The Canadian economy is moving closer to a point where the Bank of Canada will no longer need to continue adding stimulus through its quantitative easing (QE) program, but it is not there yet, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Macklem, in a speech the day after the central bank held its key rate at 0.25%, said it would eventually move to a reinvestment phase, where it bought only enough bonds to replace those that are maturing. This maintains stimulus but does not add new stimulus.

Mexico's government on Wednesday proposed sharply reducing the tax burden for state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos and forecast economic growth of 4.1% for 2022, as Latin America's second largest economy continues to recover from a COVID-19-induced slump, Reuters reported. The finance ministry's 2022 draft budget, which it presented to Congress earlier in the day, laid out a profit sharing rate (DUC) - effectively a tax paid to the government - of 40% for the oil giant known locally as Pemex.

The $10 billion takeover battle for British supermarket group Morrisons between two U.S. private equity groups looks set to be decided by a rarely used auction process, Reuters reported. Morrisons said on Wednesday that it was in talks with Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), Fortress Investment Group and Britain's takeover regulator about an auction to settle its future. Last month, Morrisons agreed a 7 billion pound ($9.6 billion) offer from CD&R, which has former Tesco boss Terry Leahy as a senior adviser.

U.S. payments giant PayPal Holdings Inc. said it would acquire Japanese "buy now, pay later" (BNPL) firm Paidy in a $2.7 billion largely cash deal, taking another step to claim the top spot in an industry experiencing a pandemic-led boom, Reuters reported. The deal tracks rival Square Inc.'s agreement last month to buy Australian BNPL success story Afterpay Ltdfor $29 billion, which experts said was likely the beginning of a consolidation in the sector.

Just 160 Canadian businesses filed for insolvency in July, marking a 35-year low in new filings, according to new data from the Office for the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, the Financial Post reported.

A founder of Facedrive Inc., a Canadian ride-hailing startup whose shares have plunged 96% since early February, said in a statement that he received notice that the company is considering filing for bankruptcy protection as soon as this month, Bloomberg News reported.

Bitcoin plunged as much as 17% to its lowest level in a month as El Salvador’s crypto rollout got off to a rocky start, Bloomberg News reported. The largest cryptocurrency fell as low as $43,050 in New York on Tuesday, tumbling more than 10% in the course of an hour, before recouping about half the losses. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, which tracks some of the largest digital tokens, lost as much as 19% at one point.

The Biden administration has no plans to release billions in Afghan gold, investments and foreign currency reserves parked in the United States that it froze after the Taliban's takeover, despite pressure from humanitarian groups and others who say the cost may be the collapse of Afghanistan's economy, Reuters reported. Much of the Afghan central bank's $10 billion in assets are parked overseas, where they are considered a key instrument for the West to pressure the Taliban to respect women's rights and the rule of law.

El Salvador on Tuesday became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, a real-world experiment proponents say will lower commission costs for billions of dollars sent from abroad but which critics warned may fuel money laundering, Reuters reported. The change means businesses should accept payment in bitcoin alongside the U.S. dollar, which has been El Salvador's official currency since 2001 and will remain legal tender.

Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador highlighted his campaign against government corruption and downplayed the work that remains to be done in the areas of security and reducing poverty in his third state of the nation address on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. Nearly midway through his six-year term, López Obrador remains popular despite stubbornly high levels of violence and rising inflation in an economy emerging from recession. “The money that was stolen before now gets to those on the bottom,” the 67-year-old leader said.