Headlines

The European Union is successfully stepping up the fight to fend off risky foreign business takeovers from nations like China that could endanger national security or threaten control over essential sectors like energy, transport and health care, the Associated Press reported. The unprecedented legislation creating a new area of coordination in the 27-nation EU makes the bloc much better equipped to protect strategic homegrown businesses, a top French official said.

Rapid action is needed to update how cross-border financial services are scrutinised and consumers protected as the sector becomes digitalised with "Big Tech" playing an increased role, European Union regulators said on Monday, Reuters reported. People are turning to social media and using smartphones to buy and sell shares, move money around bank accounts and make payments, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving regulators playing catch-up.

Mexican Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier said on Monday the country's economy was likely to grow about 2.5% this year after being hit by the Omicron wave of the coronavirus pandemic, in a blow to President Andres Manuel Lopez, Reuters reported. Mexico's economy contracted for a second straight quarter in the last three-month period of 2021, putting it in a technical recession and confirming growth had lost momentum. Overall the economy expanded 5.0% for full-year 2021 after shrinking 8.5% in 2020 in Mexico's worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Colombia launched a series of measures seeking to curb the fastest inflation in five years, largely from increases in food prices, the nation’s finance minister said, Bloomberg News reported. Minister Jose Manuel Restrepo announced a package of measures after inflation accelerated in January, more than doubling its 3% target. Restrepo spoke on Sunday alongside the agriculture and transport ministers, among other high-level officials, after a meeting with President Ivan Duque, according to a video from the administration.

The United States and Japan are set to announce a deal to grant Japanese steelmakers relief from Trump-era U.S. tariffs for a limited amount of steel imports, Reuters reported. Anonymous sources said that it will allow about 1.25 million metric tonnes into the United States duty-free, with volumes above that level subject to the 25% "Section 232" national security tariffs.

Qatar’s government has approached international banks to explore refinancing more than $10 billion in debt that comes due next year, Reuters reported. Officials at the Ministry of Finance are in early talks with international banks for a potential syndicated loan or bond sale. No final decision has been made, the people said. The government may decide to refinance part of the debt or even shelve the plan since the country has financial flexibility, they said. A spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Finance said that the government didn’t have immediate plans to refinance debt.

Turkey is preparing to return to global bond markets for the first time since the lira’s implosion, Bloomberg News reported. The nation has picked banks including HSBC Holdings Plc to manage a sale of Islamic debt, known as a sukuk, which could happen this month. The sale may be used to refinance about $2 billion of debt maturing this month. The last time Turkey turned to foreign investors with a bond sale was in September, before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s insistence on cutting interest rates despite high inflation sent the currency into a tailspin.

KPMG has been sued for 1.3 billion pounds ($1.77 billion) by the liquidators of Carillion for missing "red flags" during audits of the construction giant, in one of the largest claims against one of the world's top accountants, Reuters reported. Britain's Official Receiver, part of the Insolvency Service, which is liquidating the former blue-chip group, alleged that negligent failures by KPMG to detect misstatements in the accounts of Carillion - which collapsed in 2018 under 7 billion pounds of debt - cost claimants "extensive loss and damage".

Prices are rising steeply in the United States and across Europe, driven by rising energy costs and supply-chain issues triggered by the easing of pandemic rules. But in Britain, there is a fear that sharply escalating heat and electricity bills, combined with food inflation, will push millions more into poverty, the New York Times reported. The Bank of England lifted interest rates on Thursday for the second time in two months — moving before the Federal Reserve or the European Central Bank.

The Chinese government could take further measures if needed to keep the yuan stable, potentially putting downward pressure on the currency, a former foreign exchange regulator said, Reuters reported. Policymakers could increase yuan's flexibility, expand capital outflows, or control capital inflows to rein in the yuan, which could deviate from economic fundamentals in the short term, wrote Guan Tao, global chief economist at BOC International and a former official at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).