August, 2021

• 16 August

  Chaotic scenes grip Kabul’s airport, with reports of deaths

  

  Bloomberg Desperate scenes played out at Kabul’s international airport on Monday as thousands rushed to exit Afghanistan after Taliban fighters took control of the capital, with Reuters reporting at least five people were killed as people tried to forcibly enter planes leaving the country. Citing witnesses, Reuters said it wasn’t clear whether the victims died of gunshots or in a ...

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• 16 August

  Malaysian PM quits, deepening political leadership crisis

  

  Bloomberg Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and his cabinet resigned after more than 17 months in power, fuelling a crisis of leadership in a country beset by a weakened economy and a surge in coronavirus cases. Muhyiddin, 74, will stay on as a caretaker prime minister until a successor is named, the palace said in a statement on Monday after ...

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• 16 August

  Venezuela frees opposition leader to attend Mexico talks

  

  Bloomberg Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro released Freddy Guevara, an opposition leader who had been jailed for more than a month, so that he can act as a negotiator in political talks set to start next month. A top ally of Juan Guaido, Guevara was freed from the Caracas headquarters of the police intelligence unit known as Sebin. In video posted ...

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• 16 August

  Thai premier faces no-confidence vote in parliament as virus strategy fumbles

  

  Bloomberg Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha will face a no-confidence vote in parliament as the opposition parties and pro-democracy groups ratchet up pressure on his government as it struggles to contain one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in the region. The opposition parties submitted a motion for censure debates and no-confidence votes on Monday against Prayuth and five other ministers, ...

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• 16 August

  Merkel’s bloc declines for 2nd straight week in polls

  

  Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party bloc declined for a second consecutive week in a poll that suggests the Social Democrats are gaining ground ahead of Germany’s election in six weeks’ time. The Social Democratic Party, (SDP) which hasn’t held the chancellor’s office since 2005, pulled ahead of the Greens for the first time in a year in the weekly Insa poll, ...

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• 16 August

  Bank of Thailand head says virus fight may need $30bn

  

  Bloomberg Thailand’s central bank governor called for an additional 1 trillion baht ($30 billion) in government spending to counter coronavirus, saying the blow to the economy from the pandemic is greater than from the Asian financial crisis in 1997. The government can fund additional spending by borrowing more, Bank of Thailand Governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput said on Monday at a briefing ...

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• 16 August

  China’s central bank rolls over more policy loans to boost growth

  

  Bloomberg China’s central bank rolled over most of its medium-term policy loans coming due, a move to support economic growth amid a resurgence of Covid cases. Government bonds reversed earlier losses. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) injected 600 billion yuan ($92.6 billion) into the financial system through its medium-term lending facility, close to the 700 billion yuan maturing Tuesday. ...

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• 16 August

  New Zealand to hike rates to cool overheating economy

  

  Bloomberg New Zealand is set to raise interest rates this week, the first advanced economy in the Asia-Pacific to begin normalizing policy, as a powerful recovery unhindered by delta outbreaks shows signs of overheating. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) will lift the official cash rate by a quarter percentage point to 0.5% at its review Wednesday in Wellington, ...

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• 16 August

  Bank of America, Perella lift junior-banker salaries

  

  Bloomberg Bank of America Corp (BofA) is boosting base salaries for junior bankers, joining firms including Perella Weinberg Partners and Evercore Inc in lifting pay to lure young talent on Wall Street. At Bank of America, first-year analysts across the global corporate and investment banking, markets, and research divisions will receive $100,000, up from $95,000, according to a person with ...

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• 16 August

  BOE’s inflation alarm deemed overly-cautious by economists

  Bloomberg Bank of England (BOE) policy makers are being overly-alarmist on their outlook for inflation, economists’ forecasts suggest, casting doubt on the need for a significant tightening in policy in the years ahead. While the central bank expects inflation to hit 4% this year and slightly exceed that level in early 2022, economists surveyed by Bloomberg only see it rising ...

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