Headlines

Hopes that the euro zone can stave off a recession got a boost as Germany defied expectations by reporting another quarter of economic growth, though momentum slowed dramatically in France and Spain, Bloomberg News reported. Surging energy prices, record inflation and rising interest rates are weighing on output across the continent in the third quarter as a post-lockdown splurge on leisure and tourism fades. But data Friday showed Germany managed to grow by 0.3% between July and September. Consumer-price growth from the region was mixed.

Canada’s economic growth rate fell by half in the third quarter, ahead of what’s expected to be an even sharper downturn later this year, Bloomberg News reported. Preliminary industry-based data show gross domestic product expanded 0.1% in September, Statistics Canada reported Friday in Ottawa. That followed an unexpected gain of 0.1% in August, versus a flat reading expected by economists for that month. Overall, the pace of monthly gains was enough to produce annualized growth in the third quarter of 1.6%, according to an initial estimate from the statistics agency.

Argentina's newly struck deal with the Paris Club lenders will bring some $248 million in debt relief for the embattled South American nation and push repayments back as far as 2028, according to a document shared with Reuters by officials. The country's government said earlier on Friday it had reached a deal to restructure the nearly $2 billion it owes the Paris Club of creditors, which counts the United States, Japan and Germany among its members. Repayments would start in December this year and continue until late 2028, the document showed.

Colombia’s central bank ignored complaints from President Gustavo Petro and raised interest rates to the highest level in more than two decades, while also deciding against intervention in the currency market, Bloomberg News reported. The bank lifted its benchmark rate by one percentage point to 11%, after the peso plunged and foreign investors dumped the nation’s bonds. The unanimous decision, which was in line with expectations, extends the steepest series of interest rate increases since the bank started inflation targeting at the end of the 1990s.

Mexico's economic activity indicators in the third quarter point to economic growth in line with forecasts of 2.4% annual growth in 2022, the country's finance ministry said on Friday, Reuters reported. "The Mexican economy continues to grow with solid macroeconomic balances despite a challenging international environment," the ministry said in a statement. The ministry said dynamic economic activity and a strong labor market led to "positive results" in tax collection, putting it on track to meet year-end estimates.

Australia’s central bank faces a tough task in deciding whether to persist with smaller interest-rate increases or U-turning back to outsized hikes to try to gain control of hotter-than-expected inflation, Bloomberg News reported. Financial markets and most economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect the Reserve Bank will deliver a second straight quarter percentage-point rise at Tuesday’s meeting. That would take the cash rate to 2.85%, the highest level since April 2013. But there are still some high-profile dissenters and doubters.

Both corporate and personal insolvencies in Scotland have risen compared to last year as inflation and the cost-of-living crisis affect businesses and individuals, according to new analysis, the Independent reported. There were 270 corporate insolvencies in the second quarter (Q2) of 2022/23, a 28% increase on the same period the previous year when there were 211, official Scottish Government statistics show. Personal insolvency numbers rose to 2,069 in Q2 of 2022/23, a 7.7% increase on Q2 last year when there were 1,921.

Tongaat Hulett Ltd., the 130-year-old South African sugar maker, is being placed in administration after failing to recover from an accounting scandal that exposed a mountain of debt, Bloomberg News reported. The decision was taken after creditors rejected a restructuring plan that would have given the company leeway on some of its outstanding loans and access to 1.5 billion rand ($84 million) needed to keep operations going. Tongaat had repaid about half of the 12 billion rand of debt that emanated from the scandal that erupted in 2019.

The European Central Bank doubled its key interest rate to the highest level in more than a decade and signaled it’s making progress in its battle with record inflation, just as the likelihood of a recession mounts, Bloomberg News reported.

The European Central Bank on Thursday got rid of a subsidy on over 2 trillion euros of loans to banks to encourage them to repay early, a move designed to mop up excess cash but which was criticised by the banking industry, Reuters reported. The ECB has come under pressure to change the terms of its Targeted Longer-term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO) because the generous rate offered at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic now allowed banks to make a guaranteed profit at the ECB's expense.