TimeLine Layout

January, 2020

  • 1 January

    Fed wins year-end repo battle, but war to curb rates drags on

    Bloomberg The Federal Reserve may have succeeded in thwarting major year-end turmoil in funding markets, but 2020 is likely to bring a whole new set of concerns. The US central bank has been injecting liquidity into markets through repurchase-agreement operations since mid-September in a bid to keep control of short-end rates. Earlier this month the Fed ramped up its offerings ...

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  • 1 January

    Lagarde’s colleague at ECB offers her German lessons

    Bloomberg European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde’s promise to learn German has prompted some suggestions on what her first important word should be — including from a German colleague. In response to an informal Twitter poll, incoming Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel suggested Lagarde should start with “Vertrauen,” or “trust.” Schnabel didn’t elaborate on her word choice in the ...

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  • 1 January

    Taiwan dollar strengthens past 30 in 18 months

    Bloomberg The Taiwan dollar strengthened past 30 versus the greenback for the first time in 18 months. The currency rose as much as 0.6% to 29.965 per dollar on and closed at 30.106 in Taipei. The Taiwan dollar has climbed about 3.4% in the second half as the best performer among the world’s major currencies. Taiwan’s financial markets were expected ...

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  • 1 January

    Will keep monetary policy flexible: PBOC

    Bloomberg China’s central bank said it’ll keep monetary policy flexible and work to lower funding costs for businesses as the economy still faces strong headwinds. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) will work to ensure the transmission of monetary policy and use market-focused reform mechanisms to lower the real interest rate for loans, according to a quarterly report. It will ...

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  • 1 January

    Year-end euro rally sees cross currency swaps hit record

    Bloomberg The battered euro is finishing the year strongly and setting up the case for better performance next year. The common currency rose to its strongest level versus the dollar since August and cross-currency basis swaps — a measure of demand for funding purposes — climbed to the highest on record, Bloomberg Generic Prices show. While both moves mirrored a ...

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  • 1 January

    China ramps up credit support to aid growth

    Bloomberg China’s central bank will increase the supply of cheap funding to banks by cutting the amount of cash they need to hold as reserves, a move aimed at putting a floor under economic growth in 2020. The required reserve ratio for commercial lenders will be lowered by 50 basis points from Jan. 6, unleashing about 800 billion yuan ($115 ...

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  • 1 January

    Japan to seek talks with Lebanon over fugitive Ghosn

    Bloomberg Japan is expected to speak with Lebanon through diplomatic channels about Carlos Ghosn fleeing Tokyo for the Middle East country, according to a senior Japanese government official. The comment on Wednesday would mark some of the earliest indications about how Tokyo plans to respond after the former head of Nissan Motor Co and Renault SA snuck out Japan where ...

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  • 1 January

    India plans to spend $1.5tn on infrastructure to spur growth

    Bloomberg India outlined the contours of a $1.5 trillion plan to build infrastructure over the next five years to shore up economic growth. The programme will include existing projects in the energy, road and railway sectors in the pipeline, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters. Private companies will account for 22%-25% of the investments, with the federal government and states ...

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  • 1 January

    Beijing is all set to approve GMO corn

    Bloomberg China is set to award safety certificates for genetically-modified corn, paving the way for domestic production as the world’s most-populous country turns to the controversial technology to boost food security. Two strains of GMO corn, one developed by Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group Co and another by Zhejiang University and a biological company in Hangzhou, are likely to be given ...

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  • 1 January

    South Korea exports post smallest decline since Apr

    Bloomberg South Korea’s exports posted the smallest decline since April, offering evidence that the worst may be over for the Asian bellwether of global trade. Exports in December fell 5.2% from a year earlier, data from customs office showed on Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a 8.6% fall. Imports decreased 0.7%. The letup in exports slump adds to ...

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