The Bank of Canada hiked interest rates by a full percentage point, a surprise move that supercharges efforts to withdraw stimulus amid fears four-decade-high inflation is becoming entrenched, Bloomberg News reported. Governor Tiff Macklem raised the central bank’s policy rate to 2.5% in a decision announced Wednesday in Ottawa that warned of more hikes to come. The 100-basis-point move is the largest increase since 1998. Markets and economists were anticipating 75 basis points.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki agreed on Tuesday to work together to tackle rising prices of food and energy, as well as volatility in currency markets, exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine, Reuters reported. They said that the war had raised exchange rate volatility, which could pose adverse implications for economic and financial stability, and pledged to cooperate "as appropriate" on currency issues.

Unregulated lenders in Mexico that specialize in loans to low-income people grew at a breakneck pace over the past decade, until accounting irregularities at three Deloitte-audited firms threw the sector’s credibility into question, the Wall Street Journal reported. The three lenders—Crédito Real SAB de CV, AlphaCredit Capital SA de CV and Grupo Finmart—have discredited some financial statements as unreliable. All retained the same auditor for years: Deloitte Mexico, the Mexico City-based unit of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd.

Canada’s jobs market showed signs of extreme tightening, with the unemployment rate falling to a record low, wage gains accelerating and large numbers of workers dropping out of the labor force, Bloomberg News reported. The economy shed 43,200 jobs in June, Statistics Canada reported Friday in Ottawa, a surprise negative reading compared to the 22,500 gain anticipated by economists. But the drop appears to reflect the voluntary exit of workers from the labor force, which contracted by nearly 100,000 -- the biggest one-month decline on record outside of the pandemic.

Hundreds of SAS flights were canceled on Thursday as the airline wrestled with a strike by pilots at its main SAS Scandinavia arm, overshadowing a traffic surge during June, Reuters reported. Talks between the airline and pilots over a new collective bargaining agreement collapsed on Monday, prompting a strike which adds to travel chaos in Europe and deepens the financial crisis at SAS, which estimated it would ground half its flights. The troubled airline, whose biggest owners are the Swedish and the Danish states, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States on Tuesday.

Mexico's annual inflation accelerated in June to a level not seen since early 2001, official data showed on Thursday, suggesting the central bank will have little choice but continue its monetary tightening to tame spiraling consumer prices, Reuters reported. Mexican consumer prices rose 7.99% in the year through June, the national statistics agency said. That was also far above the central bank's target of 3%, plus or minus a percentage point, and marked the highest level since January 2001, when Mexico's 12-month inflation stood at 8.11%.

A day after its pilots went on strike, SAS, the Scandinavian airline, said on Tuesday that it had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, the latest reverberation in a summer of turmoil for European airlines, the New York Times reported. SAS described the filing, made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, as the “next step” in a reorganization that would address the money-losing airline’s financial difficulties, including cost reductions of more than $700 million.

Consumer inflation expectations surged in Canada, hitting fresh highs in the short-term and up "significantly" over the long-term, a Bank of Canada survey showed Monday, bolstering calls for a very rare 75-basis point rate increase, Reuters reported. "Consumers' expectations for inflation have risen, alongside concerns about prices for food, gas and rent," the central bank said in its second quarter Survey of Consumer Expectations.

Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) is seeking protection from creditors in the United States under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which allows foreign debtors to shield U.S. assets, according to a court filing on Friday, Reuters reported. Singapore-based 3AC is one of the highest-profile investors hit by the sharp sell-off in crypto markets and is being liquidated, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Representatives for 3AC filed a petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday, according to court documents.

Remittances sent to Mexico, a major boon for Latin America's second-largest economy and especially for low-income families, reached an all-time high of $5.17 billion in May, central bank data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. It was the first time monthly remittances surged past the $5.0 billion mark and compares with $4.72 billion in April and $4.53 billion in May 2021.