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Japan's economy contracted in the first quarter of the year due to reduced spending by consumers and companies. Gross domestic product shrank at an annualized pace of 2%, worse than economists' forecast of a 1.2% contraction. Factors contributing to the decline include an earthquake, disruptions to auto production and sales, declining household spending, and persistent declines in real wages. While there were positive developments such as wage hikes and the prospect of higher pay boosting consumption, concerns remain about the end of subsidies and the weakening yen's impact on sentiment and costs. The Bank of Japan is closely monitoring the data to determine when to raise interest rates again. [Extracted from the article]

Centrica Plc's Nordic arm made a trading error that resulted in power prices dropping so low in the region that some homes will receive free electricity. The mistake occurred when Centrica did not purchase enough supplies in an auction, leading the market to believe that demand was extremely low while wind power output was high. This incident follows a similar situation in Finland where power prices went below zero due to incorrect bidding. The low prices are affecting nuclear plants in the region, with one Swedish utility reducing output at its plant. [Extracted from the article]

Polish banks have suffered another defeat at the European Union's top court over unfair terms in foreign-currency loans. The court ruled that borrowers should not have to go through excessive paperwork to reclaim money they wrongly paid, and that lenders cannot charge them extra interest or fees. This decision is part of a long-running legal battle that has led to over 140,000 lawsuits in Polish courts. The ruling may shorten the time banks have to claim back their capital on unfair loans and may encourage more borrowers to take their lenders to court. [Extracted from the article]

Nordic power prices have reached their highest levels since March due to unplanned outages at nuclear reactors in Sweden and Finland. Vattenfall AB's Ringhals-4 reactor shut down early on Wednesday after a failure, while Teollisuuden Voima Oyj's Olkiluoto-3 reactor went offline during testing. These outages, combined with cold weather in the region, have led to a surge in electricity costs. The outages are expected to result in higher energy bills for consumers and businesses with contracts tied to wholesale pricing. [Extracted from the article]

(Bloomberg) -- New Zealand plans to require providers of buy-now, pay-later products to conduct an affordability check on customers before agreeing to a loan. The amount of money spent with BNPL in New Zealand grew to NZ$1.7 billion in 2021 from NZ$755 million in 2020, according to government figures. [Extracted from the article]

China's property sector has contracted for the third consecutive quarter, indicating that real estate continues to weigh on the economy. Output in the real estate industry decreased by 2% in the first quarter compared to the previous year, making it the sector with the steepest drop. New-home sales in March also saw a significant decline of 29%, the largest drop since the downturn began in July. These challenges are putting pressure on policymakers to support the economy, which is already facing weakening consumer spending and a high unemployment rate. Despite this, China's overall economy grew by 4.8% in the first quarter, although this figure does not fully capture the impact of recent lockdowns. Industrial output and investment remained stable, but consumer spending contracted for the first time since 2020, with catering revenue experiencing a sharp decline. The jobless rate also reached its highest level since May 2020. The hotel and catering industry was the second-worst performing sector, with a 0.3% decrease in output. However, construction saw a slight improvement, growing by 1.4% in the first quarter. [Extracted from the article]

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. manufacturers and other large energyusers are starting to lock in natural gas and power costsfor at least three years or longer to buffer againstprice surges this winter, a practice that went out ofvogue with the shale boom. With gas prices more than doubling from a year earlierduring the annual shopping season for winter fuel, manyfactories are securing prices until 2024 to help mitigateimpending surges, according to consultancy and fuelprocurement firm Unified Energy Services LLC. [Extracted from the article]

(Bloomberg) -- U.K. regulators have been urged to investigate Britain's phone operators after the largest companies announced similar rises in mobile contracts in the space of several months. A combination of O2 and Three UK was blocked by the European Union in 2016, with the regulator citing concerns over potential price increases. [Extracted from the article]

(Bloomberg) -- Annual inflation in urban parts of Egypt slowed in January, pulled down by falling food prices, according to the state-run statistics agency, CAPMAS. Food and beverages, which comprise the largest single component of the inflation basket, fell 0.5% on an annual basis and 1.6% month-on-month. [Extracted from the article]

The new bid is designed to head off outright liquidation of Sears, which has struggled to get support from lenders and suppliers who aren't sure that the iconic retailer can survive, and Lampert's new bid may not quell those doubts. Lampert, who holds about $2.6 billion of Sears borrowings, would convert much of that stake into equity of the reorganized business. [Extracted from the article]

Investec Plc, the South African bank that's carved out a leading role financing U.S. rooftop solar, hired a former Varagon Capital Partners banker to oversee Americas clean-tech deals, according to people familiar with the matter. Plastina's LinkedIn page already shows him working at Investec, in New York. [Extracted from the article]

Tesla Inc., the busiest issuer of solar asset-backed securities, is seeking to raise $131 million by bundling consumer power-purchase agreements and leases. In this deal, power-purchase agreements would make up 97 percent of the underlying securities, according to Kroll. [Extracted from the article]

U.S. Solar Securitization Deals "Popped" in 2017 Led by Tesla Led by Tesla Inc., the U.S. solar asset-backed securities market has had a banner year, more than quadrupling from 2016. The appeal of securitization is straightforward: it allows residential-solar companies to realize the value of their long-term consumer contracts by refinancing them in the capital markets. [Extracted from the article]

The European Commission adopted an implementing regulation establishing a list of critical benchmark indexes that "are of particular importance for financial markets and consumer contracts", the European Union executive said. In particular, classifying EURIBOR as a "critical" benchmark will facilitate supervisors in requesting data contributions from banks, if they deem it necessary to ensure the benchmark's representativeness", the commission said. [Extracted from the article]

Services PMI fell to 47.8, below 48.3 median estimate Attribution Michael Winfrey: editor Zoya Shilova: assist Tony Halpin: editor Balazs Penz: editor responsible Olga Tanas: by reporter. [Extracted from the article]