Headlines

Philippine Airlines Inc. received approval to tap $150 million in additional financing and plans to cut its debt by $2 billion, after winning approval last month from a U.S. court for its reorganization plan, Bloomberg News reported. “There are immense challenges ahead, but we look forward to tackling them as a reinvigorated Philippine Airlines, better positioned for strategic growth to continue serving our customers,” President Gilbert Santa Maria said in an emailed statement Friday.

China added $16.7 billion in foreign debt in the third quarter of 2021 due in part to increased purchases of onshore yuan-denominated bonds by foreign investors, Bloomberg News reported. About 47% of China’s outstanding debt of $2.7 trillion at the end of September are medium to long-term obligations, up three percentage points from the end of June, Wang Chunying, deputy director and spokesman of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said in a statement released on Friday.

China’s manufacturing and service sectors showed unexpected signs of recovery to close out the year, according to a pair of official gauges released Friday, as Beijing moved to arrest a downward spiral triggered by a real-estate slump and coronavirus outbreaks, the Wall Street Journal reported. China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 50.3 in December, up from November’s 50.1, the National Bureau of Statistics reported Friday. The result was better than the 50.0 median expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

Turkey’s inflation climbed to a nearly two-decade high in December on the back of a weakening lira that is driving up the cost of food and other basic goods and destabilizing the wider economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. Annual inflation rose to 36.08% last month, up from 21.3% in November, the Turkish Statistical Institute said Monday—the highest inflation rate since 2002, according to economists. The rampant inflation raises new concerns that it could overwhelm a government rescue plan unveiled last month to stabilize the battered local currency.

Australia's government said the milder impact of the Omicron strain of COVID-19 meant the country could push ahead with plans to reopen the economy even as new infections hit a record of more than 37,000 and the number of people hospitalised rose, Reuters reported. Record daily case numbers were reported on Monday in the states of Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania, as well as the Australian Capital Territory.

Canada's Centerra Gold on Monday confirmed it was in talks with the Kyrgyzstan government for an out-of-court settlement over a dispute in which the state seized the company's Kumtor mine, Reuters reported. In May 2021, Centerra kicked off arbitration against the former Soviet republic after it took over the country's biggest mine for allegedly posing danger to human lives or the environment. The company also froze the government's stake when it seized the mine, meaning it does not have voting rights, nor is it entitled to dividends.

Manufacturing activity in the euro zone remained resilient at the end of 2021 as factories took advantage of an easing in supply chain bottlenecks and stocked up on raw materials at a record pace, a survey showed, Reuters reported. The global coronavirus pandemic had left factories struggling to get the materials they need and sent costs soaring, but a tentative easing of the supply issues led to a marked decrease in price pressures.

Israel's government said on Thursday it would give additional aid to El Al Airlines to help compensate for the reimposition of a COVID-19 entry ban on foreign tourists and restrictions on overseas travel by Israelis, Reuters reported. Israel's flag carrier will receive tens of millions of dollars from the state and El Al's controlling shareholders to help it weather the pandemic, and the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, according to a Finance Ministry statement.

China Evergrande Group halted trading in its shares following local media reports that the company has been ordered to tear down apartment blocks in a development in Hainan province, Bloomberg News reported. The shares were suspended pending an announcement containing inside information, Evergrande said in a brief statement. A local government in Hainan told Evergrande to demolish 39 buildings in 10 days because the building permit was illegally obtained, Cailian reported on Saturday. The project is on artificially built islands off the coast of Hainan.

For 12 months, British businesses have been confronting the reality of the country’s decision to distance itself from its largest trading partner. Initially, the new system collapsed: Perishable goods got stuck at ports, retailers discovered their supply chains were obsolete and trucking companies stopped delivering to the whole island of Ireland. The worst of the problems (outside of Northern Ireland) eased after a few months. But what remains is a frustrating regime of higher costs, time-consuming customs paperwork and countless lost opportunities, the New York Times reported.