Headlines

China's Ministry of Finance is conducting more rigorous checks of work done by the Big Four auditing firms for local companies, three people with knowledge of the matter said, amid concerns auditors are not doing enough to uncover corporate wrongdoing, Reuters reported. The tighter scrutiny, which has not been previously reported, is mainly focused on Deloitte, EY, PwC, KPMG and their audits of some financial firms as well as highly leveraged companies, said the people.

China’s consumer inflation remained tepid last month while factory-gate prices continued to fall, pointing to persistently lackluster demand despite Beijing’s efforts to juice up consumption, the Wall Street Journal reported. The country’s consumer-price index rose for a fifth consecutive month in June, edging up 0.2% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. That missed the 0.4% rise expected by economists in a Wall Street Journal poll and compared with May’s 0.3% increase.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission is tightening rules on short selling and high-frequency trades in a bid to crack down on improper arbitrage and maintain market stability, Bloomberg News reported. The market watchdog approved the mainland stock exchanges to boost margin requirements in short selling, starting July 22. Meanwhile, China Securities Finance Corp., the country’s biggest stocks lending provider, will suspend its business of lending securities to brokerages starting July 11, with outstanding contracts to be settled by the end of September, the CSRC added.

Coloreel Group AB, the Swedish company known for its instant thread dyeing technology, has filed for bankruptcy, PrintWeek.com reported. In an announcement today (10 July), Coloreel said that the decision comes “after the company’s inability to develop its business volume quickly enough and, related to this, secure the necessary financing”. The business said that despite many in-depth discussions with financial investors and potential industrial partners to secure additional funding, it had been unable to overcome its financial hurdles.

A subsidiary of Spanish highway operator Abertis is considering borrowing $424 million to fund capital projects for four Puerto Rico toll roads, Bloomberg News reported. The Public Finance Authority, a Wisconsin-based issuer, approved the bond sale for Puerto Rico Toll Roads LLC, at a June 26th board meeting. PFA would loan the proceeds it borrows to Puerto Rico Toll Roads, which is part of Metropistas, an Abertis subsidiary that operates numerous toll roads and one bridge in Puerto Rico.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand held its official cash rate steady at 5.50% on Wednesday, staying in what central bank Gov. Adrian Orr likes to call watch-worry-and-wait mode, the Wall Street Journal reported. Still, the RBNZ’s cautious narrative softened somewhat amid an admission that inflation pressures are starting to ease. “Restrictive monetary policy has significantly reduced consumer price inflation, with the committee expecting headline inflation to return to within the 1 to 3 percent target range in the second half of this year,” the central bank said in a statement.

Brazil’s annual inflation rate rose less than expected in June, bolstering the central bank after it came under fire from critics for pausing its interest rate cuts to combat simmering price pressures, Bloomberg News reported. Official data released Wednesday showed prices increased 4.23% from a year earlier, below the 4.32% median estimate from analysts in a Bloomberg survey. On the month, inflation stood at 0.21%, under all forecasts.

Britain’s biggest developers are increasingly turning to a costly service to try to sidestep delays in the country’s broken planning system, a trend that underlines the extent of the challenge awaiting the new Labour government as it looks to make reforms, Bloomberg News reported. Freedom of Information requests by Bloomberg to councils across the UK show that builders are using a tool called planning performance agreements more and more to get their proposals looked at.

The Bank of Israel (BOI) remains committed to plans for a digital shekel currency to improve Israel's payments system and foster innovation, but is unlikely to launch one ahead of other advanced economies. "We’re all waiting for the first western central bank to pull the trigger, which is almost certainly going to be the ECB. And then you may see a rush of countries going forward with it," Bank of Israel Deputy Governor Andrew Abir told Reuters.

The Argentine government published a sweeping decree on Wednesday aimed at opening up the country's aviation sector, inviting foreign airlines to enter the market long dominated by state-run carrier Aerolineas Argentinas, Reuters reported. The reform should boost the number of routes, flight frequencies and bring in more competitors, the transportation secretariat said in a statement. Carriers can now petition to operate as many routes and frequencies as they want, subject to safety approval, according to the decree.