Headlines

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Monday the central bank's top priority was to support the economy, stressing an unwavering commitment to maintaining "powerful" monetary stimulus, Reuters reported. Unlike its U.S. and European counterparts, the BOJ does not face a trade-off between the need to tame inflation and support the economy, as Japan's inflation remains modest and driven by temporary factors such as rising raw material costs, Kuroda said.

Beijing residents eagerly indulged in a privilege that they had not enjoyed in weeks: dining inside a restaurant, the New York Times reported. The Chinese capital relaxed pandemic rules at midnight on Monday, including a ban on dining in, after a partial lockdown that lasted more than a month. Although the closures were not as strict as in Shanghai, the authorities in Beijing had suspended some public transportation, forced some people to quarantine, and enforced work-from-home in much of the city.

The growing caution among young buyers in China's battered property market, which accounts for a quarter of gross domestic product, presents a major challenge for policymakers in Beijing now scrambling to revive housing activity, Reuters reported. The weakness in the property sector, already buckling under huge debts, adds to the major disruptions caused by China's zero-COVID policy, which have upended factory and retail activity this year and cast a cloud over the global economy with international businesses increasingly worried about the outlook.

Chinese travel and spending has slowly started to improve as the country lifts some of its strictest coronavirus curbs, though the government’s commitment to Covid Zero has made a strong recovery elusive. Spending data from the three-day holiday weekend to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival showed a slump in domestic tourism revenue of 12.2% from a year ago -- a much narrower drop than the 43% plunge recorded a month ago over the national Labor Day holiday.

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, raised July crude oil prices for Asian buyers to higher-than-expected levels amid concerns about tight supply and expectations of strong demand in summer, Reuters reported. The official selling price (OSP) for July-loading Arab Light to Asia was hiked by $2.1 a barrel from June to $6.5 a barrel over Oman/Dubai quotes, just off an all-time-high recorded in May. That was much higher than most market forecasts for an increase around $1.5. Only one respondent of six in a Reuters poll had predicted a jump of $2.

The Mexican Auto Industry Association (AMIA) expects a slow recovery in the supply of semiconductor chips to the country, an essential component for the production of vehicles, the group's director said at a news conference on Monday, Reuters reported. "We're seeing that there will be a recovery but it won't be at the end of this year, nor during the next," AMIA director Fausto Cuevas said. Mexican automotive production and exports in May rose compared to the same month a year earlier, data from national statistics agency (INEGI) showed earlier on Monday.

EU Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said on Saturday he aimed to present a reform of the eurozone Stability Pact after the summer, adding that the new rules would likely include country-specific debt targets, Reuters reported. The European Union pact stipulates an upper limit of 60% for the ratio between the public debt and GDP (gross domestic product) of each member state, but a debate is underway in Europe on how to make the rules more flexible.

The Bucharest Chemical Equipment Assembly Trust (TMUCB), a company with a history of over 60 years and one of the largest companies in the construction field, announced that it managed to recover after an eight-year insolvency period, Romania-Insider.com reported. Since 1958, TMUCB has carried out complex turnkey technological projects for the chemical and petrochemical, metallurgical, cement, pulp and paper mills, thermal and nuclear power plants, sugar factories, car factories, tanks, transmission and distribution pipelines for petrochemicals, gas, water, steam, in Romania and abroad.

Ukraine's central bank on Friday said in a statement that it had recognised Kharkiv's Megabank as insolvent, citing lending practices at the bank ahead of the war, Reuters reported. The bank, which reported shareholder capital of 823.7 mln hryvnias ($28.16 million) last June, is 11.3% owned by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and 11.3% by Germany's KfW. https://www.businessfast.co.uk/ukraine-central-bank-declares-kharkivs-mega-bank-insolvent/Ukraine Central Bank Declares Kharkiv's Mega Bank Insolvent

The Supreme Court on Friday approved a loan settlement offer given by Siva Industries promoters, while quashing a liquidation order passed by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and upheld by the appellate authority, the Economic Times of India reported. Siva group founder C Sivasankaran’s father, RCK Vallal, offered the settlement under Section 12A of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, which enables lenders to seek NCLT approval to withdraw their petition for corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) provided 90% of them agree to the proposal.