Headlines

Brazil and Argentina will sign a bilateral agreement creating a guarantee fund to stimulate Brazilian exports, a Brazilian government source said on Monday, as officials from both governments meet for a summit in Buenos Aires, Reuters reported.

Millions of people across Pakistan’s major cities were plunged into a blackout prompted by a power grid failure, dealing another blow to the nation already reeling from surging energy costs, Bloomberg News reported. Outages were reported in locations including Karachi, Lahore and capital Islamabad, according to local media reports, and it could take as long as 12 hours to fully restore electricity, Geo TV said, citing Power Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan. Many major businesses were relying on backup power systems, and Pakistan’s stock exchange was trading as normal.

One of Europe’s biggest investors is putting banks on notice and may start exiting the sector unless it sees proof that claims of portfolio decarbonization are matched by action, Bloomberg News reported. “The financial sector has really lagged,” said Dominique Dijkhuis, a member of the executive board and head of investments at ABP, Europe’s biggest pension fund with about $600 billion under management.

The UK grid is asking some households to cut energy use on Monday — a request which is likely to be extended Tuesday — as a plunge in wind power and freezing temperatures across the country test its ability to keep the lights on, Bloomberg News reported. National Grid Plc will use the emergency tool for the first time to help ease a supply squeeze. Starting 5 p.m., customers of Centrica Plc, EON SE and Octopus Energy Ltd. who have signed up for the program will be asked not to use dishwashers or washing machines during a two-hour period of peak demand.

A bankruptcy court on Thursday admitted military-focussed software developer Rolta India for the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP), allowing a petition filed by state-owned Union Bank of India, the Economic Times of India reported. The Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) appointed Mamta Binani as the interim resolution professional for the listed firm. Union Bank had approached the bankruptcy court in February 2020 after the Mumbai-based company defaulted on dues of over ₹1,413 crore to the lender.

The government proposal to amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), such that it permits mandatory admission of insolvency applications filed by financial creditors, is seen as a course correction after the Supreme Court's judgement on Vidarbha Industries Power, an Anil Ambani group company, the Economic Times of India reported.

The number of Scottish businesses experiencing insolvency-related activity jumped over 32% in December 2022, compared to the same period in 2021, Insider.co.uk reported. Insolvency and restructuring trade body R3's analysis of data provided by Creditsafe showed that there were 142 cases of insolvency-related activity - which includes liquidator appointments, administrator appointments and creditors’ meetings - in Scotland last month – an increase of 35 activities from December 2021’s total of 107.

Japan’s inflation has hit 4% for the first time in more than four decades, an outcome likely to keep speculation of a monetary policy change smoldering as prices grow at twice the pace targeted by the Bank of Japan, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices excluding fresh food rose 4% in December from a year ago, the internal affairs ministry reported Friday. The result matched economists’ estimate, and was led by further gains in energy and food costs.

South Korea's producer inflation slowed in December for a sixth month, dropping to the lowest rate in 20 months, central bank data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. The country's producer price index stood 6% higher in December than a year ago, compared with 6.2% in November, according to the Bank of Korea. The annual rate slowed for a sixth consecutive month, from a near 14-year high of 10% in June, and marked the slowest since April 2021. The index fell 0.3% on a monthly basis, at the same pace seen in November, in its second month of declines.

Built near a spewing volcano, it was the biggest infrastructure project ever in Ecuador, a concrete colossus bankrolled by Chinese cash and so important to Beijing that China’s leader, Xi Jinping, spoke at the 2016 inauguration. Today, thousands of cracks have emerged in the $2.7 billion Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant, government engineers said, raising concerns that Ecuador’s biggest source of power could break down, the Wall Street Journal reported. At the same time, the Coca River’s mountainous slopes are eroding, threatening to damage the dam.