Headlines

Britain's jobless rate hit a 48-year low in the first three months of 2022 and employers paid bigger bonuses to keep or attract staff, according to data that added to bets by investors on further Bank of England interest rate hikes, Reuters reported. Core earnings for most workers fell by the greatest amount since 2013 when adjusted for surging inflation, the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday. But total pay including bonuses was up 7.0% on a year earlier, far above economists' average forecast of 5.4%. Sterling climbed by 1.1% against the U.S.

Before Bill Hwang sent a slate of stocks on a manic climb last year, he had already started bleeding billions of dollars on a bearish bet after seeking Morgan Stanley’s help, Bloomberg News reported. It’s an untold chapter that played out just before Hwang’s famously bullish trades came tumbling down in early 2021, wiping out his Archegos Capital Management and leading to criminal charges.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday he had discussed the need for financial support for Ukraine's economy during a video conference with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, Reuters reported. "The IMF is our important partner. We look forward to further fruitful joint work in maintaining financial stability of Ukraine," Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter. Zelenskiy's office said in a statement after the video conference that he had asked for financial support to be sped up for the country, which is trying to fend off Russia's Feb. 24 invasion.

Brazil's government debt as a share of gross domestic product fell to 78.5% in March, the lowest level in almost two years, with improved revenues in states and municipalities leading to a new primary surplus for the month, Reuters reported. That compares with a gross debt of 79.2% of GDP in February, to the best result since April 2020 (78.4%), when the country was beginning to be hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Booming revenue, helped by a surge in commodities, has lifted the government's budget, while expenditures have not grown at the same pace due to a constitutional spending cap.

Sri Lanka’s new government plans to sell its national airline to stem losses, part of efforts to stabilize the nation’s finances even as authorities are forced to print money to pay government salaries, Bloomberg News reported. The new administration plans to privatize Sri Lankan Airlines, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a televised address to the nation Monday. The carrier lost 45 billion rupees ($124 million) in the year ending March 2021, he said just days before the nation is set to formally default on foreign debt.

A New Zealand wholefoods shop and education centre is facing an uncertain future. An email sent to customers from Wholegrain Organics on May 13 said the business was entering voluntary insolvency, and it would “review the business to see if there are possibilities to restructure,” Stuff.NZ reported. The email said that any orders in process or refunds due at the time of the notice would still be completed. The non-profit business has a shop, bread mill, distribution centre, cafe and a children’s workshop at its premises on the north side of The Square.

China’s economy is paying the price for the nation’s Covid Zero policy, with industrial output and consumer spending sliding to the worst levels since the pandemic began and analysts warning of no quick recovery, Bloomberg News reported. Industrial output unexpectedly fell 2.9% in April from a year ago, while retail sales contracted 11.1% in the period, weaker than a projected 6.6% drop. The unemployment rate climbed to 6.1% and the youth jobless rate hit a record. Investors responded by selling everything from Chinese shares to US index futures and oil.

Chinese financial authorities on Sunday allowed a further cut in mortgage loan interest rates for some home buyers, in another push to prop up its property market and revive a flagging engine of the world's second-largest economy, Reuters reported. For purchases of first homes, commercial banks can reduce the lower limit of interest rates on home loans by 20 basis points, based on the corresponding tenor of benchmark Loan Prime Rates (LPRs), the People's Bank of China (PBOC) and China's Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a statement.

More than 50 economists warned on Monday that Britain's post-Brexit plans to boost the competitiveness of its huge finance industry risked creating the kind of problems that led to the global financial crisis, Reuters reported. The government, seeking to use its "Brexit freedoms", announced this month that it would require regulators to help the City of London to remain a global financial centre after the country left the European Union.

Administrators for the collapsed rent-to-own firm BrightHouse, which specialised in loans for big-ticket items such as fridges and sofas, have warned they will not have enough money to compensate thousands of customers who were left with unaffordable debts. The latest report from the accountants Grant Thornton, which is managing the administration, shows a plan to set aside £600,000 for payouts to customers who may have been mis-sold expensive loans by BrightHouse has been scrapped. Meanwhile, a number of creditors have received large sums.