Headlines

Surging disposable income in Canada outpaced debt growth in the first quarter, bringing the nation’s household debt-to-income ratio down from record highs, Bloomberg News reported. Household credit market debt as a proportion of disposable income dropped to 182.5%, from a record 185% in the final quarter of 2021, Statistics Canada reported Monday. Household debt grew 2%, compared with a 3.3% gain in disposable income in the first three months of the year. Net worth rose 2.6% to C$17.6 trillion ($13.7 trillion).

Tokyo is concerned about sharp falls in the yen currency and stands ready to "respond appropriately" if needed, Japan's top government spokesperson said on Monday, issuing a fresh warning to markets, Reuters reported. The remark echoed Friday's joint statement by the government and central bank, but failed to avert a plunge in the yen to 135.22 against the dollar, the currency's lowest level since October 1998. "It's important that currency rates move in a stable way, reflecting fundamentals.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has put Credit Suisse on a watchlist of institutions in need of stricter supervision, the Financial Times reported late on Sunday, citing a letter sent in May, Reuters reported. The regulator told the Swiss bank last month the step had been taken because of concern the bank had not made enough improvements to its culture, governance and risk controls, the report said.

The Treasury Department said on Friday that it was concerned that some of America’s trading partners were taking actions to weaken their currencies and gain unfair trade advantages against the United States — but declined to label any country a currency manipulator, the New York Times reported. In its semiannual foreign exchange report, the department singled out Switzerland, which in 2020 was deemed a manipulator, as a worst offender and said it was closely watching the foreign exchange practices of Taiwan and Vietnam.

The US and European real estate markets are experiencing a downwards shift in prices as buyers fall away, according to the global chief investment officer of Hines, one of the largest closely held real estate investors in the world, Bloomberg News reported. Prices have fallen by about 5% to 10% compared to a year earlier in some areas, according to David L. Steinbach, with Europe following a trajectory set in the US. “I think we’re in for a rough few months,” he said.

Mexico will bail out a flailing telecommunications company tasked with developing a wholesale national mobile network, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday, Reuters reported. Mexico signed an agreement to become the majority stakeholder in Altan Redes, which filed for bankruptcy in 2021, Lopez Obrador said in a regular news conference.

New bank lending in China jumped far more than expected in May and broader credit growth also quickened, as policymakers try to pull the world's second-largest economy out of a sharp, COVID-induced slump, Reuters reported. Chinese banks extended 1.89 trillion yuan ($282.62 billion) in new yuan loans in May, nearly tripling April's tally and handily beating expectations, data released by the People's Bank of China on Friday.

Malaysian companies from palm oil plantations to semiconductor makers are refusing orders and forgoing billions in sales, hampered by a shortage of more than a million workers that threatens the country's economic recovery, Reuters reported. Despite lifting a COVID-19 freeze on recruiting foreign workers in February, Malaysia has not seen a significant return of migrant workers due to slow government approvals and protracted negotiations with Indonesia and Bangladesh over worker protections, say industry groups, companies and diplomats.

Port congestion should ease next year as new container vessels are delivered and demand from shippers softens from pandemic highs, but not enough to restore global supply-chain flows to where they were before Covid, according to the head of DHL’s freight-forwarding unit, Bloomberg News reported. “It’s going to ease in 2023, but it’s not going to go back to 2019,” DHL Global Forwarding, Freight Chief Executive Officer Tim Scharwath said in an interview Wednesday. “I don’t think we’re going to go back to this overcapacity situation where rates were very low.

Britain's economy faces stagnation next year and could easily fall into recession, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) warned on Monday after it slashed its outlook for growth due to surging inflation, Reuters reported. The CBI is the third major body to cut its growth forecasts for Britain in the past week, following a downgrade from the British Chambers of Commerce and a warning from the OECD that Britain had the weakest outlook of any major economy bar Russia. "Let me be clear – we're expecting the economy to be pretty much stagnant. It won't take much to tip us into a recession.