Headlines

Oil is backing up through Russia’s energy supply chain and leading to a drop in crude-oil production, a blow to Moscow’s main economic engine as the war in Ukraine rages, the Wall Street Journal reported. Refiners are trimming output and in some cases closing down because of falling demand at home and abroad. Storage space is running low in pipelines and tanks. Wells, which pump from some of the world’s biggest crude reserves, are dialing down production. The losses so far are modest, and overall the industry continues to generate massive amounts of revenue for Moscow.

Texas will halt some vehicle inspections at the U.S.-Mexico border after Governor Greg Abbott’s crackdown provoked protests that halted some crucial food and equipment shipments, Bloomberg News reported. Abbott said Wednesday that the state government of Nuevo Leon in northern Mexico agreed to conduct safety inspections before U.S.-bound trucks reach the border. The inspections will continue in other sectors of the U.S.-Mexico line. Abbott said he acted in response to what he called U.S. President Joe Biden’s failure to repel undocumented migration and drug smuggling.

Argentina’s inflation rate galloped to its fastest pace in March since 2002, challenging a strategy by the government’s to cool prices that already lacked support from within the ruling coalition, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 6.7% last month compared to February, the highest level since Argentina was in one of its worst economic crises 20 years ago. Inflation reached 55.1% from a year ago, the highest annual level of President Alberto Fernandez’s presidency and most since June 2019. Both results were above all forecasts among economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Canada's biggest banks said on Wednesday they will raise their prime lending rate by 50 basis points to 3.2%, a two-year high, following the Bank of Canada's benchmark rate hike, moves that could rein in the country's red-hot housing markets, Reuters reported. The country's four biggest banks - Royal Bank of Canada , Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia and Bank of Montreal - said the higher prime rate, which variable-rate mortgages are tied to, will come into effect on Thursday.

Sri Lanka was downgraded deeper into junk by Fitch Ratings, which said the nation’s decision to suspend payments on its foreign debt has kicked off a sovereign default process, Bloomberg News reported. Fitch Ratings downgraded the nation’s long-term foreign currency to C, one step above default. Earlier, S&P also cut the country’s score to CC, the third-lowest level.

Ulster Bank said on Wednesday that it has formally begun writing to groups of current and deposit account customers in Ireland to give them six months’ notice to move their business to another provider and close their accounts, the Irish Times reported. The bank said it is sending out letters and emails on a phased basis to different groups of customers “to help to facilitate orderly account switching and new account opening across the industry and to avoid a single closure date for customers and the industry”.

Sri Lanka warned of an unprecedented default and halted payments on foreign debt, an extraordinary step taken to preserve its dwindling dollar stockpile for essential food and fuel imports, Bloomberg News reported. All outstanding payments to bond holders, bilateral creditors and institutional lenders will be suspended until a debt restructure, the finance ministry said in a statement Tuesday. The newly appointed central bank governor, Nandalal Weerasinghe, said in a briefing that authorities are seeking to negotiate with creditors and warning of a possible default.

The World Bank is preparing a $1.5 billion support package for war-torn Ukraine and plans to aid developing countries struggling to keep up with surging food and energy prices, World Bank President David Malpass said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. In remarks at the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland, Malpass said that the bank was helping Ukraine provide critical services, including paying wages for hospital workers, pensions and social programs.

Mexican truckers blockaded a key Texas border crossing for a second day to protest Governor Greg Abbott’s stepped-up vehicle inspections, raising the specter of delivery disruptions for everything from avocados to auto parts, Bloomberg News reported. The growing queue of 18-wheelers on the Mexican side of the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge has choked crossings to a halt, according to a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The Bank of Israel delivered an interest-rate hike that exceeded most forecasts to signal the start of a rare monetary tightening cycle in the face of inflation it now expects to peak later and at a higher level, according to the deputy governor, Bloomberg News reported. Andrew Abir, a voting member of the monetary committee and the central bank’s No. 2 official, said Israel’s inflation -- currently above the government’s 1%-3% target range -- will likely only begin to decline in the second half of the year.