Headlines

Trading on credit-default swaps, used to insure against non-payment, has skyrocketed this week despite the myriad of questions over whether Russia’s plan to repay some foreign bondholders in rubles could ultimately be judged as a default, Bloomberg News reported. There are even concerns that international sanctions and existing bond terms could complicate any settlement of the $39.7 billion of outstanding contracts. And yet, the swaps suggest a record 71% chance of default within one year and 81% within five years, according to ICE Data Services.

The European Central Bank unexpectedly accelerated its wind-down of monetary stimulus, signaling it’s more concerned about record inflation than weaker economic growth as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to propel prices even higher, Bloomberg News reported. Calling the war a “watershed” moment for Europe, ECB officials pledged to slow bond buying from the start of May, and said they could halt the program as soon as the third quarter. They tried to temper that by making a subsequent interest-rate hike less automatic.

Cryptocurrency evangelists are on the defensive amid warnings from U.S. and European lawmakers that digital asset companies are not up to the task of complying with Western sanctions imposed on Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported. The criticism has seen the crypto industry scrambling to regain control of the narrative, with many executives frustrated that the compliance regimes in place at leading exchanges, such as Coinbase and Binance, are being called into question.

Capital-hungry smaller Chinese startups are vying for speedy offshore listings by merging with blank-check firms at a time when Beijing's tighter scrutiny has slowed capital raising via overseas IPOs, company executives and bankers said, Reuters reported. As a string of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) hunt for targets to merge with, the startups see an opportunity to raise funds and get listed by cutting the time and regulatory rigour needed for traditional market debuts, they said.

Britain’s business leaders are pressing Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak for emergency support in this month’s mini-budget to cope with a historic surge in energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported. Industry groups are calling for targeted help through a six-month extension of the state-backed recovery loan program or a business version of the energy relief granted to households last month.

Brazil's government is planning to allow port costs to be excluded from tax calculations to lower the cost of imports, three Economy Ministry sources told Reuters, in a measure backed by the country's industry lobby. At the same time the government is mulling cutting the tax levied on shipping freight, two of the officials said. The moves are prompted by the surge in commodity prices and higher shipping costs caused by the war in Ukraine.

Egypt's annual urban consumer price inflation surged to its highest in nearly three years in February, driven by a sharp increase in food prices, figures from the state statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Thursday, Reuters reported. Inflation rose to 8.8% year on year from 7.3% in January, putting it near the upper limit of the central bank's 5-9% target range and indicating that the bank's monetary policy committee may increase interest rates when it meets on March 24. February's inflation figure was the highest since June 2019.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has suspended its operations in Russia after local tax authorities in Moscow initiated bankruptcy proceedings against its Russian entity, the Wall Street Journal reported. RFE/RL, a U.S. government-funded organization known for broadcasting uncensored news during the Cold War throughout the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries, said that the involuntary filing was part of a series of “Kremlin attacks” that has intensified since Russian forces began their invasion of Ukraine.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on using the country's rainy-day National Wealth Fund to buy OFZ government bonds and stocks, the RIA news agency reported on Wednesday. Putin also signed a series of laws enabling a new "capital amnesty" designed to encourage people to return money or financial instruments to Russia without facing tax or other penalties, RIA reported. Read more.

Banks are having conversations with potential buyers on how to get rid of their exposure to Russian corporate loans, but sanctions fears and pricing uncertainty are limiting trading activity and the ability of buyers to act, Reuters reported. Punishing Western sanctions on Moscow in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine have prompted some distressed debt buyers to approach banks holding Russian loans to sound out their appetite to potentially sell that exposure at a discount.