A small team of International Monetary Fund staff will visit Tunisia later this month for further discussions about a possible IMF-supported financing program, the global lender said on Thursday, citing good progress in discussions to date, Reuters reported. IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice said the visit comes after several months of consultations with Tunisian authorities on their request for a fund-supported program. "A small staff team from the IMF plans to visit Tunisia for further discussions with the authorities later this month ...
Read more
Dubai-owned P&O Ferries on Thursday suspended its passenger and freight ships but denied the group was heading into bankruptcy, Times of Malta reported. P&O Ferries operates four routes serving Britain, France, Ireland and the Netherlands. “P&O Ferries is not going into liquidation,” the company owned by DP World said in a statement. “We have asked all ships to come alongside (return to dock), in preparation for a company announcement.
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.
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.
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more