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Analysis: Mediation and Insolvency, with a Focus on Developing Countries

While debt has been a problem for millennia, contemporary international institutions have focused on alternative dispute resolutions for commercial disputes for only decades, according to an analysis in mediate.com. according to an analysis in mediate.com. In the late ’90s many developing countries experienced financial distress. In 1999, the World Bank began to analyze the problem and in 2001developed the “Insolvency and Creditor Rights Standards” (ICR Standards). The focus was on judicial proceedings. The possibility of resorting to mediation was regarded as entirely residual.

Italy
Vietnam
Tunisia
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The Key to a $4 Billion Fraud Case: A Banker Who Says He ‘Lied a Lot’

It seemed a facetious question, one intended to provoke the star witness: “Do you think you are good at lying?” But it is the crucial issue at the center of what is likely to be the only trial on U.S. soil in one of the largest international kleptocracy cases in history, the looting of billions of dollars from the people of Malaysia, the New York Times reported.

United Arab Emirates
Malaysia
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Egypt's February Headline Inflation Accelerates to 8.8%

Egypt's annual urban consumer price inflation surged to its highest in nearly three years in February, driven by a sharp increase in food prices, figures from the state statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Thursday, Reuters reported. Inflation rose to 8.8% year on year from 7.3% in January, putting it near the upper limit of the central bank's 5-9% target range and indicating that the bank's monetary policy committee may increase interest rates when it meets on March 24. February's inflation figure was the highest since June 2019.
Egypt
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India, UAE Eye $100 Billion in Annual Trade After Signing Trade Pact

India and the United Arab Emirates signed a broad trade and investment pact on Friday that will eventually cut all tariffs on each other's goods and aims to increase annual trade between the two nations to $100 billion within five years, Reuters reported. The virtual signing ceremony marks the first trade deal sealed by the Gulf state since it began pursuing such pacts last September in a bid to strengthen its status as a business hub.
India
United Arab Emirates
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Israeli Central Bank Says Financial Sector Stable in Face of Global Risks

Sharp declines in financial asset prices, higher inflation and a new significant wave COVID-19 infections pose the greatest risks to the global economy, the Bank of Israel said on Monday in its twice yearly financial stability report, Reuters reported. And although Israeli banks and insurance companies maintained stability in the second half of 2021 with strong capital ratios, that could be derailed should financial asset prices fall further, the report said. Israeli stock prices have dipped 1.1% so far this year, on the heels of global declines, after a 31% rise in 2021.
Israel
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IMF to Continue Working with Lebanon on Reform Programme

The International Monetary Fund said on Friday it would remain "closely engaged" with Lebanon's authorities to help the crisis-ravaged country formulate an economic reform programme, Reuters reported. Lebanon's financial system unravelled in late 2019 under the weight of huge public debts, slicing more than 90% off the local currency's value and plunging a majority of the population into poverty.
Lebanon
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IMF to Visit Tunisia over Economic Reforms, Central Bank Official Says

The International Monetary Fund will hold a virtual visit with Tunisian officials on Feb. 14 to discuss the government's economic reform program, a central bank official told Reuters on Wednesday. The North African country, which is suffering from a financial crisis, is seeking to obtain a rescue package from the fund in exchange for unpopular reforms, including spending cuts. The government says the country requires the rescue package to avert a collapse in public finances. Some public sector salaries for December were paid late in January.
Tunisia
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Qatar Considers Refinancing $10 Billion Debt Due Next Year

Qatar’s government has approached international banks to explore refinancing more than $10 billion in debt that comes due next year, Reuters reported. Officials at the Ministry of Finance are in early talks with international banks for a potential syndicated loan or bond sale. No final decision has been made, the people said. The government may decide to refinance part of the debt or even shelve the plan since the country has financial flexibility, they said. A spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Finance said that the government didn’t have immediate plans to refinance debt.
Qatar
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Egypt Holds Interest Rate While Accelerated Fed Tightening Looms

Egypt left one of the world’s top inflation-adjusted interest rates unchanged, even as the U.S. Federal Reserve began the countdown to an expected burst of monetary tightening, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank held the benchmark deposit rate at 8.25% and the lending rate at 9.25%, the Monetary Policy Committee said Thursday in a statement. All 9 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted what’s Egypt’s 10th consecutive hold, even as expectations build for the first hike since 2017 later this year. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell hasn’t ruled out U.S.
Egypt
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Tunisia Eyes IMF Deal in April as Insolvency Speculation Swirls

Tunisia hopes to reach a crucial deal with the International Monetary Fund in April, the finance minister said Wednesday, rejecting speculation that the nation faces imminent bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. “The situation is difficult,” Sihem Boughdiri Nemsia said in an interview with broadcaster Shems FM. “Authorities are trying to stabilize the economy,” she said. Concerns over insolvency are however “alarmist,” and authorities can afford to pay public-sector wages for the coming months.
Tunisia
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