Headlines

Liquidators for failed cryptocurrency exchange MyCryptoWallet claim the business may have traded whilst insolvent for three years before its collapse, and have drawn into question $3.4 million in ‘unfair or preferential’ transactions made by the company’s founder, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. MyCryptoWallet was a Melbourne-based exchange founded in 2017 by Jaryd Koenigsmann, which allowed users to buy and sell popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

High energy prices are forcing some manufacturers to halt production in a foretaste of what may become a more widespread shutdown that if the war in Ukraine leads to acute shortages of natural gas, Bloomberg News reported. A survey by Make UK, the manufacturing industry group, found that 17% of companies have had to “temporarily halt production of products that are energy intensive to fabricate” this year. Gas prices have risen 59-fold since May 2020, and oil prices are at a seven year high, making it increasingly costly for factories to maintain output.

Germany has earmarked 200 billion euros ($220 billion) to fund industrial transformation between now and 2026, including climate protection, hydrogen technology and expansion of the electric vehicle charging network, its finance minister said, Reuters reported. "200 billion euros in funding for the transformation of the economy, society and the state," Christian Lindner told public broadcaster ARD on Sunday, adding that this also included the removal of renewable energy levies.

Mexico's year-on-year inflation likely accelerated in February after cooling slightly over the previous two months, a Reuters poll showed on Friday, reinforcing expectations that the central bank will continue to raise its key interest rate, Reuters reported. The consensus forecast of 11 analysts surveyed was for inflation to grow to 7.23% from 7.07% in January. If the prediction is correct, it would be the first increase since November, when inflation hit a 20-year high.

Argentina’s government published on Friday the detailed plan for reducing its fiscal deficit and central bank financing as part of its pending $45 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg News reported. The agreement with IMF staff, announced Thursday, has now been submitted to Argentina’s congress and will go before a vote sometime in the coming weeks. The country will receive 7 billion ($9.8 billion) of the IMF’s special drawing rights upon approval by lawmakers and the executive board of the Washington-based organization, according to the document.

Brazil's economy expanded 0.5% in the three months to December, government statistics agency IBGE said on Friday, resulting in a 4.6% expansion of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021, Reuters reported. The growth from the previous quarter was higher than the 0.1% forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. The 1.6% expansion over the fourth quarter of 2020 was also larger than the 1.1% rise projected.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is shutting an emerging-markets bond fund that tumbled about 6% since Russia invaded Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported. The JPMorgan Emerging Markets Strategic Debt Fund will be liquidated at the end of April, the New York-based bank said Thursday in a regulatory filing. The fund, which debuted almost a decade ago, had $454.4 million of assets as of Wednesday. About 4.5% of net assets were invested in Ukrainian government debt at the end of October, according to the most recent portfolio report, with 1.1% devoted to Russian government bonds.

Bonds issued by the Ukrainian government hit new lows Wednesday despite assurances from foreign governments and global institutions that they would continue to buttress Ukraine’s wartime finances, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. On Wednesday, a Ukrainian government bond coming due in September was quoted between 36 and 40 cents on the dollar, down from 65 cents on Friday, according to data from FactSet. A 2033 bond was quoted between 23 to 26 cents on the dollar Wednesday, down from 45 cents Friday.

Ukraine's central bank decided to postpone a review of its main interest rate and keep it unchanged at 10.0% on Thursday in an effort to maintain financial stability and the smooth operation of the banking system amid the Russian invasion, Reuters reported. It said the bank remained committed to its inflation targeting regime but in the current conditions, with forced administrative restrictions in place, market-based monetary instruments such as the key policy rate no longer play a significant role. "With this in mind, the central bank has postponed its key policy rate decision.