Mexico’s government has announced the biggest increases in petrol prices in almost two decades in a move that risks a backlash against its efforts to liberalise the country’s energy market, the Financial Times reported. The average prices across Mexico in January will be 15.99 pesos for a litre of regular petrol, 17.79 pesos for premium and 17.05 pesos for diesel, representing increases of 14.2 per cent, 20.1 per cent and 16.5 per cent, respectively, compared to December 2016.

Canadians are walking a tightrope between bulking up on their savings but also on their debts, The Globe and Mail reported. The key measure of consumer debt burden touched a new high in the third quarter. The ratio of debt to disposable income rose to 166.9 per cent from a revised 166.4 per cent in the second quarter, according to Statistics Canada’s national balance sheet report released on Wednesday. The government agency said this amounted to households owing $1.67 in debt for every dollar of disposable income at the end of the third quarter.

Southern Ontario steelmaker Stelco is seeking court approval to move forward with its restructuring following an agreement with Bedrock Industries, CTV News reported on a Canadian Press story. Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa said in a statement Friday that Bedrock's proposal would mean that operations at the Hamilton and Lake Erie facilities would continue and 2,100 jobs would be preserved.

Bank of Mexico Gov. Agustín Carstens will step down in July to become general manager of the Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Carstens will assume the post, which carries a five-year term, in October, succeeding Jaime Caruana, who has been in the position since 2009. He will be the first BIS leader to come from an emerging-market country. The BIS is a consortium of global central banks based in Basel, Switzerland. It hosts bimonthly meetings of top central bank officials and publishes regular research reports. Mr.

Judges in Canada and the U.S. on Thursday approved materials explaining Nortel Networks Corp.’s creditor-repayment plan, inaugurating the beginning of the end of one of the priciest bankruptcies on record, The Wall Street Journal reported. Thursday’s court hearings launched the formal process of polling creditors on the bankruptcy plans that will end Nortel’s corporate life after eight years in bankruptcy, and divide the $7.3 billion in proceeds from its global going-out-of-business sale.

A Chapter 11 bankruptcy exit plan by Abengoa SA's main U.S. subsidiary, Abeinsa Holding Inc, violates the law by shielding the Spanish renewable energy parent from lawsuits, according to the U.S. government's bankruptcy watchdog, Reuters reported. The objection by the U.S. Trustee, which typically oversees the administration of bankruptcy cases and polices them for conflicts, threatens to derail Abengoa's high-stakes debt restructuring plan to avoid its own bankruptcy in Spain.

Sales of second-hand ships used to haul commodities such as iron ore, coal, grain and fertilizer have hit a seven-year high in 2016 as the industry creeps out of an eight-year downturn that has sunk several fleets of shippers, Reuters reported. Seaborne transport, which accounts for 85 percent of global trade, has seen a tentative recovery in the rates shippers charge to carry dry-bulk cargoes, which has encouraged buyers to jump at the bargain prices for second-hand vessels.

After struggling to pay its debts while oil prices tumbled, Calgary’s Lightstream Resources Ltd. emerged from a “painful” restructuring with a $1.35-billion deal that will clear the way for new production in 2017, the company says, The Calgary Herald reported. Two New York-based debt holders, private equity firm Apollo Global Management and credit-focused investor GSO Capital Partners, will own Lightstream following the deal, which includes swapping their debt for equity. The transaction, expected to close Dec.

Spanish renewable energy and engineering firm Abengoa SA has asked a U.S. bankruptcy court to enjoin legal action and future claims by creditors who are unsatisfied with a high-stakes plan to restructure $10 billion of debt, Reuters reported. Abengoa, a Sevilla-based company with a global renewable energy footprint, put its U.S. subsidiaries in Chapter 11 protection this year and filed for Chapter 15 protection from creditors of non-U.S. businesses while it thrashed out a refinancing deal to avoid becoming Spain's largest-ever corporate failure.

Elevated house prices and record-high debt levels are contributing to worries about Canada’s future economic growth, the head of the country’s national housing agency says, The Wall Street Journal reported. Speaking at the Bank of England on Friday, Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. President Evan Siddall said high house prices in the cities of Vancouver and Toronto have spread to other markets. At the same time, household indebtedness has grown and the concentration of Canadians’ net worth in real estate is near historic highs.