March, 2023

• 10 March

  China doesn’t want a war over Taiwan, says US spy chief Haines

  

  BLOOMBERG The US intelligence community assesses that China doesn’t want a military conflict over Taiwan even as it’s determined to bring the independently governed island under its control, officials told a House of Representatives hearing. “It’s not our assessment that China wants to go to war,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told the House Intelligence Committee as part of ...

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• 10 March

  Zelenskiy says Russia targeting nuclear plant

  

  BLOOMBERG Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused the Kremlin of deliberately targeting the country’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after the latest Russian missile barrage knocked out its supply for the sixth time before power was restored. “This is a critical situation” and “means, by definition, that Russia cannot be a bona fide participant in any relations in the nuclear sphere,” Zelenskiy said ...

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• 10 March

  Erdogan kicks off toughest poll campaign of his 20-year rule

  

  BLOOMBERG Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan officially kicked off the toughest election campaign of his career on Friday, with the broadest-ever opposition alliance standing between him and a third decade in power. Erdogan brought elections forward by more than a month to May 14 from the original date of June 18, despite twin earthquakes devastating much of the country’s southeast ...

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• 10 March

  US ambassador calls on Hungary’s premier to pivot from Russia ‘now’

  

  BLOOMBERG The US ambassador to Hungary said Prime Minister Viktor Orban has reached a crossroads and that the “time is now” for him to pivot away from Russia and shore up the country’s relations with its western allies. The unusually direct remark for a sitting US ambassador about a Nato partner’s international policy adds to mounting pressure on Orban to ...

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• 10 March

  Russia clears Putin’s schedule for G-20 summit in India

  

  BLOOMBERG The Kremlin is opening up Vladimir Putin’s schedule around this year’s G-20 summit in India in September to make it possible for the Russian president to participate in the leaders’ gathering after skipping the last two, according to people familiar with the planning. Kremlin defiance is growing as efforts by the US and its allies to isolate Russia over ...

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• 10 March

  SVB races to prevent bank run as funds advise pulling cash

  

  BLOOMBERG Panic is spreading across the financial world as concerns about the financial stability of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) prompt prominent venture capitalists including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund to advise startups to withdraw their money. The turmoil followed a surprise announcement from Santa Clara, California-based SVB that it was issuing $2.25 billion of shares to bolster its capital position after ...

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• 10 March

  Standard Bank ready to re-capitalise Ghana unit

  

  BLOOMBERG Standard Bank Group Ltd, Africa’s biggest lender by assets, is ready to re-capitalise its Ghanaian unit after making provisions to cover more than half of its holdings in the nation’s debt. “It may become necessary for us to inject capital in that business and we will, at the appropriate time,” Chief Executive Officer Sim Tshabalala said in an interview. ...

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• 10 March

  Malaysia extends rate pause as inflation cools, growth slows

  

  BLOOMBERG Malaysia left its monetary settings unchanged for a second straight meeting, as the central bank opted to weigh the impact of previous interest-rate increases on economic activity amid a challenging global  outlook. Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) held its overnight policy rate at 2.75%, a decision seen by 11 of 20 economists in a Bloomberg survey, with the rest expecting ...

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• 10 March

  BOE to cut spending for work on climate change

  

  BLOOMBERG The Bank of England (BOE) plans to cut spending on climate change work and redirect the money to core functions because of rising pressures on its costs. Climate programs will slip lower on the central bank’s agenda so officials can focus more on the core operations such as financial stability, markets and a digital currency, according to a person ...

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• 10 March

  Kuroda buffets yen again after decade of radical easing

  

  BLOOMBERG Haruhiko Kuroda finished his last meeting at the helm of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) by buffeting markets again with a straightforward stand-pat that contrasted with the explosive launch of his massive stimulus program a decade ago. The BOJ left its negative interest rate and its cap on government debt yields untouched at the shortest regular meeting during Kuroda’s ...

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