January, 2023

• 31 January

  China dismisses US claims of support for Russia as ‘paranoia’

  

  Bloomberg China hit back at a report that the US has confronted it with evidence suggesting some of its state-owned firms may be helping Russia’s war in Ukraine, saying Washington should stop sending weapons if it wants the conflict to end. China “would never add fuel to the fire, still less exploit the crisis,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said ...

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• 31 January

  Kishida faces calls for election over ‘defense tax’

  

  Bloomberg Japanese voters want an election before any hike in taxes to fund Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s plans for a record increase in defense spending and providing more support for families with children, according to two polls. About 63% of respondents to a poll by the Nikkei newspaper carried out Jan 27-29 and 77% of those who took part in ...

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• 31 January

  NZ’s Hipkins boosts chances of Labour at election, poll shows

    Bloomberg New Zealand’s new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has boosted his party’s chances at this year’s election, with a poll showing him neck-and-neck with his opponents less than eight months out from the ballot. Support for Hipkins’ Labour Party rose 5 percentage points to 38% in a 1News/Kantar poll published Monday in Wellington, while the main opposition National Party ...

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• 31 January

  Rupee left behind in EM rally as RBI rebuilds foreign reserves

  

    Bloomberg The rupee’s recent gains may prove to be fleeting because of pressure from India’s persistent current-account gap and the central bank building up its foreign-exchange reserves. The currency has lagged peers from the Thai baht to the Indonesian rupiah this month, gaining only 1.4% even amid sustained dollar weakness. QuantEco Research expects the rupee to slip towards 83.5 ...

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• 31 January

  Top investment bankers in Asia face 50% pay cuts

  

    Bloomberg Top investment bankers in Asia ex-Japan at Wall Street’s biggest firms are having their worst payouts since the financial crisis more than a decade ago. On average, managing directors at banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp. (BofA) have seen their total compensation drop by 40% to 50%, with payouts for senior ...

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• 31 January

  Pakistan rupee hits record low

  

  Bloomberg Pakistan’s rupee slumped to a fresh record ahead of a visit by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) team for negotiations over the resumption of its $6.5 billion bailout program. The rupee fell for a sixth straight day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It traded as low as 269 per dollar on Monday, according to the foreign-exchange desk at AKD ...

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• 31 January

  BNY to help money managers outsource their trading desks

  

    Bloomberg Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BNY) wants to do money managers’ trading for them with a new outsourcing service aimed at helping buy-side firms cut costs. The move builds on the trading that BNY Mellon already handles for $1.8 trillion of assets it manages, the firm said in a statement. The bank will target current and prospective ...

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• 31 January

  US saving rate jumps to seven-month high

    Bloomberg Americans stashed more money away last month, pulling back on discretionary spending amid a cloudier economic outlook. The saving rate rose for a third month to 3.4% in December 2022, the highest level in seven months, according to Commerce Department data. Last month’s increase from 2.9% in November marked biggest jump since July 2021. Savings are creeping back ...

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• 31 January

  Desperate Nigerians looking for new naira queue up at ATMs

  

  Bloomberg Dozens of Nigerians queued at an ATM machine in the heart of the country’s commercial hub to get new higher denomination naira notes ahead of a February 10 deadline that will render old bills expired. The ATM belonging to Guaranty Trust Bank Plc was the only one dispensing the new notes on one of the busiest streets in the ...

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• 31 January

  Stocks plunge with eyes on rate hikes; bonds decline

  

    Bloomberg Shares in Europe declined on Monday along with US equity futures as a note of caution crept in at the start of a week marked by interest-rate decisions and big-name company earnings on both sides of the Atlantic. The Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped about 0.6%, taking some of the luster off what was shaping to be the ...

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