Headlines

Chile’s government is confident it will be able to undertake massive structural reforms without scaring away foreign investors, according to one of the nation’s top economic officials, Bloomberg News reported. “Our main message is that change is not the same as uncertainty,” Economy Minister Nicolas Grau, 39, said in an interview Monday in Ottawa. He spoke in Canada as part of an official visit by Chile’s left-wing President Gabriel Boric, who met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and investors before he travels to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles.

Hungary plans to offer bonds in euros and dollars as Prime Minister Viktor Orban seeks alternatives to billions of euros in blocked European Union funding, Bloomberg News reported. Hungary is seeking to sell seven-year and 12-year benchmark-sized bonds in dollars and nine-year bonds in euros in the near future, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak about it. BNP Paribas SA, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., ING Groep NV and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are to arrange the sale, the person said.

When Japan’s leader released his economic vision Tuesday, he left out an important date. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida deleted a pledge from earlier government statements calling for Japan’s budget to be balanced by 2025. And he declined to give a date by which Japan would do something to lower its government debt, while promising to significantly increase military spending, the Wall Street Journal reported. It is a bold stance, given that the debt tops ¥1.1 quadrillion or $8.3 trillion at current rates, more than twice the size of the economy.

China's sputtering economy has a lot riding on its consumers, who are just now emerging from lockdowns in Shanghai and other big cities. But those hopes are running up against the likes of Wu Lei, a soccer coach in Beijing who has put off buying a new mobile phone, Bloomberg News reported. "I've lost the lion's share of my income since Beijing called a stop to after-school sports clubs in April," said Wu, a 37-year-old with two daughters. The five-week-long near-shutdown of the Chinese capital under China's stringent COVID-19 measures was eased on Monday.

South Africa's economy grew more than expected in the first quarter, recovering to the level it was before the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to a strong performance by sectors like manufacturing, data from the statistics agency showed, Reuters reported. The growth trajectory will offer some comfort to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has been under pressure to lift the growth rate. Gross domestic product grew 1.9% in the first quarter in quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted terms and by 3.0% year-on-year unadjusted in the first three months of the year.

Sri Lanka will need $5 billion over the next six months to ensure basic living standards, and is renegotiating the terms of a yuan-denominated swap worth $1.5 billion with China so as to fund essential imports, the prime minister said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The island nation's worst economic crisis in seven decades led to a shortage of foreign exchange that stalled imports of essential items such as fuel, medicine and fertiliser, provoking devaluation, street protests and a change of government.

Insolvency and restructuring specialists in the U.K. are preparing for a flurry of activity as supply chain issues, spiraling energy costs and rising inflation trigger a wave of corporate distress and bankruptcies, the Telegram reported. The signs are already ominous. During the first three months of the year, around 137,000 businesses closed their doors for good in the UK, a jump of nearly a quarter on the same period in 2021, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

An already tough year for sterling corporate credit may get worse as Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a crunch no-confidence vote, Bloomberg News reported. Borrowing costs for UK companies are at the highest since 2014, while an index of sterling corporate credit is on its longest losing run ever, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. With surging inflation and an uncertain economic outlook on the horizon, what markets don’t need right now is more uncertainty.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has dismissed the petition of Wave Mega City Center (WMCC) Private Limited that had approached the tribunal under section 10 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code to initiate the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), the Economic Times of India reported. The tribunal had completed the argument and reserved the order on October 26, 2021. “The tribunal has just pronounced the order. We evaluate the order and will approach the appropriate court for the next course of action.

Australia’s central bank is poised to implement back-to-back interest-rate increases for the first time in 12 years on Tuesday, economists and traders predict, with the key debate centering on the size of the move, Bloomberg News reported. Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe and his board will raise the cash rate by 25 basis points to 0.60%, according to 15 of 29 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Three analysts see a half-point rise, while the remaining 11, as well as money markets, forecast a larger 40-basis-point hike.