Headlines

Canadian manufacturing activity contracted at a slightly faster rate in December as an uncertain economic outlook and high inflation undercut demand, while the recent trend of easing cost pressures reversed, data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The S&P Global Canada Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to a seasonally adjusted 49.2 in December from 49.6 in November. It was the fifth straight month that the index was below the 50 threshold that marks contraction in the sector.

German inflation slowed more than anticipated in December after the government paid some households’ gas bills for the month, offering a temporary respite in the country’s cost-of-living crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer-price growth at 9.6% was the weakest since August. Economists anticipated 10.2%, according to the median of 20 forecasts. The decline to single digits in the main rate masks an increase in food costs across Germany at the end of 2022, aggravating a squeeze on the poorest families and stoking the risk of a wage-price spiral.

German unemployment fell in December, Labour Office figures showed on Tuesday, with the labour market overall being only moderately affected by the war in Ukraine last year, Reuters reported. The Federal Labour Office said the number of people out of work decreased by 13,000 in seasonally adjusted terms to 2.52 million. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected that figure to rise by 15,000. The seasonally adjusted jobless rate remained stable at 5.5%.

The number of people registering as jobless in Spain fell slightly in December from a month earlier, ending 2022 at a 15-year low, data from the Labour Ministry showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The number of jobless fell by 1.52%, or by 43,727 people, leaving 2.84 million people out of work. It is the lowest rate since 2007, when 2.2 million were out of work. "This data shows that labour protection measures are working," Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz said in a post on Twitter.

Turkish inflation decelerated at its steepest pace in more than a quarter century, a slowdown that may be at risk from a public spending splurge planned ahead of elections, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose an annual 64.3% in December, down from 84.4% the previous month, according to data released by state statistics agency TurkStat on Tuesday. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was 66.7%.

FTX on Friday disputed claims by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) that the regulator was holding $3.5 billion of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange's assets, Reuters reported. When the Commission seized the digital assets of FTX in November, they were worth just $296 million, FTX said in a statement. FTX urged the commission to "clear up any confusion" about the assets it holds and their value. The regulator began liquidation proceedings against FTX Digital Markets Ltd., the company's Bahamas-based unit, in November.

FTX Japan customers will be able to withdraw their funds as of mid-February, the subsidiary of FTX Trading said in a blog post on Thursday, making them some of the first customers of the collapsed crypto exchange to get their money back, CoinDesk.com reported. FTX Japan said that it was previously able to confirm with the company's bankruptcy lawyers in the U.S.

The bankruptcy court has admitted Marvel Realtors & Developers Ltd under the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) and appointed Manoj Kumar Mishra as the interim resolution professional for the Pune-based realty firm, the Economic Times of India reported. The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) allowed the petition filed by company’s lender IDFC First Bank to initiate the insolvency proceedings. The lender had approached the bankruptcy court after the realty firm defaulted on its dues of over Rs 44.50 crore.

China's factory activity shrank for the third straight month in December and at the sharpest pace in nearly three years as COVID infections swept through production lines across the country after Beijing's abrupt reversal of anti-virus measures, Reuters reported. The official purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to 47.0 from 48.0 in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Saturday. Economists in a Reuters poll had expected the PMI to come in at 48.0. The 50-point mark separates contraction from growth on a monthly basis.

South Korea's factory activity shrank for a sixth consecutive month in December, a business survey showed on Monday, as the global economic downturn and a local truckers' strike led to the worst slump in demand in 2-1/2 years, Reuters reported. The S&P Global purchasing managers' index (PMI) for South Korea manufacturers fell to a seasonally-adjusted 48.2 last month from 49.0 in November.