Headlines

Tunisia's government said on Tuesday it suspended the export of vegetables in an effort to control inflamed prices in the local market as a severe economic crisis hits the North African country, Reuters reported. Commerce ministry spokesperson Mohamed Ali Ferchichi said the ministry decided to stop the export of tomatoes, peppers, onions and potatoes in an effort to reduce prices. Tunisia mainly exports these vegetables to its neighbor Libya.

European perfume- and cosmetics-makers face shortages of paper, glass, and some key oils and alcohols, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine adds further disruptions to the supply chains for beauty products, driving prices higher amid robust demand, Reuters reported. Like the food industry, the $500 billion global cosmetics sector is grappling with fallout from the war because producers use alcohol derived from grains and organic beets to make perfumes, and sunflower-seed oils to make cosmetics - all key crops from Ukraine.

Peru’s foreign debt has touched record lows as a wave of social unrest amid quickening inflation upends a market once famed for its resilience to near-perpetual political crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Government bonds due in 2031 have tumbled 5.5 cents since early last week to trade at 89 cents on the dollar on Tuesday, lingering near an all-time low. The extra yield investors demand to hold Peru’s bonds over U.S. Treasuries, meantime, is at 194 basis points, versus just 165 a week prior, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. data.

The nationality of who buys Citigroup's Mexican unit, known as Citibanamex, will not be the deciding factor despite the Mexican government's preference to sell the bank to a local buyer, an executive told local media in an interview published on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has made clear he wants to see investors "Mexicanize" the unit, floating names of Mexican billionaires like Ricardo Salinas of Banco Azteca and Carlos Hank Gonzalez of Banorte as potential buyers.

Exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui is offering to repay the more than $100 million he owes creditors in part by offering up the yacht that drove him to bankruptcy, court papers show, Bloomberg News reported. The businessman’s debt stems from a $30 million loan he got from a fund in 2008, which according to the lender Guo failed to repay. Guo arranged for the yacht to leave U.S. waters sometime after October 2020, putting it out of the reach of debt collectors.

The Netherlands’ data protection watchdog imposed a record 3.7 million euro ($4 million) fine Tuesday on the country’s tax office for unlawfully processing and storing personal information in a “black list” used to detect fraud, the Associated Press reported. Data Protection Authority’s Chairman Aleid Wolfsen said that the government’s Taxation Service “violated the rights of the 270,000 people on that list in an unprecedented way.” “For over 6 years, people were often wrongly labeled as fraudsters, with dire consequences,” said Wolfsen.

The Indian government on Friday said that it has amended the insolvency laws pertaining to voluntary liquidation to speed up the process, the Times of India reported. The laws on voluntary liquidation are part of the ones aimed at improving ease-of-doing business by allowing a smooth exit for firms. A statement from the government said that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Voluntary Liquidation Process) (Amendment) Regulations, 2022 were notified on April 5, 2022. The law was introduced to provide a mechanism for voluntary liquidation of a solvent corporate person.

Luckin Coffee Inc., said on Monday that it had emerged from bankruptcy proceedings, two years after an accounting fraud derailed the coffee chain's business, Reuters reported. Founded in 2017, Xiamen-based Luckin had positioned itself as a homegrown challenger to U.S. coffee giant Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O), but the much-hyped company almost collapsed in 2020 after findings that about 2.2 billion yuan ($337.31 million) in 2019 sales was fabricated.

LATAM Airlines Group SA has accused a Chilean bank representing a group of unsecured bondholders of spreading inaccurate information about the airline's proposed restructuring ahead of a key vote on the plan, Reuters reported. Attorneys for the airline will appear before U.S.

Swedish electric car start-up Uniti has filed for insolvency as the company announced on LinkedIn that it had not been able to raise enough capital, Electrive.com reported. Uniti had already warned of possible insolvency in December 2021. These financing problems for Uniti have been dragging on for some time. The warning in December was triggered by the fact that a bridging loan promised for the end of November did not materialise. At the time, it was said that if 500,000 euros could not be raised within a week, insolvency would have to be declared.