August, 2019

• 27 August

  Eskom Holdings may sell some coal-fired plants to raise $29bn

  

  Bloomberg South Africa’s government could decide that Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. must sell some of its coal-fired power stations as part of the restructuring of the power utility, National Treasury said. This could be done through a series of auctions where Eskom would sell the power stations itself, along with all its power station-specific obligations, such as staff contracts, coal-supply ...

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• 27 August

  Mexico sees $4.5b in savings from pipeline deals

  

  Bloomberg A deal that will save Mexico $4.5 billion has been reached with three pipeline companies to carry natural gas throughout the country, according to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Carlos Slim’s Grupo Carso SAB was the first to reach agreement with the country’s Federal Electricity Commission, or CFE, Lopez Obrador said during his morning news conference on Tuesday. Sempra ...

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• 27 August

  Retailers dealt another blow as Trump steps up China tariffs

  

  Bloomberg For American retailers, what Trump giveth, Trump taketh away. President Donald Trump’s administration, which said just 10 days ago it would delay until December some of its new tariffs on Chinese goods, has hit the retail sector with a new blow: The new levies will be raised to 15% from 10% as retaliation after China threatened to impose additional ...

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• 27 August

  Denmark sticks to economic forecasts, warns of headwinds

  

  Bloomberg Denmark stuck to its growth forecasts for 2019 and 2020, as the new government seeks to navigate the export-oriented economy through a global slowdown and rising trade tensions. The Nordic country still expects gross domestic product to rise by 1.7 percent this year and 1.6 percent the next, according to documents seen by Bloomberg. The Social Democratic government of ...

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• 27 August

  UK mortgage approvals reach highest in 2 years

  Bloomberg Demand for mortgages jumped last month to the highest since early 2017, according to data. Loans for house purchases rose almost 11% from a year earlier to a seasonally adjusted 43,342, lobby group UK Finance said. The report covers seven high street banks representing around 60% of total mortgage lending, data on which are due to be published by ...

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• 27 August

  Export slump pushes German economy to brink of recession

  

  Bloomberg A collapse in exports pushed Europe’s largest economy to the brink of recession in the second quarter. In a sign that an increasingly hostile trade war between the US and China is at least partially to blame for Germany’s deepening manufacturing malaise, shipments abroad declined 1.3%, the most in more than six years. That led to a contraction in ...

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• 27 August

  Tropical storm Dorian could clip Puerto Rico

  Bloomberg Tropical Storm Dorian is gaining strength as it approaches the Lesser Antilles and is forecast to skirt Puerto Rico as a weak hurricane. The storm was about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east-southeast of Barbados as of 8 pm New York time. With maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour, Dorian is expected to drop 3 to 8 inches ...

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• 27 August

  With $56b loan in danger, IMF officials fly to Argentina

  

  Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) record loan to Argentina last year was supposed to turn the page on a troubled history. It’s looking more like a case of déjà vu. Less than two decades ago, Argentina crashed out of an IMF program, defaulted on debt and plunged into depression. As Fund officials arrived in Buenos Aires to assess the ...

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• 27 August

  We don’t need help of Chinese forces to quell HK unrest: Lam

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s leader said her government can handle unrest without assistance from Chinese forces, and still wants to hold talks with protesters despite a flare up in violence. “To this day, the SAR [Special Administrative Region] government is still confident it’s able to solve the disturbance that’s gone on for two months,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam told a regular ...

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• 27 August

  China arrests Australian writer on spying charges

  

  Bloomberg An Australian writer detained in China seven months ago has been formally arrested on suspicion of espionage, triggering swift demands from the government in Canberra that he be allowed to return home. Foreign Minister Marise Payne said she was “concerned and disappointed” that Yang Hengjun, a Chinese native who’s now an Australian citizen, would “continue to be criminally detained.” ...

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