Headlines

Euro-zone inflation accelerated to an all-time high, intensifying the debate at the European Central Bank about how rapidly to raise interest rates from record lows, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices jumped 8.1% from a year earlier in May, exceeding the 7.8% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. The acceleration was driven by food and energy after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent commodity prices soaring. A gauge that excludes volatile items like those rose 3.8%.

India's economic growth slipped to 4.1% year-on-year in January -March, data showed on Tuesday, dragged down by soaring prices that could make the central bank's task of taming inflation without hitting growth more difficult, Reuters reported. Gross domestic product grew 4.1% year-on-year in January-March quarter, the data showed, in line with 4% forecast by economists in a Reuters poll, and below 5.4% growth in Oct-December and growth of 8.4% in July-Sept. India also revised its annual GDP estimates for the fiscal year, predicting 8.7% growth, lower than its earlier estimate of 8.9%.

Sri Lanka’s headline inflation surged to a record in May amid continuing food and fuel shortages as the country struggles to lift itself out of its worst economic crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices in the capital Colombo rose 39.1% from a year ago, the Department of Census and Statistics said in a statement Tuesday. That’s faster than the median 35% climb forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey and is the highest level on record. Food inflation surged 57.4%, while prices of non-food items jumped 30.6%, the data showed.

Japan's jobless rate fell to 2.5% in April, while the availability of jobs increased, government data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was lower than the 2.6% reported for March, which was also the median forecast for April in a Reuters poll of economists. The jobs-to-applicants ratio was 1.23 in April, labour ministry data showed, in line with a Reuters poll forecast and rising 0.01 point from the previous month's 1.22. Read more.

Economic activity in China declined for a third straight month in May, though at a slower pace than in April, according to surveys of businesses and factories, the Wall Street Journal reported. But while the surveys suggest the economy is beginning to climb out of a severe downturn as Covid-19 restrictions are eased, economists are skeptical about a big revival. Growth will remain subdued, they say, as long as the government employs a zero-tolerance approach to virus outbreaks that involves mass lockdowns and business closures.

China's lack of experience with tricky debt restructurings and slow coordination among its public lenders is holding up debt relief for Zambia, a test case for the top emerging market creditor, Reuters reported. Zambia became in 2020 the first country to default in the COVID-19 pandemic era, struggling under a debt burden worth 120% of GDP. Its external debt topped $17 billion at the end of 2021, of which a third was owed to China, according to Zambian government data.

Britain set out sweeping reforms of big company audits on Tuesday after high-profile collapses at builder Carillion and retailer BHS in recent years hit thousands of jobs and raised questions about accounting quality, Reuters reported. The business ministry detailed changes to auditing and corporate governance that will be put into law, though the measures are unlikely to come into force until 2024 or later and smaller firms will be shielded from the new rules.

China Evergrande Group is considering repaying offshore public bondholders owed around $19 billion with cash instalments and equity in two of its Hong Kong-listed units, two sources said, as the world's most indebted developer struggles to emerge from its financial crisis, Reuters reported. Evergrande's entire $22.7 billion worth of offshore debt including loans and private bonds is deemed to be in default after missing payment obligations late last year. It said in March that it will unveil a preliminary debt restructuring proposal by the end of July.

State-backed Chinese property developer Greenland Holdings said on Friday that it plans to extend the repayment of its $488 million offshore bond maturing in June by one year, according to a transcript seen by Reuters and confirmed by sources who attended an investor call. Shanghai-based Greenland is the first state-backed developer to extend a dollar bond payment since the country's property sector plunged into a debt crisis last year.

Shanghai took more gradual steps on Friday towards lifting its COVID-19 lockdown while Beijing was investigating cases where its strict curbs were affecting other medical treatments as China soldiered on with its uneven exit from restrictions, Reuters reported. The financial hub and the capital have been hot spots, with a harsh two-month lockdown to arrest a coronavirus spike in Shanghai and tight movement restrictions to stamp out a small but stubborn outbreak in Beijing.