Economy

More and more Americans are having trouble paying their car loans 

A growing percentage of American motorists are finding it difficult to pay off their car loans. The percentage of subprime borrowers who are behind on repayments has not been this high since at least 1994, writes Bloomberg.  

 

In September, 6.11 percent of borrowers in this vulnerable group were 60 days or more behind on their payments. The percentage is the highest measured in the credit rating company Fitch's statistical series starting in 1994.  

 

- The subprime borrowers get squeezed. It is often among them that we first see the negative effects when macroeconomic headwinds blow, says Margaret Rowe, head of Fitch's asset-backed securities department. 

 

The subprime loans are given to customers with low credit ratings. In the USA, the interest rate on loans for new cars is around 5 percent for those with the best credit rating and just over 14 percent for those with the worst. For used cars, it is about 7 and roughly 21 percent respectively.

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The EU can extend the price ceiling on gas - wants to avoid another crisis 

The EU is considering extending the price cap on natural gas introduced in February to avoid a new cost crisis this winter, reports the Financial Times.  

According to EU sources that the newspaper spoke to, the supply of gas may be affected by the war between Hamas and Israel.  

- We don't know what will happen this winter. We have this situation in Israel and we don't know how it will affect imports from the Middle East, says a source. 

In addition, the suspected sabotage of a gas pipeline in the Gulf of Finland earlier in October has increased the concern of the EU, which sees the risk of more vandalism directed at gas infrastructure.  

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Argentina's "Trump" wants to scrap the peso - unclear if it will work  

Javier Milei's radical economic ideas have attracted voters, but are difficult to implement in practice. That's what Bloomberg writes ahead of today's election.  

Milei, who is compared to politicians such as Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, has promised, among other things, to "burn down" the country's central bank and introduce dollars to tame the country's sky-high inflation and get the state finances on the right side.  

According to economists, around 40 billion dollars are needed just to carry out the currency exchange - money that is not in Argentina's coffers, writes Bloomberg. 

But despite the uncertainties surrounding scrapping the peso - if it even works - Milei's proposal is popular. Especially among young people, writes Reuters.  

- He is the only one who understands the situation in the country and understands how to save it, says student Nicolas Mercado, to the news agency.