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China’s exports to the rest of the world shrank unexpectedly in October, a sign that global trade is in sharp retreat as consumers and businesses cut back spending in response to central banks’ aggressive moves to tame inflation, the Wall Street Journal reported. The slide in exports from the world’s factory floor adds to the gloom surrounding the global economy as leaders from the Group of 20 advanced and developing countries prepare to gather in Indonesia next week. A buoyant U.S.
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Mexican telecommunications company Altan Redes has emerged from bankruptcy with government assistance, according to a statement published by the firm on Thursday, Reuters reported. Altan Redes announced it filed for bankruptcy in July 2021 and said it was seeking protection under Mexican law to renegotiate its debts. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced in June that the government had signed an agreement to become the majority stakeholder in Altan Redes and would bail it out.
The Bank of Mexico is expected to raise its key interest rate by 75 basis points, a Reuters poll showed on Monday, following the U.S. Federal Reserve's three-quarters of a percentage point hike last week in an effort to tame stubbornly high inflation. All 17 analysts consulted for the poll expect Banxico, as Mexico's central bank is known, to raise its benchmark rate to a record 10% this week, from 9.25%.
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The new head of Ukraine's central bank said on Monday the bank's main tasks remained the same, including strengthening the bank's independence, Reuters reported. "The obligations remain unchanged," Andriy Pyshnyi, who was appointed last month, told a news conference at which he said that Ukraine's banking system was stable.
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China's exports and imports unexpectedly contracted in October, the first simultaneous slump since May 2020, as surging inflation and rising interest rates hammered global demand while new COVID-19 curbs at home disrupted output and consumption, Reuters reported. Outbound shipments in October shrank 0.3% from a year earlier, a sharp turnaround from a 5.7% gain in September, official data showed on Monday, and well below analysts' expectations for a 4.3% increase. It was the worst performance since May 2020.
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Improving transparency of 'non-banks' such as pension funds is a first step in applying lessons from turmoil in Britain's government bond market, Bank of England executive director Sarah Breeden said on Monday, Reuters reported. The central bank had to intervene in UK bond markets in September after the 1.6 trillion pound Liability Driven Investment funds (LDI) sector - used by pension funds to help ensure future payouts - struggled to meet collateral calls after the previous government's tax cut plans triggered a market rout.
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Turkey should tighten monetary policy and give its central bank more independence, a mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday, Reuters reported. "To address (Turkey's) challenges, the mission recommended early policy rate hikes accompanied by moves to strengthen the central bank's independence," said the IMF in a press release. "Such moves would help reduce inflation more durably and allow reserve buffers to be rebuilt over time." Forex reserves have dropped sharply in recent years due to market interventions and in the wake of a currency crisis in December.
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Growth in French mortgage lending slowed to the weakest pace this year in September as the European Central Bank’s rate hikes began to dent demand in the euro area’s second-largest economy, Bloomberg News reported. Outstanding lending for home purchases grew 6.2% from a year earlier after rising 6.3% in August, and the Bank of France said early indicators show a further slowdown to 6% in October. The average interest rate for new housing loans is estimated at 1.79% in October -- the most expensive since 2016.
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German finance watchdog BaFin has told Deutsche Bank to take specific measures to improve efforts to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing or face fines, the latest rebuke in regulatory proceedings against the bank that started in 2018, Reuters reported. BaFin said in a brief statement on its website late on Friday it had ordered the bank on Sept. 28 to take specific measures or else face fines, part of regulatory requirements that were imposed on the bank from September 2018. The regulator declined to give further details.
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Santander will block UK customers from sending real-time payments to cryptocurrency exchanges next year as part of measures to protect customers from scams, the bank said in an emailed statement on Friday, Reuters reported. At an unspecified point during 2023, the bank will introduce a block on all real-time payments to cryptocurrency exchanges made via telephone banking and in-branch payments, as well as online and mobile banking. From Nov. 15 this year, the bank will join other UK retail banks in limiting customer transfers to cryptocurrency exchanges.