Headlines

Brazil's Economy Ministry expects the central government to post a primary surplus of 6 billion reais ($1.15 billion) this year, its first since 2013, according to internal estimates seen by Reuters. An official from the ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity as the calculations are not public, called the estimate conservative because it considers 36 billion reais in extraordinary dividends in 2022.

Credit Suisse is among the lenders owed the most money by embattled Mexican finance company Credito Real, which has begun bankruptcy proceedings for $2.6 billion in debts, Reuters reported. Private documents show that Credit Suisse is owed over $100 million by Credito Real, according to a report from Mexican business paper El CEO. That would be the largest debt Credito Real owes to a foreign bank, the report said. The news comes as media have reported that Credit Suisse was considering making sweeping cuts, and after Moodys rating agency downgraded the bank's unsecured debt ratings.

Mexico's central bank is expected to hike the benchmark interest rate to a new historic level of 8.5% next week, hoping to contain rising inflation while the economy shows better-than-expected growth, a Reuters poll revealed on Thursday. All 13 analysts polled expect Banxico, as the central bank is known, to hike its benchmark rate by three-quarters of a percentage point when the monetary authority announces its decision next week. This would be Banxico's second 75-basis-point hike this year, and mirrors the most recent policy decision taken by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

A London judge has told Kazakh mining company ENRC, its former legal adviser Dechert and the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to consider mediation to end bitter litigation over events that led to a near 10-year criminal investigation, Reuters reported. Despite ruling in May that former veteran Dechert partner Neil Gerrard had grossly betrayed his own client and former senior SFO officers had behaved with bad faith, High Court Judge David Waksman suggested all sides call a truce. "Notwithstanding what's happened in the past and the serious allegations ...

Canadian employment unexpectedly fell for a second straight month in July as workers dropped out of the labor force, Bloomberg News reported. The country shed 30,600 jobs last month, Statistics Canada reported Friday in Ottawa, a surprise negative reading compared to the 15,000 gain anticipated by economists. Still, the unemployment rate held at a record low 4.9% as the labor force shrank by a similar amount. The employment drop last month adds to a loss of 43,200 jobs in June, marking a sudden stop to Canada’s yearlong labor market boom.

The final whistle has sounded for China Evergrande Group’s global soccer ambitions. The embattled Chinese property giant is canceling a contract to build what was slated to be the world’s largest soccer stadium, and is returning land-use rights for the site to the government of Guangzhou in its home province, the Wall Street Journal reported. Evergrande said that it would receive a refund equivalent to about $818 million, and intends to use the money to help repay a mountain of debt. The property conglomerate, which has around $300 billion in liabilities, defaulted on its U.S.

The Bank of England raised interest rates by half a percentage point on Thursday, the largest jump since 1995, as policymakers strengthened their efforts to tackle inflation even as they warned Britain was heading into a long recession later this year, the New York Times reported. The bank raised rates to 1.75 percent, the highest since 2008, from 1.25 percent as it forecast the annual rate of inflation would climb above 13 percent when household energy bills jump higher in October. That would be the highest level of inflation in 42 years.

Italy plans to approve on Thursday a new aid package worth around 14.3 billion euros ($14.5 billion) to help shield firms and families from surging energy costs and consumer prices, government officials said, Reuters reported. The scheme, one of the last major acts of outgoing Prime Minister Mario Draghi before a national election next month, comes on top of some 33 billion euros budgeted since January to soften the impact of sky-high electricity, gas and petrol costs.

Real household income across industrialised nations, including Ireland, fell in the first quarter of 2022 as soaring prices reduced the buying power of consumers, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Economists fear a sharp decline in consumption by cash-strapped households will trigger a recession in the euro zone, the Irish Times reported. The OECD said that real household income per capita declined by 1.1 per cent during the first three months of the year but remained nearly 3 per cent higher than before the pandemic.

The European Central Bank faces a toxic mix of surging inflation expectations, the prospect of a shrinking economy and a worsening labor market, according to the citizens it serves, Bloomberg News reported. That’s the thrust of a new monthly poll of euro-zone households, the Consumer Expectations Survey, which is intended to gauge on-the-ground views to support policy makers in their decision making. It highlights the challenge as they weigh how fast to raise interest rates.