March, 2021

• 7 March

  China abandoning 24-year experiment with open HK polls

  

  Bloomberg For almost a quarter of a century, Hong Kong stood as the one place under Beijing’s rule with open elections. A landslide loss just over a year ago may have finally convinced China to end the experiment in democracy. In late 2019, Hong Kong’s democratic opposition rode the momentum of historic protests to win an unprecedented 85% of the ...

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• 7 March

  Republicans use Biden’s CIA pick for pressure over Nord Stream 2

  

  Bloomberg Senator Ted Cruz is delaying William Burns’s confirmation as CIA director to demand that the Biden administration do more to halt the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, as Republicans seek to ramp up pressure now that construction has resumed. The move by the Texas Republican will delay, but not stop, Burns’s path to lead the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). ...

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• 7 March

  House impeachment manager sues Trump over Capitol riot

  

  Bloomberg A Congressman who helped lead the second impeachment of Donald Trump filed a lawsuit alleging the former president incited a mob that took over the US Capitol and disrupted the certification of the 2020 election. Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, filed the suit in federal court. It’s the latest sign of legal peril for Trump over his role ...

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• 7 March

  S Korea condemns Myanmar violence

  Bloomberg South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees in Myanmar, while the United Nation’s Security Council is reviewing measures to take in response to the military coup in the Southeast Asian country. “Use of violence against the people of Myanmar must stop now,” Moon said in a post ...

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• 7 March

  Spain plans debt relief in new $13b fiscal package

  

  Bloomberg Spain is considering using part of a planned 11 billion-euro ($13 billion) fiscal package to provide debt relief to companies that have borrowed through the country’s state-backed loan program. The proposal would allow Spanish lenders a degree of flexibility to decide which borrowers should be granted relief, the officials said. Banks would absorb some of the write off and ...

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• 6 March

  Ireland 2020 GDP up 3.4% amid Covid-19

  

  Bloomberg Ireland’s economy expanded in 2020 despite the devastation of the pandemic as surging exports countered a slump in domestic demand. The nation’s GDP grows 3.4% in 2020, the central statistics office said, driven largely by the export sector. The domestic economy, however, struggled. “Today’s figures once again point to the dual economic impact of the pandemic, with domestic activities ...

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• 6 March

  Brexit triggers 30% slump in German exports to UK

  Bloomberg German exports to Britain plunged in January, as the downward trend since the country voted to leave EU gathered pace. Already curtailed by the economic impact of the coronavirus, Brexit helped trigger a nearly 30% slump in German exports to the UK in the first month of the year, according to a preliminary estimate by the Federal Statistics Office. ...

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• 6 March

  Export boom driving Canada’s largest trade surplus since 2014

  

  Bloomberg Canada’s trade sector unexpectedly recorded its largest surplus in more than six years on across-the-board increases in exports. The nation ran a surplus of C$1.4 billion ($1.1 billion) in January from a revised deficit of C$1.98 billion in December, Statistics Canada said in Ottawa. Economists were predicting a gap of C$1.4 billion. It marked the first time Canada has ...

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• 6 March

  UK house prices rise 0.7% in February

  Bloomberg UK house prices rose unexpectedly in February, continuing a surge fueled by a temporary tax relief on purchases and Covid-induced shifts in people’s lifestyles. Values increased 0.7% from January to an average of 231,068 pounds ($321,000), Nationwide Building Society said. They climbed 6.9% from a year ago, accelerating from the 6.4% pace registered a month earlier. Housing boomed last ...

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• 6 March

  Swedish real estate hotter than ever as ‘hysteria’ hits

  

  Bloomberg Swedish house prices soared to the highest level ever recorded, as a growing number of people make use of unprecedented central bank stimulus to upgrade into bigger homes. “From a credit perspective, one can only conclude that the market has been gripped by hysteria, which is connected to central banks pumping money into the system,” said Carl Johan Lagercrantz, ...

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