The Bank of Mexico's cycle of rate hikes is not yet over and one or two increases are likely forthcoming amid concerns about inflation, though any monetary policy moves will depend on incoming data, Deputy Governor Jonathan Heath said on Monday, Reuters reported. Expressing concern about above-target inflation, Banxico, as the bank is known, raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 4.75% on Thursday, as expected, in a four-to-one vote by its governing board. Heath voted with the majority for the rate hike.
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Mexico’s central bank raised borrowing costs for the third consecutive meeting Thursday as policy makers struggle to slow above-target inflation, Bloomberg News reported. Banco de Mexico, known as Banxico, increased its key interest rate by a quarter-point to 4.75%, in a 4-1 split decision. All but one of 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted the 25 basis-point hike.

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A U.S. judge said Germany's Allianz SE must face investor claims it wrongly "abandoned" the investment strategies it promised to use on hedge funds that suffered massive losses as the COVID-19 pandemic shook markets early last year, Reuters reported. In an 81-page decision, U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla in Manhattan said that investors could try to show Allianz was negligent and lacked good faith in managing its Structured Alpha funds. She also dismissed some state law-based claims.
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El Salvador last week became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, with the aim of reducing costs in sending remittances, attracting foreign investment and boosting domestic consumption, Market Research Telecast reported. It does so after its parliament approved the cryptocurrency legalization, a law that has not been well received by international organizations and agencies.

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The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, which is presiding over Aeroméxico's chapter 11 voluntary financial restructuring process, granted the company's request for extensions of the plan exclusivity periods, according to a company press release. The exclusive period for filing a chapter 11 plan now expires on Oct. 8, 2021, subject to further extension as ordered by the court. On Sept. 10, 2021, the company delivered to its DIP Lenders the Final Valuation Materials and the Refinancing Qualification Certificate in accordance with the DIP Credit Agreement.

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U.S. stock markets opened higher on Tuesday, rebounding from their worst day in months on Monday as nerves about the Chinese real estate debt crisis eased, Investing.com reported. Better-than-expected data from the housing market also supported the sentiment. Housing starts and building permits for August both came in above expectations, albeit not by enough to cause any acceleration in the Federal Reserve's timeline for running down its asset purchases or raising interest rates. The Fed's latest two-day policy meeting started Tuesday. By 9:45 a.m.

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The World Bank is cancelling a prominent report on business conditions around the world after investigators found staff members were pressured by the bank’s leaders to alter data about China and some other governments, Aljazeera.com reported. The bank said on Thursday that it would discontinue “Doing Business” following an investigation prompted by internal reports of “data irregularities” in its 2018 and 2020 editions and possible “ethical matters” involving bank staff.

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Mexico's economy expanded by 6.8% in August compared to the same month last year, as the country continued a recovery from a slump induced by the coronavirus pandemic, a preliminary estimate from national statistics agency INEGI showed on Friday, Reuters reported. A breakdown of the agency's initial figures showed that secondary activities, which include manufacturing, increased by 4.1% from August 2020, while tertiary activities, which encompass the service sector, were up by 8.3%. In July, Latin America's no. 2 economy grew by some 9.9% year-on-year, according to a preliminary estimate.

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El Salvador's adoption of bitcoin as legal tender has immediate negative implications for it credit rating S&P Global said on Thursday, Reuters reported. S&P said the main risks were that it could threaten its hopes of securing a support programme with the International Monetary Fund, increase fiscal vulnerabilities and hurt banks by creating currency mismatches when they dish out loans. "The risks associated with the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador seem to outweigh its potential benefits," S&P said. "There are immediate negative implications for (the) credit".
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The prospect of the largest overhaul to the global tax system in a century took a step forward this week as top Democrats introduced a plan to rewrite tax rules for multinational companies in a way that would allow the United States to join the rest of the world in an effort to crack down on tax havens, the New York Times reported. Finance ministers from around the world have been working for months to complete a plan to end what they describe as a race to the bottom on corporate taxation before an October deadline.
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