Headlines

Filing for insolvency will soon be simpler and more cost-effective as Singapore moves to revamp and make permanent the Simplified Insolvency Programme (SIP), the Singapore Business Review reported. The government, through the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution (Amendment) Bill, has put forward changes to the Simplified Debt Restructuring Programme (SDRP) and Simplified Winding Up Programme (SWUP) under the SIP.

The Australian government said on Tuesday it would provide up to A$80 million ($52.6 million) to airline Regional Express Holdings to keep its regional routes running during an extended voluntary administration process, Reuters reported. Terms of the financing package were not disclosed.

China’s consumer prices edged up in October, while factory-gate prices continued to decline, underscoring the challenges Beijing faces in battling deflationary pressures despite a recent stimulus push, the Wall Street Journal reported. China’s consumer-price index rose 0.3% from a year last month, compared with the 0.4% gain seen in September, according to data released Saturday by the National Bureau of Statistics. The producer-price index, meanwhile, fell 2.9% in October, for a 25th straight month of decline.

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has been questioning top private credit managers about how they assess the worth of their investments as concerns mount about loans not being effectively valued within the booming $1.7 trillion industry, Bloomberg News reported. The regulator is seeking to understand the oversight and governance over the different methodologies used by private credit lenders, according to people familiar with the matter. It plans to publish its interim findings by the end of the year, one of the people said, asking not to be named when relaying private discussions.

Higher barriers to trade would have a negative impact on the global economy, and Europe must be prepared for increased tensions, Bank of Finland Gov. Olli Rehn said Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Rehn, who is a member of the European Central Bank’s governing council, said a soft landing for the eurozone economy was still a plausible scenario, but that the outlook is clouded by growing geopolitical uncertainty. A new element in that uncertainty is the trade policy of Donald Trump in his second term as U.S. president.

Brazil’s central bank warned that additional deterioration of inflation expectations could lead to a more protracted tightening cycle, days after policymakers doubled the pace of their interest rate hikes, Bloomberg News reported. “A further deterioration in expectations could lead to a more prolonged monetary policy tightening cycle,” central bankers wrote in minutes to their Nov. 5-6 meeting, when they raised the benchmark Selic by 50 basis points to 11.25%.

Retail sales in Brazil rose less than expected in September but recovered from a fall in the previous month, as the strength of Latin America's largest economy keeps in focus amidst the central bank's fight against inflation, Reuters reported. Retail sales volumes rose 0.5% in September from August, statistics agency IBGE said on Tuesday, below the 1.10% increase forecast by economists in a Reuters poll, but above August's 0.2% decrease. Sales grew 2.1% from the year-earlier period.

Argentine President Javier Milei's dramatic austerity agenda has helped lower inflation, but the slowdown has come at the cost of consumption in a battered economy where more than half of the country has fallen into poverty, Reuters reported. The libertarian president, nearing a year in office, has celebrated falling inflation as one of his government's key accomplishments, after one of the largest adjustments in public spending in recent history.

Boom-time developer Seán Dunne has said it would be “beyond bizarre” for the High Court to strike out his application challenging the appointment of two officials overseeing his bankruptcy, the Irish Times reported. Lawyers for the bankruptcy officials and head of the Insolvency Services of Ireland, Michael McNaughton, have raised a preliminary objection to various motions brought by Mr Dunne (70). Lyndon MacCann SC, with Úna Nesdale, said Mr Dunne’s application was brought in a procedurally improper way and should have come by way of plenary summons.

The International Monetary Fund began its latest assessment of its loan program with Ukraine, even as Kyiv delays passing tax legislation as the lender expects, Bloomberg News reported. The Washington-based lender sent its staff to the Ukrainian capital for talks that may open a path for another $1.1 billion tranche under the four-year initiative, according to a statement from Ukraine’s Finance Ministry published Monday.