Headlines

Russia's financial monitoring agency, Rosfinmonitoring, said on Friday it was using software to track cryptocurrency transactions and hopes to improve its capabilities, as Moscow ushers in regulation on what one lawmaker dubbed "cryptomania," Reuters reported. The Bank of Russia has long voiced scepticism over cryptocurrencies, citing financial stability concerns, and has advocated for a complete ban on trading and mining, at odds with a government keen to regulate the industry.

German lawmakers approved a measure on Thursday that will allow the government to throw a lifeline to companies struggling with the record-high price of gas and with cuts in supplies from Russia, the New York Times reported. The law, passed in the lower house of Parliament, is part of a wider package that aims to help Germany maintain the security of its natural gas supply as it faces shortages connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Last month, Russia cut the amount of gas delivered to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, a major conduit, by 60 percent.

Peru's central bank expects monthly inflation in July to be lower than June's rate of 1.19%, a bank official said on Friday, offering some optimism after annual inflation rates hit a two-decade high in the copper-producing Andean nation, Reuters reported. Adrian Armas, the bank's manager of economic studies, added he expects monthly consumer prices to ease further in August, but noted that the impact of inflation would continue to be felt.

The International Monetary Fund's board of executive directors met on Friday to discuss the $44 billion Argentine programme for the first time since Silvina Batakis' appointment as economy minister, Reuters reported. In an informal meeting, the fund's staff said Batakis, who was sworn-in on Monday, was in the process of selecting her team, and once ready the first contacts between technical level IMF officials and new Argentine officials will be made.

Canada’s jobs market showed signs of extreme tightening, with the unemployment rate falling to a record low, wage gains accelerating and large numbers of workers dropping out of the labor force, Bloomberg News reported. The economy shed 43,200 jobs in June, Statistics Canada reported Friday in Ottawa, a surprise negative reading compared to the 22,500 gain anticipated by economists. But the drop appears to reflect the voluntary exit of workers from the labor force, which contracted by nearly 100,000 -- the biggest one-month decline on record outside of the pandemic.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva is pushing China and other Group of 20 economies to speed up debt relief for a growing number of heavily indebted countries, warning that failure to do so could unleash a damaging "downward spiral," Reuters reported. Georgieva told Reuters it was crucial to jumpstart the largely stalled Common Framework for debt treatments that was adopted by the G20 and the Paris Club of official creditors in October 2020 but has failed to deliver a single result thus far. "This is a topic we cannot have complacency on," she said.

Hundreds of SAS flights were canceled on Thursday as the airline wrestled with a strike by pilots at its main SAS Scandinavia arm, overshadowing a traffic surge during June, Reuters reported. Talks between the airline and pilots over a new collective bargaining agreement collapsed on Monday, prompting a strike which adds to travel chaos in Europe and deepens the financial crisis at SAS, which estimated it would ground half its flights. The troubled airline, whose biggest owners are the Swedish and the Danish states, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka raised interest rates to the highest level in two decades on Thursday, saying it had to head off runaway inflation to avoid even deeper pain for an economy that is already in crisis and is shrinking, Reuters reported. The Sri Lankan central bank increased its standing lending facility rate by 100 basis points to 15.50% while the standing deposit facility rate was similarly raised to 14.50%, the highest since August, 2001. Inflation touched a year-on-year record of 54.6% in June, and central bank Governor P.

Germany is set to ditch its plan to return to strict borrowing limits next year if Russia stops natural gas deliveries to Europe’s largest economy for good, Bloomberg News reported. While Finance Minister Christian Lindner has argued that Germany and its euro zone peers must scale back public debt from 2023 to avoid the risk that more deficit spending could fuel historically high inflation, the governing consensus may be shifting.

Poland's central bank raised its main interest rate by 50 basis points to 6.50% on Thursday, it said, delivering a hike below analysts' estimates as it balances the risks of an economic slowdown against surging inflation, Reuters reported. Some economists think Poland could tip into technical recession this year, but with inflation running hot most say further tightening is inescapable. "I believe that it is a very sensible decision from the MPC," said Piotr Bujak, chief economist at PKO BP.