Reuters HSBC will seek to cut internal bureaucracy and expand investment in China’s southern region to the rest of the country, executives at the bank said on Monday, in the first hints of the strategy to be pursued by its new leadership duo. Mark Tucker, the bank’s first externally appointed chairman, told analysts and investors at a meeting in Hong ...
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Uganda keeps interest rate at record low of 9%
Bloomberg Uganda’s central bank maintained the benchmark interest rate at a record low as risks to the east African nation’s inflation outlook remain balanced. The key rate was kept at 9 percent, Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile told reporters on Monday in the capital, Kampala. Inflation slowed to 2 percent in March, the weakest level since 2014, and the risks to the ...
Read More »Barclays Africa to split into four units in growth strategy
Bloomberg Barclays Africa Group Ltd., South Africa’s third-biggest bank, will split into four operating units as the lender outlines its growth strategy after the sale by its UK parent. The Johannesburg-based firm will separate retail and business banking, investment banking, wealth and insurance, and its operations in the rest of Africa, it said in a statement on Monday. Deputy Chief ...
Read More »Banks see fast pace for Mideast, Africa deals in ‘bumper year’
Bloomberg Asset sales from Saudi power plants and football clubs to African energy firms are set to help deliver a bumper year for deals in the region. Investment banks expect the pace of transactions in the Middle East and Africa to gain momentum after a busy first quarter. Mergers and initial public offerings in the first three months of 2018 ...
Read More »China forex reserves up as dollar weakness continues
BEIJING / Reuters China’s foreign exchange reserves rose slightly in March as broad US dollar weakness continued and escalating trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies bolstered expectations of a firmer Chinese currency. Reserves rose $9 billion in March to $3.143 trillion, compared with a drop of $27 billion in February, central bank data showed on Sunday. Economists polled ...
Read More »Fed’s Evans optimistic on inflation, wants rate hikes
CHICAGO / Reuters Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans, one of the Fed’s most dovish policymakers, said that he is optimistic inflation will reach the Fed’s 2 percent goal and that slow, gradual rate increases will be appropriate. “Fiscal policy has been much more supportive of further growth and so the need for accommodative monetary policy is less than ...
Read More »Thai central bank governor says accommodative policy needed
Bloomberg Thailand’s monetary policy should remain accommodative to nurture the economic recovery and as inflationary pressure remains weak, central bank Governor Veerathai Santiprabhob said. Thailand is still in the “early stage of a recovery of domestic demand,†Veerathai said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in Singapore. The most important factor in deciding policy is inflation pressure, followed by the ...
Read More »Second-biggest Pakistan bank targets ‘enormous’ youth market
Bloomberg Pakistan’s second-largest bank by assets aims to double its current-account deposits in five years as it extends its reach into the nation’s rising middle class through new technology and a branch revamp. United Bank Ltd. is seeking to increase its number of customers by about 40 percent to 10 million in three years, with domestic current-account deposits doubling to ...
Read More »Czech central banker Hampl sees faster rise in rates
Reuters The Czech National Bank (CNB) may raise its main interest rate above 1 percent by the end of this year, sooner than its staff forecast predicts, as the economy is overheating, Vice-Governor Mojmir Hampl was quoted as saying. The central bank’s board kept the two-week repo rate at 0.75 percent at its last policy meeting on March 29 after ...
Read More »ECB’s Coeure warns trade wars raise burden on central banks
Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said the trade spat picked by the US risks increasing the burden on central banks — as well as hurting the poor — by dimming global growth prospects. Protectionist sentiment has already “contributed to tighter financial conditions,†Coeure said at the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, Italy. “A ‘trade war’ scenario ...
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