Headlines

The Czech Republic’s central bank has again sharply increased its key interest rate by a point and a quarter to 2.75%, to tackle soaring inflation amid the economy’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reported. Thursday’s surprising move was the biggest single hike of the rate since 1997 and the fourth straight increase since June. Inflation jumped to 4.9% in September, well above the bank’s 2% target. The last time the bank changed its rates was Sept 30, when it increased the key interest rate by three quarters of a point to 1.5% in an effort to tame inflation.

Canadian banks and insurers can resume dividend increases, share buybacks and increase executive compensation, the country's financial regulator said on Thursday, lifting a moratorium it has imposed on them since March 2020, Reuters reported. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) said in a statement these measures were effective over the past year and a half, but they are no longer necessary or fit-for-purpose and are being unwound. Canadian banks index has risen 83% during the 20 months the moratorium has been in place. The U.S.

Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd.’s bonds and shares tumbled after a wealth-management product guaranteed by the company missed a payment deadline, Bloomberg News reported. China’s dollar high-yield debt fell for the 10th day in 11 after yields climbed above 21%. Trading was halted in two yuan bonds from other real estate firms after they plunged more than 20%. Spiking borrowing costs are making it all but impossible for developers to refinance debt, while property market curbs are weighing on home sales.

For more than a year, residents living in a remote border town have been China’s foot soldiers in the battle against the coronavirus, enduring lockdown after lockdown to shield the rest of the country from contagion, the Wall Street Journal reported. Mothers in Ruili, a jewelry-trading center on China’s border with Myanmar, post despairingly about their toddlers being numb to regular swab tests—one said her 2-year-old has gotten 100 in his lifetime. Others post about spending months on end in isolation, despite test after test coming back negative.

The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it was continuing to engage on a technical basis with Ethiopia despite a worsening conflict in the country, but given uncertainty, it has not begun discussions on a potential IMF financing program, Reuters reported. IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told a news briefing that the Fund is watching developments closely in Ethiopia, as well as in Sudan. It is too soon to tell how political developments related to a late October coup will affect Sudan’s request for debt relief and potential IMF disbursements in 2022, Rice said.

The owner of Canada’s most valuable shopping mall is planning to add apartment buildings to that property and two others around Toronto, creating mixed-use neighborhoods that invite renters to live where they shop, Bloomberg News reported. Oxford Properties Group’s plans for rental apartment towers at Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Canada’s most productive mall by sales per square foot, are still in an early stage, Chief Executive Officer Michael Turner said.

India has cut the taxes paid by consumers on petrol and diesel after the surging cost of crude oil pushed fuel prices to record highs, BBC.com reported. The decision aims to ease price rises and "further spur the overall economic cycle", the government said. Global commodity prices have soared this year as economies around the world recover from the pandemic. However, the move is also expected to boost demand for fuel as countries try to curb fossil fuel consumption. India's excise duty on petrol has been reduced by 5 rupees (£0.049; $0.0671) per litre, and by 10 rupees on diesel.

Airline Avianca Holdings will move its domicile to the United Kingdom and its stock will no longer be traded on the Colombian stock exchange, the company said on Wednesday, a day after a U.S. court's approval of the company's restructuring plan, Reuters reported. Colombia's flag carrier had filed for chapter 11 protection at a U.S. court in New York in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. It now expects to exit the measure by the end 2021, after receiving around $2 billion in new financing under a debt-for-equity deal.

Property developers in China looking to raise badly needed cash by selling assets are finding it hard to strike deals as potential buyers in the sector hoard funds after home sales plunged and Beijing stepped up its borrowing crackdown, Bloomberg News reported. China Evergrande Group last month ended discussions to sell a controlling stake in its property-management business that would have raised about $2.6 billion. A plan to unload a trophy office tower in Hong Kong also stumbled, while Modern Land China Co.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is very unlikely to raise interest rates next year as inflation remains too low, European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday, pushing back on market bets for a move as soon as next October, the Irish Times reported. “In our forward guidance on interest rates, we have clearly articulated the three conditions that need to be satisfied before rates will start to rise,” she told an event in Lisbon.