Headlines

The World Bank has cut its China growth outlook for this year and next, citing the impact of the abrupt loosening of strict COVID-19 containment measures and persistent property sector weakness, Reuters reported. The Washington, D.C.-based lender, in a report released on Tuesday, said it expected China's economy to grow 2.7% in 2022, before recovering to 4.3% in 2023 as it reopens following the worst of the pandemic. The bank's expected expansion for 2022 would be well below the official target of around 5.5%.

The International Monetary Fund has approved a deal that will provide a $3 billion support package to cash-strapped Egypt over a period of almost four years, with the agreement expected to draw in an additional $14 billion in financing for the Middle East country, the Associated Press reported. The announcement from the IMF’s executive board late on Friday comes after a preliminary agreement was reached in October between Egypt and the fund.

Mexico's economy likely contracted by 0.1% in November compared with the previous month, a preliminary estimate from national statistics agency INEGI showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The probable drop in activity follows months of aggressive monetary policy tightening in Mexico, rising core inflation and signs of an economic slowdown in the United States. Compared with the same month a year earlier, the economy was estimated to have grown by 4.2% in November. Mexico's economy expanded by 0.9% in the third quarter from the previous three-month period.

The Central African Republic, which adopted bitcoin as legal tender in April, said on Monday it had delayed listing its national cryptocurrency token, citing "current market conditions" and "marketing reasons," Reuters reported. A plan to list the Sango Coin on as-yet unspecified crypto exchanges has been shelved until the first quarter, according to a statement posted in the coin's official Telegram channel. Also delayed is a "release" that would allow coin holders to sell up to 5% of their coins, which are currently "locked" for a year and unable to be sold.

The rouble slumped to its weakest point in more than seven months against the dollar on Monday and was on course for its biggest single-day drop since July amid fears that sanctions on Russian oil will hit the country's export revenue, Reuters reported. Monday's drop came as Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Belarus, fanning fears in Kyiv that he intends to pressure his ex-Soviet ally to join a fresh ground offensive that would open a new front against Ukraine. The currency also lost 3.8% to trade at 71.71 against the euro , also a more than seven-month low.

A group of central bankers and supervisors on Monday endorsed rules for how much capital banks should hold to cover crypto assets on their books from 2025 laid out by the Basel Committee of global banking regulators, Reuters reported. The rules, announced on Friday, come after a turbulent couple of years for digital asset markets.

Ghana on Monday suspended payments on most of its external debt, effectively defaulting as the country struggles to plug its cavernous balance of payments deficit, Reuters reported. Its finance ministry said it will not service debts including its Eurobonds, commercial loans and most bilateral loans, calling the decision an "interim emergency measure", while some bondholders criticised a lack of clarity in the decision. The government "stands ready to engage in discussions with all of its external creditors to make Ghana's debt sustainable", the finance ministry said.

Shareholders in Uniper on Monday approved a state bailout that has so far cost the German government more than 50 billion euros ($53 billion), paving a way for a de facto nationalisation of the struggling gas giant, Reuters reported. Chief Executive Klaus-Dieter Maubach earlier told a virtual extraordinary meeting that the disarray caused by the loss of gas supplies from Russia could leave shareholders with nothing if they did not accept the German proposal.

European nations reached a deal to cap natural gas prices at €180, ending months of political wrangling over whether to intervene in an energy crisis that has risked pushing the region into a recession, Bloomberg News reported. The so-called gas market correction mechanism — a temporary measure designed to prevent extreme price swings — will apply from Feb. 15, according to people familiar with the matter.

Europe has been hit hard by the fallout from the war in Ukraine, putting its companies on the front line of what has become a war of economic attrition between the West and Russia that is playing out alongside the real war in Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported. The U.K. is suffering more than other big countries in Europe, economists say. Inflation is running in the double digits, higher than all of its Group of Seven industrialized peers with the exception of Italy; gross domestic product shrank 0.2% in the third quarter year-over-year, setting the U.K.