INDIA
Inflation hits 14-month high
India’s inflation jumped to a 14-month high of 7.52 percent last month, data showed yesterday, stoking expectations of another interest rate hike when the central bank meets this week. The rise in the wholesale price index, India’s most closely watched inflation indicator, was up from 7 percent in October, led by food prices, which rose nearly 20 percent year on year. The rate is now the highest since September 2012 and spells more bad news for the government as it struggles to jump-start sluggish economic growth ahead of general elections due by May next year. – Sapa-AFP
GREECE
Vodafone faces e250m lawsuit
Vodafone had been served with a e250 million (R3.5m) lawsuit for allegedly breaching its contracts and causing harm to a Greek retail partner, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. The newspaper, citing claims it had seen, said that Vodafone Greece last week received details of the civil lawsuit from MTS, a local telecoms retailer that sold Vodafone contracts and services in the country. MTS claimed Vodafone restricted its ability to operate through the cancellation of a loan restructuring and the termination of a co-operation agreement involving maintenance services and loan contracts. – Reuters
ITALY
Finance police nab mobsters
Italian finance police arrested four alleged mobsters yesterday for forcing shop owners in Naples to buy Christmas poinsettia plants at more than 100 times their wholesale price to raise money for jailed mob members. For the past three Christmas seasons, the four mobsters had forced business owners to buy the primarily bright-red leaved plant for as much as e100 (R1 425) each to raise funds for the families and legal fees of jailed clan members, the police said. – Reuters
IVORY COAST
$1bn eurobond issue planned
Ivory Coast planned to issue a $1 billion (R10bn) eurobond in the country’s first venture onto the international debt market since a default during a 2011 civil war, President Alassane Ouattara said yesterday. With the crisis now over, Ouattara’s government has resumed coupon payments on the defaulted $2.5bn eurobond, which matures in 2032, and has launched a large-scale overhaul of long neglected infrastructure. He gave no further details of the anticipated issuance. – Reuters