Headlines

Global debt levels could reach about 260% of gross domestic product by year-end, though low interest rates mean the ability to service it will be manageable, according to S&P Global Ratings, Bloomberg News reported. The pile-on of debt was necessary given policy responses during the pandemic, Vera Chaplin, the credit ratings agency’s managing director and lead analytical manager, said Thursday at the Asia Briefing Live forum co-hosted by Bloomberg and Asia Society Australia. Higher leverage and weakened credit metrics amid the recovery will probably trigger more defaults, she added.

Britain's government bond market is showing signs of strain from the country's energy crisis, with headlines about gas prices sparking heavy selling this week - a new development that points to growing unease over inflation expectations, Reuters reported. There was disarray in Britain in recent days as a deficit of truckers left fuel pumps dry across the land and a spike in European wholesale natural gas prices tipped energy companies into bankruptcy.

Britain's competition regulator has scrapped its action against Ryanair and British Airways over their failure to offer refunds to passengers prevented from flying by COVID-19 restrictions, saying the legal position was unclear, Reuters reported. During pandemic lockdowns, instead of offering refunds to those legally unable to fly, IAG-owned British Airways offered vouchers or rebooking and Ryanair providing the option to rebook.

Barcelona was technically bankrupt when president Joan Laporta took over earlier this year, the club said Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. Barcelona CEO Ferrán Reverter presented a grim picture of the club’s financial situation while releasing the results from a Deloitte audit that started after Laporta arrived in March following the resignation of former president Josep Bartomeu and his board of directors last year.

Vietnam's slow reopening this past week was bittersweet for Stanley Furniture, which had been in COVID lockdown along with thousands of other manufacturers, from Netflix supplier ASRock to shoe giant Pou Chen. On the one hand, Stanley employees were glad to go back to making desks and drawers. On the other, their goods are stuck in storage because global shipping costs skyrocketed, Nikkei Asia reported. That is just one of many risks hanging over the fragile supply chain even after Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding provinces on Friday lifted a bruising pandemic shutdown.

The advent of digital currencies in emerging markets could spark "cryptoization" of local economies, potentially undermining exchange and capital controls and upsetting financial stability, the International Monetary Fund said, Reuters reported. Bitcoin and its kin have in the last year soared in price and popularity, with emerging and developing market economies such as Vietnam, India and Pakistan seeing rapid growth in some measures of adoption, according to U.S. blockchain researcher Chainalysis. Cryptocurrencies offer, in theory, a cheaper and quicker way of sending money across borders.

TUI AG will raise 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) by selling new stock, making it the latest travel company to tap investors for cash to reduce a giant pandemic debt pile, Bloomberg News reported. The share sale, at a discount price of 2.15 euros each in a rights offering, will allow the world’s biggest tour operator to reduce its draw on a state-backed rescue loan to zero, TUI said Wednesday in a statement. Airlines have been selling stock to firm up balance sheets as easing border restrictions begin to revive bookings.

Global airlines on Tuesday wrapped up their first meeting since COVID-19 brought their industry to its knees, voicing optimism about pent-up demand but desperate for governments to harmonize disjointed border rules to avoid slipping back into recession, Reuters reported. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which groups 290 airlines, said confusion over travel restrictions were holding back the industry's fragile recovery after the pandemic plunged air travel into its worst ever downturn.

SREI Group promoters on Wednesday moved the Bombay High Court challenging Reserve Bank of India’s decision to supersede the board of two group companies, in preparation for sending them to bankruptcy courts, the Economic Times of India reported. Srei group promoters are seeking stay on any insolvency proceedings at group companies Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd and Srei Equipment Finance Ltd, whose board the regulator sacked and appointed an administrator. The promoters are also seeking stay on the appointment of the administrator.

An association of U.S. businesses in Chile warned on Tuesday that a proposal to allow Chileans to draw money from their pension funds for the fourth time since the coronavirus pandemic began could seriously harm the country's business climate, Reuters reported. Chile's lower chamber of Congress approved the bill late last month, but it faces more resistance in the Senate, where right-leaning lawmakers allied with the administration of President Sebastian Pinera have opposed it. "This new withdrawal of pensions, and particularly of life annuities, ...