Canadian business leaders are calling on the federal government to extend COVID-19 benefits for small business and food service operators, saying moving ahead with plans to end the wage and rent subsidies on Oct. 23 will pull the safety net out from under struggling business owners, the Financial Post reported. In a letter shared with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, the Canada Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) urged the federal government to extend benefits such as the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) to Nov. 20.

Mexico’s consumer prices are rising at a phenomenal pace and might not peak until the end of 2021 or early 2022, requiring an appropriate response by policy makers, central bank deputy Governor Jonathan Heath said, Bloomberg News reported. Both internal and external supply shocks have led to an upward inflation trend, leaving no room for expansive monetary policy, Heath, one of the five Banco de Mexico board members, said on a Grupo Financiero Banorte podcast released Wednesday.

Mexico’s president presented details on Monday of a proposal that is likely to squeeze out hundreds of private power generating plants and may provoke complaints under the Mexico-U.S.-Canada free trade accord, the Associated Press reported. The constitutional reform presented by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador would cancel contracts under which 34 private plants sell power into the national grid. The plan declares “illegal” another 239 private plants that sell energy direct to corporate clients in Mexico.

Grupo Aeromexico SAB sees emerging from Chapter 11 by the end of this year with an exit plan worth about $1.7 billion, Bloomberg News reported. The airline, which filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic brought travel to a halt, filed a motion late Thursday to extend the period to issue a complete plan to Dec. 9. The step was taken “out of an abundance of caution” as it seeks to resolve pending matters. Aeromexico is “working fervently to resolve outstanding issues,” the airline said a filing to the court, some of which relate to its fleet.

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said the economic recovery is on track despite disappointing output growth, but warned there’s a risk high inflation could prove more persistent than expected, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product suffered a shock contraction in the second quarter, and data since then suggest economic growth in the next three-month period will fall short of the central bank’s forecast for a 7.3% annualized gain.

Canadian mergers and acquisitions activity for the third quarter hit its highest since 2016 as historically low interest rates and strong equity markets helped companies to revive transactions that were put on hold due to the pandemic, Reuters reported. Dealmaking rose 27.7% to $76.6 billion in the third quarter of the year, but was significantly down from the record $120.3 billion recorded in the first three months of the year, according the Refinitiv data.

The Mexican president's proposal to reform the country's electricity sector is "negative" for the sovereign credit rating of Latin America's second-largest economy, Moody's Investors Service said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The ratings agency warned in a statement the bill would likely trigger international legal disputes, affect foreign investment competitiveness as well as take the country further away from reaching its climate goals.

Mexican airline Grupo Aeromexico SAB de CV has filed a reorganization plan that includes a financing proposal largely backed by a group of senior noteholders and unsecured creditors and allow the carrier to shed $1 billion from its debt stack, Reuters reported. In court papers filed late Friday, Aeromexico says it is continuing to “actively negotiate with various stakeholders regarding an exit financing package” based on the noteholders and trade creditors’ joint proposal to bring in as much creditor support for the plan as possible.

Beleaguered Italian ferry operator Moby SpA dropped its request for an order blocking Morgan Stanley from trading in the company’s debt or interfering in its restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. Moby told a federal court in New York late Sunday that it was withdrawing its application for a temporary restraining order against the bank, which it accused in a Sept. 27 lawsuit of participating in a secret plan to foil its restructuring in Italy and seize control from other creditors.

Laurentian University president Robert Haché said the university’s insolvency restructuring efforts have already cost the university just over $9.8 million, Sudbury.com reported. He spoke about the costs at the Sept. 28 meeting of the Laurentian University senate. “It is an expensive process,” he said.