February, 2016

• 18 February

  PBoC moves to daily open-market operations

  

  Bloomberg China’s central bank said it will start conducting open-market operations every business day, strengthening its influence on interest rates. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) introduced daily auctions from Jan. 29 to manage liquidity around the Lunar New Year holiday, a period in which surging demand for funds has led to cash squeezes in the past, and was due ...

  Read More »
• 18 February

  Barclays to weigh sale of Egyptian unit

  Bloomberg Barclays Plc is considering selling its Egyptian unit after abandoning a plan to fold it into its Africa business, according to people with knowledge of the plan. The unit, whose presence in Egypt dates back to 1864, may be worth more than $500 million, according to one person familiar, who asked not to be identified because the details aren’t ...

  Read More »
• 18 February

  Riksbank closer to ‘Nirvana’ as inflation picks up

  Bloombrg Swedish inflation accelerated more than expected last month, easing pressure on the central bank to add to its record stimulus measures. Consumer prices rose an annual 0.8 percent in January, Statistics Sweden said in a statement Thursday. Adjusted for mortgage costs, prices rose an annual 1.6 percent. Analysts in a Bloomberg survey had predicted headline inflation of 0.5 percent ...

  Read More »
• 18 February

  Vietnam bond yields fall on post-holiday demand

  Bloombrg Vietnamese government bonds rose, pushing yields to six-month lows, on speculation demand from local banks increased as the cash supply improved after the Lunar New Year holidays. The yield on the five-year notes dropped 10 basis points to 6.5 percent, the lowest since Aug. 12, 2015, according to a daily fixing from lenders compiled by Bloomberg. The three-year yield ...

  Read More »
• 18 February

  Brunei’s economy running on empty

  

  With the price of oil at record lows, the small Southeast Asian nation of Brunei is quickly becoming the first oil-rich country to fall victim to an economic reliance on the energy industry. The hydrocarbon-dependent sultanate of 420,000 people now stands on the precipice of an economic calamity. At the apex of its 2008-2015 financial crisis, Greece’s budget deficit was ...

  Read More »
• 18 February

  A ‘blurry’ union

  

  Kyrgyzstan completed its accession to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) in August 2015, eight months after the union’s official launch and three months after Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev signed the agreements with the leaders of the other member states–Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Armenia–in Moscow. But as Oleg Pankratov, the deputy prime minister, said at a press conference this week, the ...

  Read More »
• 18 February

  Hong Kong: A city on the edge

  

  For decades after 1949, Hong Kong—also known as the “Pearl of the Orient”—was the envy of mainland Chinese because of its prosperity and freedom. It was naturally the top destination for hundreds of thousands of mainlanders who tried to flee from famine or political chaos. Hong Kong also used to evoke feelings of poignancy among mainlanders, because it was under ...

  Read More »
• 18 February

  Hospitality sector gets a headstart in Saudi Arabia

  

  Riyadh / Bloomberg A record 47,431 rooms and 124 hotel projects are currently under development in Saudi Arabia, according to a new report. The majority of projects are in the final construction and pre-opening stages with 52 projects and almost 20,000 rooms set to open to the public throughout the Kingdom this year, says the new report by TOPHOTELPROJECTS commissioned ...

  Read More »
• 18 February

  Landlords rush to buy UK homes amid Bank of England worries

  London / Bloomberg Buy-to-let landlords are rushing to purchase U.K. homes ahead of an increase in the stamp-duty sales tax in April. The number of homes acquired by rental homeowners rose 71 percent in January from the same month a year earlier, according to data compiled by Countrywide Plc. the U.K.’s largest realtor. Landlords purchased 21 percent of all the ...

  Read More »
• 18 February

  House flipping makes a comeback in Vegas

  

  LAS VEGAS / Bloomberg At the onset of the millennium, house flippers—people who purchased imperfect homes, renovated them, and resold them at a profit mere months later—ran rampant in U.S. housing markets. When the market went bust, the flippers mostly went away, replaced by investors who bought distressed homes and rented them out. The practice of flipping homes has been ...

  Read More »