Headlines

Chinese creditors have sued China Evergrande Group for more than $13 billion in allegedly overdue payments, according to a report. A Chinese court assigned to handle civil lawsuits against Evergrande accepted 367 cases, with claims totaling 84 billion yuan ($13.2 billion), the Financial Times reported, citing official records.

The Bank of Japan is set to keep monetary policy ultra-loose on Friday but may dial back emergency pandemic-funding, less than 48 hours after the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled an imminent end to stimulus as policymakers respond to soaring global inflation, Reuters reported. The BOJ's anticipated decision, underpinned by cautious optimism that the economic damage wrought by coronavirus crisis is gradually healing, will put it in line with major central banks' moves to phase out crisis-mode policies, Reuters reported.

Mexican carrier Aeromexico on Thursday said an unnamed third party would make a tender offer valuing its oustanding shares at a fraction of their previous market price as part of its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy, Reuters reported. News of the planned tender offer, which would offer 0.01 peso for each outstanding share, sent its shares tumbling nearly 75%. Shares in the company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States last year amid the pandemic, closed at 3.89 pesos on Wednesday. They were trading at 1.84 pesos in early afternoon in Mexico.

Turkey’s minimum wage will rise 50% in 2022 to help offset living costs that have surged as the central bank unleashed a series of lira-weakening interest-rate cuts to support President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s push to rewire the economy, Bloomberg News reported. The monthly net minimum salary will be 4,250 liras ($275), Erdogan said during a televised press conference. In 2021, it stood at 2,826 liras, a figure that converted to $380 at the start of the year but has fallen to $186 with the lira’s 51% depreciation.

A Malaysian court has approved a restructuring scheme for budget long-haul carrier AirAsia X Bhd that will pay just 0.5% of debt owed and end existing contracts, the airline said in a Thursday filing, Reuters reported. The High Court of Malaya granted a sanction order at a hearing on Thursday and “the proposed debt restructuring will take effect upon lodgement of the sanction order with the Registrar of Companies of Malaysia,” the filing said. Last month, AirAsia X’s creditors agreed to the scheme to restructure 33.65 billion ringgit ($8 billion) of liabilities.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has urged banks to continue to help borrowers who face financial difficulties, address their repayment issues as well as postpone legal action on errant borrowers, the New Straits Times reported. He said that borrowers who need help should contact their respective banks to discuss the appropriate restructure or rescheduling of debt repayments. He said the government welcomed efforts by the banking sector to continue supporting and helping borrowers by restructuring their debts.

Lebanon's central bank said on Thursday it would sell U.S. dollars to commercial banks at the rate on its Sayrafa foreign exchange platform, but analysts said offering more hard currency would do little to steady the already crippled Lebanese pound, Reuters reported. Lebanon's economy has been in freefall since 2019, when a mountain of debt and political gridlock, drove the nation into its deepest crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. The Lebanese pound, which was exchanged freely at 1,500 to the dollar before the crisis, has collapsed to around 25,000 on the unofficial market.

Singapore has introduced a new round of property curbs for its private and public residential markets, a bid to cool a surge in home prices over the past year, Bloomberg News reported. The city state is raising additional stamp duties for second-home buyers and foreigners as well as tightening loan limits for public housing apartments starting Thursday. It will also increase the supply of public and private housing, according to a joint statement by the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of National Development and Monetary Authority of Singapore late Wednesday.

Cineworld Group Plc plunged as much as 40% after a court ordered the world’s second-largest cinema chain to pay nearly $1 billion in damages -- more than its entire market value -- over an aborted takeover bid, Bloomberg News reported. A Canadian court ordered the British company to pay the money on Tuesday after it scrapped a plan to buy Toronto-based Cineplex Inc. as the pandemic forced entertainment venues to close. The $1.6 billion deal would have made Cineworld North America’s largest movie-theater operator.

Inflation in Britain rose 5.1 percent last month, the highest annual rate in more than a decade, driven mainly by jumps in the cost of gasoline and clothing, the New York Times reported. The figure is a significant increase from October’s 4.2 percent rate, and shows that prices are rising faster than the Bank of England’s most recent forecast, which predicted inflation would rise to about 5 percent next spring. The central bank tries to keep inflation at about 2 percent.