Headlines

The Bank of Canada's rapid-fire rate hikes are starting to slow the economy, the governor said on Monday, but while the bank wants to avoid a recession, there is a risk sticky inflation will require "much higher" rates, Reuters reported. Speaking to business leaders in Vancouver, Governor Tiff Macklem said the tightening had "begun to work" but would take time to feed through the economy. The bank lifted rates at a record pace of 400 basis points in nine months to 4.25% - a level last seen in January 2008 - to tame inflation that was 6.9% in October.

Brazil's central bank aims to launch its digital currency in 2024 after a closed pilot program next year with financial institutions, bank president Roberto Campos Neto said on Tuesday, adding that the project had received international attention, Reuters reported. Campos Neto said that the design of the central bank's digital currency would encourage banks to tokenize their assets, with considerable efficiency gains.

Cyprus's securities regulator plans to extend the suspension of the licence of FTX EU and will meet to discuss the matter next week, Reuters reported. "CySEC is taking all the necessary actions to safeguard the interests of investors of FTX EU and is working closely with the administrator in the U.S. under chapter 11," the person said in a written comment to Reuters. The Cypriot regulator suspended the licence of FTX EU on Nov. 11, just before the cryptocurrency exchange imploded, seeking bankruptcy protection in the United States.

Crisis-hit Cuba on Monday forecast economic growth of 3% for 2023 and reported 2% in 2022, half of what it had previously predicted and down 8% from the pre-pandemic level, Reuters reported. This year has proved tough for most Cubans, who had already suffered as a result of two years of pandemic lockdowns, raging inflation and food, medicine and other shortages. Daily blackouts have disrupted lives and the economy, while fuel and parts shortages have gutted public transportation.

Midlands property developer Tony Diskin has secured Irish High Court approval to escape almost €25 million in Celtic Tiger-era debts from his property development business, the Irish Times reported. Mr. Justice Alexander Owens granted Mr. Diskin a personal insolvency arrangement (PIA) – a mechanism that allows individuals to escape significant bank and other debts – which will see him return to solvency with payment of a lump sum of €30,000. Some €25,000 of this will go towards repaying a fraction of his €24.9 million in debts.

The European Commission has demanded that German gas importer Uniper divest its Dutch business to obtain regulatory approval for a rescue deal, German daily Handelsblatt reported, according to Reuters. The European Commission has set itself a Dec. 16 deadline to decide on whether to approve Germany's bailout of Uniper, its biggest gas trader which nearly collapsed after Russia stopped the supply of the fuel, under merger control rules. Uniper's activities in the Netherlands mainly consist of its Maasvlakte MPP 3 hard coal-fired power plant with a capacity of 1.07 gigawatt (GW).

The number of bankruptcies in the Netherlands has risen for the third month in a row. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), 224 companies and institutions, including one-person businesses, went bankrupt in November. That is seven more than in October, the NL Times reported. According to CBS, this was the highest number of bankruptcies in over two years, though it is still lower than before the coronavirus pandemic. The number of bankruptcies is so low partly due to the Cabinet’s coronavirus support, which kept even fundamentally unhealthy companies afloat.

Global public and private debt saw its biggest drop in 70 years in 2021 after reaching record highs because of the impacts of COVID-19, but overall remained well above pre-pandemic levels, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday, Reuters reported. In a blog released with its inaugural Global Debt Monitor, the IMF said total public and private debt decreased by 10 percentage points to 247% of global gross domestic product in 2021 from its peak of 257% in 2020. That compares to around 195% of GDP in 2007, before the global financial crisis.

The head of Israel's powerful parliamentary finance committee submitted a bill on Monday that would limit banks' ability to raise mortgage rates after central bank interest rate increases, Reuters reported. The Bank of Israel has raised its benchmark interest rate by 3.15 percentage points to 3.25% since April, with more hikes likely. Monthly mortgage repayments have soared by more than 1,000 shekels ($291), with high inflation an additional factor.

New bank lending in China rebounded less than expected in November from the previous month, as the central bank seeks to bolster slowing growth in the world's second-biggest economy, Reuters reported. Chinese banks extended 1.21 trillion yuan ($173.48 billion) in new yuan loans in November, nearly doubling October's 615.2 billion yuan but falling short of analysts' expectations, according to People's Bank of China (PBOC) data released on Monday. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted new yuan loans would jump to 1.35 trillion yuan in November.