Headlines

Laurentian University’s board of governors voted unanimously earlier this month to replace the university's long-standing auditors, KPMG, with the firm BDO, Sudbury.com reported. The university continues to undergo restructuring under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (or CCAA) after declaring insolvency in the winter of 2021. The decision to replace KPMG as the university’s auditors was made at a June 2 special meeting of Laurentian’s board of governors.

Germany triggered the "alarm stage" of its emergency gas plan on Thursday in response to falling Russian supplies but stopped short of allowing utilities to pass on soaring energy costs to customers in Europe's largest economy, Reuters reported. The measure is the latest escalation in a standoff between Europe and Moscow since the Russian invasion of Ukraine that has exposed the bloc's dependence on Russian gas supplies and sparked a frantic search for alternative energy sources.

The South Korean won hit its lowest point against the U.S. dollar in nearly 13 years on Thursday, opening at 1,299 won and weakening to more than 1,300 in intraday trading, the New York Times reported. The last time the country’s currency breached the 1,300-won threshold was in the summer of 2009, toward the end of the global financial crisis. The won also passed this threshold during the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998. South Korea’s export-driven economy makes it particularly sensitive to conditions in the global economy, which have been deteriorating recently.

Egypt’s central bank surprised most economists by leaving interest rates unchanged on Thursday, saying it can do little about external shocks to prices a month after delivering its biggest hike in nearly half a decade, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Committee maintained the deposit rate at 11.25% and the lending rate at 12.25%, a decision predicted by only three of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. While its move in May was more hawkish than expected, the central bank now appears content to wait out what it called “transitory deviations” of inflation from target.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati won the support of more than 50 legislators Thursday to keep his post following last month’s parliamentary elections as the country’s multiple crises deepen with no solution in sight, the Associated Press reported. After a day of binding consultations between President Michel Aoun and parliamentary blocs, Mikati was named by 54 lawmakers while his main rival for the post got less than half that figure. Forty-six legislators abstained from naming anyone.

The UK’s largest woollen yarn spinner, Lawton Yarns Limited, has returned to private ownership after securing a £13.4m facility from Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance, the Yorkshire Post reported. The facility funded the management buyout and will provide additional working capital and growth support to the business. Headquartered in Ravensthorpe, West Yorkshire, Lawton Yarns supplies woollen yarn to all major carpeting manufacturers in the UK and exports to Europe, Asia, and America. The facility represents a secondary buy out to return the business to private ownership.

Sri Lanka was sued in the US by a bondholder after the South Asian nation defaulted on its debt for the first time in history while struggling to stop an economic meltdown, Bloomberg News reported. Hamilton Reserve Bank Ltd., which holds more than $250 million of Sri Lanka’s 5.875% International Sovereign Bonds due July 25, filed the suit Tuesday in a New York federal court seeking full payment of principal and interest.

Britain’s inflation rate hit a new 40-year high of 9.1% in the 12 months to May, figures showed Wednesday, as Russia’s war in Ukraine drove food and fuel prices ever higher, the Associated Press reported. The Office for National Statistics said consumer price inflation rose slightly from 9% in April, itself the highest level since 1982.

Consumer price inflation accelerated to a four-decade high, adding pressure on the Bank of Canada to deliver more aggressive interest rate hikes in coming weeks, Bloomberg News reported. Annual inflation rose to 7.7% last month, up from 6.8% in April, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday in Ottawa. That’s the highest since January 1983 and well above economist expectations for a 7.3% increase. The inflation gauge rose 1.4% from a month earlier with gasoline, hotel rates and cars among the largest contributors to the gains in May.

Ongoing inflationary pressure means further monetary policy tightening will likely be needed, Swiss National Bank Chairman Thomas Jordan said on Wednesday, after the central bank last week raised its interest rate for the first time in 15 years, Reuters reported. "We published a new inflation forecast. If you interpret it correctly, you see that there's a certain need probably to tighten further," Jordan told a conference in Zurich. "We don't exactly know when and how much, but this inflationary pressure is not yet combated completely," Jordan added.