease, they said.

Poland’s central bank left interest rates on hold for a fifth month as signs of a global disinflation strengthened the case for a dovish majority of policy makers, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Council held its benchmark rate at 6.75%, matching the expectations of all 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Governor Adam Glapinski has argued in the last few months against additional rate increases, warning that a deeper economic slowdown could trigger job cuts, which the monetary authority wants to avoid.

The European Union's new subsidy package needs to be reworked in the coming weeks so that it is more concrete, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. "We don't have much time," Habeck told the German Bundestag lower house of parliament, adding that the package needed to be finalised before the next EU summit in March. The European Commission wants to give a boost to a climate-friendly restructuring of the economy with subsidies worth billions of euros.

A $4 billion accounting shortfall would typically raise alarm bells for an auditor. Somehow, a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP affiliate didn’t catch it at Americanas SA, Bloomberg News reported. Investor and consumer groups are calling for closer scrutiny of the accounting firm after the unveiling of balance-sheet irregularities that led 93-year-old Brazilian retailer Americanas to seek protection from creditors last month. The gap came in part from supplier financing that wasn’t reflected the right way in the company’s financial statements, which have been audited by PwC since 2019.

Tees Valley Lithium struck a preliminary deal to supply raw materials to the preferred buyer of collapsed UK battery startup Britishvolt Ltd., Bloomberg News reported. The early-stage lithium refiner signed a memorandum of understanding to supply toll-processed lithium to Recharge Industries, which has been selected as the preferred bidder for the majority of the insolvent battery firm’s business and assets. Tees Valley plans to produce the lithium at a refinery in the northeast of England that’s set to start operation in 2025.

President Tayyip Erdogan declared on Tuesday a three-month state of emergency covering Turkey's 10 southern provinces hit by devastating earthquakes, and called it a disaster zone in a move meant to bolster rescue efforts, Reuters reported. The move came as the death toll from Monday's two major earthquakes, which hit a wide area of Turkey and Syria, exceeded 5,000 and as rescuers raced against time to dig people out of the rubble of collapsed buildings.

The Reserve Bank of Australia delivered a ninth consecutive increase in interest rates and signaled more to come, suggesting global central banks are headed down different paths as their battle with inflation enters a new phase, the Wall Street Journal reported. The latest increase of 0.25 percentage point took Australia’s benchmark interest rate to 3.35% from 3.10% and marked the first time that the RBA had tightened policy at nine straight meetings of its board. Explaining the move, ​RBA ​Gov. Philip Lowe said inflation was at its highest level in more than three decades.

Brazil's central bank has expressed concern at increased inflation expectations, saying that a fiscal framework revision and government stimulus package may lead to upward pressure on consumer prices, Reuters reported. In the minutes of its Jan.31 - Feb.1 meeting, when the rate-setting committee kept the benchmark rate at 13.75%, some committee members noted that the fiscal package presented by the Finance Ministry should mitigate the fiscal risks. Nonetheless, "it will be important to monitor the challenges for its implementation," the minutes added.