The Cuban government said Friday it will have to either increase prices for fuel and electricity, or reduce rations for basic supplies, the Associated Press reported. President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that such difficult measures were needed for difficult times, after the minister of the economy said Cuba’s economy contracted between 1% and 2% this year, and inflation ran at about 30%. There were problems in the tourism industry — Cuba's main source of income — and in farm production. “This is a question of complicated measures, as complicated as are these times," Díaz-Canel said.

Canadian retail spending flattened heading into the holiday season, an indication consumers may be hesitating in an environment of high interest rates and with signs showing the broader economy is struggling, the Wall Street Journal reported. Retail sales were relatively unchanged last month, according to an advance estimate of receipts released Thursday by Statistics Canada. That comes after sales in October rose 0.7% to a seasonally adjusted 66.95 billion Canadian dollars, the equivalent of about $50.08 billion, the data agency said.

Canada's federal government will give C$471 million ($354 million) to Toronto, the country's largest city, to help it build more housing and alleviate a shelter crisis, the Globe and Mail reported. The newspaper said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose popularity has slumped in recent months amid complaints about housing, would make the announcement in Toronto. The money will come from a special C$4 billion fund which pays cities that agree to loosen zoning rules that protect neighborhoods dominated by single-family homes.

Panama's economic growth next year is now estimated at about 2.5%, down "in light of new scenarios," Economy and Finance Minister Hector Alexander said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Speaking at a 2024 draft budget presentation, Alexander said the reduced figure did not include inflation. Alexander did not give further detail on the reasoning behind the cut, but a ministry official told Reuters earlier this month that the country could slash its 2024 GDP forecast after the closure of a lucrative copper mine.

Insolvent European property company Signa is holding talks to potentially sell its stake in New York's Chrysler Building and is shedding its private jet, its administrator said on Tuesday, a significant development in the salvaging of founder Rene Benko's real estate empire, Reuters reported. The efforts, announced to Signa's creditors in Vienna, mark a first update by the court-appointed insolvency administrator on plans for Signa, the biggest casualty so far of Europe's property crisis.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday filed charges against Nigerian businessman Dozy Mmobuosi and three companies of which he is CEO, alleging they inflated the financial performance of the companies and key subsidiaries to defraud investors, Reuters reported. The SEC said in a statement that it filed charges in U.S. District Court in New York against Mmobuosi, who made headlines this year following a bid to buy an English premier league team.

Mexico's central bank could weigh a rate cut in the first quarter of 2024, the bank board's governor said in an interview published on Monday, Reuters reported. "Inflation has dropped significantly, but we need to be cautious," central bank governor Victoria Rodriguez said in an interview with local outlet El Financiero. "When downward (rate) adjustments occur, we are anticipating them to be gradual." Mexico's annual inflation hit 4.32% in November, ending a nine-month slowing streak and still above the bank's target of 3% plus or minus one percentage point.

The Bank of Mexico's five-member board unanimously held the key interest rate at 11.25% for a sixth straight monetary policy meeting on Thursday, as expected, saying progress on slowing inflation had been made even as the outlook remained challenging, Reuters reported. Banxico, as the bank is known, repeated previous guidance that it would need to maintain the benchmark rate at its current level "for some time" in order to bring inflation to its 3% target, plus or minus one percentage point.

Canada’s small business minister is resisting a push to give companies more time to repay pandemic-era loans from the government, despite warnings from a lobby group that 250,000 firms are at risk if she doesn’t, Bloomberg News reported. Rechie Valdez, who was sworn into the cabinet post in July, said the government has been flexible by pushing back the deadline multiple times already and offering billions in support to small business. “I don’t think we’re giving small businesses enough credit. They’re unbelievably resilient,” she said in an interview in her Ottawa office.

Canada plans to revive a post-World War Two strategy of using pre-approved designs so homes can be built quickly and economically, in an effort to tackle a housing affordability crisis that has dented Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's popularity, Reuters reported. Housing Minister Sean Fraser said on Tuesday public consultations on the strategy - used in the 1950s to 1970s when housing demand surged after soldiers returned home - will begin in January.