Aurelia Butler

“Such non-payment may lead to relevant creditors of the Group demanding acceleration of payment of the relevant indebtedness owed to them or pursuing enforcement action,” the company said in a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing on Tuesday.The Group is currently facing “significant” uncertainty regarding disposing of its assets and its cash position remains under pressure, Country Garden added.A growing number of Chinese property developers have defaulted on debt obligations since a liquidity crisis hit the sector in 2021. The crisis has been worsened by demand declining in China’s property market in line with a broader economic slowdown.Country Garden was due to pay on Monday $66.8 million in coupons on 2024 and 2026 bonds, although the payments have a 30-day grace period. The developer faces another big test later this month when its entire offshore debt could be deemed in default if it fails to pay a $15 million September coupon by Oct. 17.Country Garden has $10.96 billion offshore bonds and 42.4 billion yuan ($5.81 billion) worth of loans not denominated in yuan. If it defaults, these debt will need to be restructured, and the company or its assets also risk liquidation by creditors.The company recorded contracted sales of around 154.98 billion yuan for the nine months till September, a drop of about 43.9% and 65.4%, compared with corresponding periods in 2022 and 2021.It said it had appointed investment bank Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI), China International Capital Corporation (CICC) and law firm Sidley Austin as advisers to examine its capital structure and liquidity position. More

MARRAKECH, Morocco (Reuters) – Rising debt levels among “seemingly healthy” countries in Asia could drag growth in the region below currently forecast levels, World Bank Chief Economist Indermit Gill told Reuters in an interview on Monday.Gill said he remained critical of the slow pace of debt restructurings under the Group of 20 Common Framework for restructuring the debt of the poorest countries, and said it was critical to speed up those processes.But he said surprisingly high debt levels in Asia were also a concern, noting that increased government borrowing from domestic markets would limit the level of credit available to private firms, resulting in faltering investment.”We have a simultaneous problems: too much debt and too little investment,” he said. “There’s a lot of government consumption and private consumption being financed through debt. There is not a lot of investment being financed through credit, and that’s not great.”The result could be “much lower growth” than we were forecasting, he said, without providing any specific numbers. “So it won’t be a situation of debt distress, it will just be slumping growth. But it’s an equally serious issue. Now we’re talking about very, very large countries.”Gill declined to give specific examples, but a recent World Bank report showed government debt ran around 85% of GDP in the average South Asian country, higher than in other emerging market, developing economy regions.Debt is rising in the region due to growing government spending, low domestic revenue and increasing debt service costs, the report found. It noted a number of factors, including losses at a major state-owned bank, could drive borrowing costs to an unsustainable level.Debt levels were also up in East Asia, Gill said. “If you look at the debt numbers (in East Asia), all of them are up. The one which is relatively low is China, but we know that in China, it’s not the central government debt that’s the problem, it’s the subnational and corporate and the household debt.”Gill said he worried that the world’s focus on the poorest countries that were covered by the Common Framework could lead to surprises in other countries that were seemingly healthy. More

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The Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced that it would hold Lew’s confirmation hearing on Oct. 18.The aides said Democrats, who hold a slim majority in the chamber, hoped to vote to confirm Lew as soon as Thursday, Oct. 19.Biden nominated Lew for the position in September, a move that won immediate praise from his fellow Democrats.Because he served as a cabinet secretary, Lew has undergone Senate confirmation before. In addition to serving as Treasury secretary, Lew under former Democratic President Barack Obama was a White House chief of staff and deputy secretary of state for management and resources.The position has been vacant since July, when Tom Nides left the post. (This story has been refiled to clarify the date in paragraph 3) More

The rise in oil, gas, and defense stocks can be attributed to the surprise attack by Hamas on Israel. This unexpected geopolitical event has driven up oil prices, favoring companies like Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) and Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), as well as Brent crude and US oil, which rose to $86.38 per barrel.Barclays analyst Amarpreet Singh suggests that the conflict might slow down Iranian oil exports, further impacting global oil markets. Defense contractor stocks such as Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) and L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) also experienced significant gains on Wall Street due to the ongoing Middle East conflict.However, fuel-intensive companies like United Airlines and Carnival (NYSE:CCL) faced losses as major airlines suspended flights to Israel following travel advisories from the US State Department. Despite higher rates, early 2024 rate hike projections are moderating with November’s estimate at 14%, December’s cumulative rate change at 6.9bp, January’s projection at 4.4bp, and the Fed terminal expected to fall to 5.395% in Jan’24.The S&P 500 rebounded after an initial dip due to positive interest rate news, hinting that Federal Reserve officials may not raise interest rates as previously anticipated. This news boosted all three indexes, providing a counterbalance to the economic uncertainties stemming from the ongoing inflation warnings and Middle East conflict.This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C. More