Headlines

Some European Central Bank officials want to begin a debate by year-end on when and how to shrink the almost 5 trillion euros ($5 trillion) of bonds accumulated during recent crises, Bloomberg News reported. Deciding how to go about the process -- known as quantitative tightening -- is the logical next step after the ECB raised interest rates for the first time since 2011 in July. The Governing Council hasn’t discussed the issue yet, and it’s unclear when the best moment would be to start reducing the balance sheet, given the increasing likelihood of a recession in the 19-member euro zone.

For months, a tsunami of high energy costs has borne down on Europe. On Friday, the first big waves crashed ashore in Britain, with the news that household gas and electricity bills will nearly double in October, the New York Times reported. The announcement, by Britain’s energy regulator, raised the specter of a humanitarian crisis in one of the world’s richest countries: Millions of Britons might not be able to afford to heat or light their homes this winter, unless the government steps in on an enormous scale to cushion them from the vagaries of the market.

Brazil posted a current account deficit of $3.5 billion in May, the worst result for the month in eight years, amid trade balance weakening, central bank figures showed on Friday, Reuters reported. A strong commodities producer, Brazil has seen its exports grow, but imports have increased at a faster pace, driven by higher prices for products such as fuel and fertilizers. In May, the trade balance surplus was $3.4 billion, down 53.3% over the same month last year.

The world’s most financially fragile countries have burned through the extra International Monetary Fund reserves they got last year, raising calls for a fresh injection to help them weather higher interest rates, food and fuel costs, Bloomberg News reported. The IMF’s record $650 billion issuance of reserve assets known as special drawing rights, or SDRs, last August “was badly needed,” and has been almost exclusively used by low- and middle-income countries, the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive think tank, said in a report on Wednesday.

CEC, the company that has been running the dealer school Japan Casino Academy, received an order for commencement of bankruptcy proceedings from the Tokyo District Court on 17 August, Inside Asian Gambling reported. CEC was originally established in September 2014 in Shibuya. The company’s debt is currently being calculated. CEC opened Japan Casino Academy with the goal of training professional casino dealers. In addition to operating multiple campuses in Tokyo, there were also locations in Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo.

Bank of Korea Governor Rhee Chang-yong said he would join Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in tightening the focus on inflation if prices remain out of control, keeping the door open for another outsized interest-rate hike, Bloomberg News reported. Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Kathleen Hays at Jackson Hole, Rhee said Powell’s remarks at the gathering of central bankers were largely in line with his expectations. But he added that higher US rates may still weaken the won further and lead to stronger inflation in Korea among other uncertain factors influencing policy.

Union Bank of India (UBI), the second largest creditor to KSK Mahanadi Power, has put its ₹2,077 crore outstanding loan to the company on the block, according to an auction notice seen by the Economic Times of India. Other lenders including State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda (BoB) and Axis Bank have already sold their debt in the company that owns a 3,600-mw power plant and has been under a prolonged insolvency process. UBI has set a reserve price of ₹919 crore in cash for its exposure.

Cineworld Group Plc equity holders are set to be left with nothing, a short seller warned after the cinema operator said this week that it was considering filing for U.S. bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Argonaut Capital Partners LLP’s Barry Norris told Bloomberg Television that Cineworld’s pursuit of acquisitions that were funded by debt had left it with a “completely unsustainable” capital structure. A spokesman for Cineworld declined to comment on Argonaut’s position or interview but requested that Bloomberg highlight the firm’s Aug.

Bond issuances by companies in Colombia plunged nearly 50% in the first half of the year due to rising financing costs, Fitch Ratings said on Thursday, Reuters reported. "Rising inflation and a revised monetary policy resulted in a large increase in financing costs, conditions that kept companies from issuing new debt," the agency's senior analyst, Juan David Medellin, said in a report. Annual inflation in Colombia is at its highest level since April 2000, according to data published by the National Department of Statistics (DANE), reaching 10.21% in annual terms at the end of July.

The bolivar is plummeting, breaking a rare stretch of stability for Venezuela’s battered currency, Bloomberg News reported. It has lost a third of its value so far this month, hitting 9.33 bolivars per US dollar on the parallel exchange market Thursday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the steepest monthly decline since January 2021. Controlling the exchange rate has been a key ingredient of President Nicolas Maduro’s strategy to halt a four-year hyperinflation bout, which ended in December.