Headlines

China should be able to contain the economic impact of financial strains experienced by real-estate developers but needs to step-up fiscal support for its slowing economy, the International Monetary Fund said, Bloomberg News reported. Downside risks to the IMF’s forecast of 8% growth in China this year and 5.6% in 2022 “are accumulating” due to factors such as “pandemic uncertainty” and weak consumption, the IMF said in a press release following an annual survey of the world’s second-largest economy.

Auction houses and shoppers seeking new clothes for the Christmas holidays lifted British retail sales last month by more than expected, adding to recent signs that a slowdown in the economy might have abated slightly, Reuters reported. Retail sales volumes rose by 0.8% month-on-month in October, the Office for National Statistics said. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a 0.5% increase. Retail sales are now 5.8% above the level of February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Auction houses were an especially strong driver of retail sales growth in October, the ONS said.

Greece’s gross domestic product should return to its pre-pandemic level by the end of next year, according to its final budget for 2022, Bloomberg News reported. That outlook for the economy to shake off the slump in the fourth quarter reflects better-than-expected growth of 6.9% seen for this year, a projection that is still lower than that of the European Commission. For 2022, the forecasts envisage expansion of 4.5%. The country’s improved growth outlook will help reduce a budget deficit and debt burden which remains the highest in Europe, an ongoing scar from its decade-long crisis.

Argentina's government plans to agree on its new multiyear economic plan with International Monetary Fund staff before sending the proposal to Congress, Economy Minister Martin Guzman said on local radio on Friday, Reuters reported. "First, we will seek to reach an agreement with IMF staff, and then it will be sent to Congress for ratification," the minister said in comments to local station Radio Con Vos. Earlier in the day, a government source, who asked not to be named, outlined the same plans in an interview with Reuters. The IMF did not respond to a request for comment.

British and European Union negotiators highlighted significant gaps on Friday in their positions on trading arrangements for Northern Ireland despite a senior British minister expressing confidence of breaking the impasse, Reuters reported. Britain and the EU agreed to intensify efforts to resolve difficulties over trade from the UK mainland to the British province this week after Brussels cautiously welcomed a change in tone from London following weeks of verbal sparring.

Creditors to Fortuna Silver Mines will give the Canadian miner three months to obtain additional legal permission to keep operating in Mexico after the denial this month of a key environmental permit, the company said on Friday, Reuters reported. Over the past decade Fortuna has operated one of Mexico's top silver mines, but it faces possible closure due to the regulatory denial. The company said in a statement its lenders have agreed to waive the requirement that the company secure "a permanent injunction or equivalent protection" for three months until Feb. 18, 2022.

The head of the European Central Bank warned that high oil and gas prices are hitting consumers in the 19 countries that use the euro harder than in other major economies and underlined that the bank won’t add to the squeeze by raising interest rates anytime soon, the Associated Press reported. Christine Lagarde’s message that it’s “highly unlikely” the bank will increase borrowing rates from record lows next year comes as other central banks around the world, including the U.S.

China Evergrande Group plans to sell the rest of its stake in HengTen Networks Group Ltd. for HK$2.13 billion ($273 million), the first Hong Kong-listed business to be dropped by the debt-stricken property giant, Bloomberg News reported. The developer agreed to sell its 18% holding in the internet services firm to Hong Kong-based Allied Resources Investment Holdings Ltd. at HK$1.28 apiece, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing. That’s a discount of about 24% to the last close on Wednesday.

China Huarong Asset Management Co. plans to raise as much as 42 billion yuan ($6.6 billion) by selling shares to a group of state-backed investors and said it will divest more assets as it unveiled long-waited details on a rescue package to keep the troubled bad-debt manager afloat, Bloomberg News reported. The Beijing-based firm will sell no more than 41.2 billion shares to investors led by Citic Group at 1.02 yuan apiece, a 23% premium to the last closing price before the suspension of trading, according to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing late Wednesday.

Business registrations in Hungary were up 1% in the third quarter of 2021 on a quarterly basis after falling by 2.2% in Q2, state news wire MTI reports, citing data by statistical agency Eurostat, the Budapest Business Journal reported. Bankruptcy declarations dropped by 8.5% in Q3 after they had risen by 2.7% in Q2. Business registrations in the EU in July-September were down 3.4% following a 5.6% growth in Q2.