Headlines

The Commercial Court in Zagreb has opened the pre-bankruptcy proceedings of Marijo Mendek's company Selection MM, known as the most famous Croatian luxury food importer and premium wines, Total-Croatia-News.com reported. The move was initiated at Mendek's own request due to "threats of insolvency" as well as blocked accounts and an established debt of about 219,000 kuna. In his own proposal, Mendek also listed the assets owned by MM Selection, which also includes the MM building in Ilica in Zagreb's Kustosija, three Citroen delivery vehicles and a mini cooper one.

Two of China’s largest and most prosperous cities have cut interest rates for prospective home buyers, joining an effort to prop up a housing sector whose weakness could threaten the broader economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. Six of China’s largest state-owned banks, including Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, cut mortgage rates for home buyers in the southern city of Guangzhou by 0.2 percentage point on Monday, according to state-run broadcaster China Central Television.

South Korea’s parliament passed a larger-than-planned first extra budget of the year as the government tries to shore up parts of the economy worst hit by the nation’s biggest coronavirus outbreak of the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The 16.9 trillion won ($14.2 billion) budget, approved by parliament late Monday, is aimed at compensating losses to businesses that have been laboring under some of the strictest conditions since Covid-19 erupted, as virus cases rose from thousands a day to over a 100,000. The government had initially proposed a 14 trillion won plan.

The United States Trade Representative's (USTR) office said on Tuesday it opposed Canada's plan to enact a digital services tax (DST) and urged Canada to abandon plans for such a step, Reuters reported. "The United States urges Canada to abandon any plans for a unilateral measure and instead redouble its commitment to the rapid implementation of Pillar One of the October 8 OECD/G20 agreement and the negotiation of a multilateral convention", the USTR office said in a statement.

When Honduran President Xiomara Castro sent the bond market into a tailspin just minutes after taking office last month, it all seemed like some big misunderstanding, Bloomberg News reported. That same day, Pedro Barquero, Castro’s economy minister, rushed to clarify that she had meant to say in her inaugural address that the government should “refinance” its debts, not “restructure” them. This was plausible enough. Politicians not steeped in the intricacies of high finance have been mixing those two words up for decades.

Zimbabwe has selected Kuvimba Mining House Ltd., a state-owned company, which has been shrouded in controversy, to revive one of the continent’s largest steel mills, Bloomberg News reported. The miner, which already has vast interests in gold and nickel, has been picked as the “investment partner” to breath new life into the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company, which has been shut for 14 years. At its peak, the plant produced nearly 1 million tons of steel a year.

Pressure is piling up on Riksbank Governor Stefan Ingves to unwind the central bank’s ultra-loose policy as Sweden’s tight labor market and rising energy prices starts to translate into broader inflation, Bloomberg News reported. The Nordic nation has recovered briskly from the pandemic and its economy is showing signs of overheating, prompting critics within the bank as well as externally to push for withdrawing stimulus.

Zhenro Properties Group Ltd., a Chinese developer, said its existing internal resources may be insufficient to meet debt payment obligations next month, according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, Bloomberg News reported. The Shanghai-based developer is soliciting the consent of creditors “to certain proposed waiver and amendments” to help improve its overall finances and give it stability, it said in the filing late Friday. Zhenro is China’s 30th largest builder by contracted sales in 2021, according to China Real Estate Information Corp.

Italy’s government approved almost 8 billion euros ($9 billion) in aid to shield consumers and companies from soaring energy prices that are weighing on the economic outlook, Bloomberg News reported. Some 6 billion euros were allocated for energy aid, while other funds will support industries including the automotive sector, Prime Minister Mario Draghi told reporters on Friday. Draghi’s administration had already allotted more than 10 billion euros to offset the energy price spike for consumers.

Canadian retail sales most likely rose 2.4% in January from December, preliminary data from Statistics Canada showed on Friday, following on a 1.8% decline in December as consumers stayed home amid concerns over the Omicron coronavirus variant, Reuters reported. Retail sales totaled C$57.05 billion ($44.91 billion) in December, down from C$58.06 billion in November. For full year 2021, retail sales came in at C$674 billion, an all-time record, Statscan said. In December, sales were down in eight of 11 subsectors, representing 41.7% of retail trade.