Headlines

Spain will impose new taxes on large banks and energy companies, wresting billions of euros from business to fund policies to ease the impact of record inflation on consumers, Bloomberg News reported. The levies on both financial institutions and energy firms will last for two years. The government expects the former to raise about 1.5 billion euros ($1.5 billion) per year, while the windfall tax on energy firms, which have benefited from surging prices, will collect 2 billion euros a year.

The French government is poised to pay more than 8 billion euros ($8.05 billion) to bring power giant EDF back under full state control, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, adding the aim is to complete the deal in the fourth quarter, Reuters reported. One of the sources said the cost of buying the 16% stake the state does not already own could be as high as almost 10 billion euros, when accounting for outstanding convertible bonds and a premium to current market prices. EDF and the economy ministry declined to comment.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki agreed on Tuesday to work together to tackle rising prices of food and energy, as well as volatility in currency markets, exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine, Reuters reported. They said that the war had raised exchange rate volatility, which could pose adverse implications for economic and financial stability, and pledged to cooperate "as appropriate" on currency issues.

Moscow's plan to implement a new law enabling authorities to seize the assets of Western firms leaving the country failed to get through parliament before the summer recess, giving companies more time to negotiate exits, Reuters reported. Russia's parliamentary session ended last week without the bill being passed. That makes any progress unlikely until at least mid-September, when the lower house of parliament, or Duma, begins reviewing proposed laws in its autumn session. Some experts now doubt whether the proposed law will be implemented at all.

The European Union gave its final approval for Croatia to adopt the euro early next year, when it will become the currency area’s 20th member, Bloomberg News reported. Finance ministers from the bloc meeting in Brussels held a signing ceremony Tuesday. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, had recommended that the Adriatic nation of 3.9 million people should be allowed to adopt the common currency, finding that it fulfills the necessary requirements on issues including inflation and public debt.

The most ambitious tax overhaul in a century faced a new setback on Monday when the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is overseeing the global negotiations, said that proposed rules for how the world’s largest companies would be taxed would not be unveiled until the middle of next year, the New York Times reported. The delay is expected to push final enactment of the agreement, which was intended to be activated by next year, to at least 2024.

China Evergrande Group suffered its first rejection from local creditors to extend a bond payment, a development that may result in a landmark onshore default and encourage investors to take a tougher stance against other developers battered by the nation’s property debt crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Holders of a puttable yuan-denominated bond from the firm’s main onshore unit Hengda Real Estate Group Co. rejected a plan to further extend payment past a July 8 deadline by six months, according to a Shenzhen stock exchange filing Monday.

A financial scandal in central China has touched depositors across the country, some of whom placed their life savings in four rural banks offering high rates of return, then found their funds frozen as investigators examined allegations of widespread fraud, the New York Times reported. When the bank customers began showing up in person to demand their money, the authorities in the city of Zhengzhou tried to use health code apps meant to prevent the spread of Covid-19 to prevent them from traveling. The city retreated after a backlash, and several officials were punished.

A slump in commercial-vehicle demand led China's automobile industry association on Monday to downgrade its sales forecast, as anti-pandemic measures weighed on the economy and its car market, the world's largest, Reuters reported. The industry will sell 27 million cars this year, up 3% on 2021, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers forecast, cutting its outlook from the 27.5 million sales and 5.4% growth it predicted in December. Weak demand for commercial vehicles, such as buses and trucks, drove the downgrade, data from the association showed.

Germany is ready to make a decision on a bailout for Uniper SE “soon” but ongoing talks with the company are “difficult,” Bloomberg News reported. Uniper - which is heavily dependent on Russian gas - asked the German government for a bailout on Friday, the first major corporate casualty of Moscow’s squeeze on European energy flows. The government is prepared to help the company no matter what, said a spokeswoman for the government. Germany and Uniper have been locked in talks for weeks over a potential rescue package.