March, 2019

• 25 March

  India’s crony capitalist edifice is actually creaking

  

  A smug, entitled business class driven by greed and hubris, but sorely lacking in resources to legitimise their control. I could be describing the India Inc. of today – or 1959. Nothing much has changed. Jet Airways Ltd., India’s oldest surviving private-sector airline, is about to crash land. Founder Naresh Goyal neither brought in enough new equity of his own ...

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• 25 March

  Australia is being dragged towards an interest-rate cut

  

  For a central bank at pains to stress neutrality, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) may not be far away from cutting interest rates. Minutes from the RBA board’s meeting attest to the load being carried by the labour market and consumers. The idea is that low unemployment will translate into higher wages, enabling the consumer to step up despite ...

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• 25 March

  The real threat to Weibo and Chinese social media

  

  There are roughly 337 million users on Weibo, the popular, entertainment-oriented social-media platform owned and operated by China’s Weibo Corp., which reports earnings recently. Roughly one-third of those followers have shared or liked the new music video from teen pop idol Cai Xukun since it debuted in January. That’s a remarkable number given how fractious China’s social-media universe can be. ...

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• 25 March

  Fed may have to ease if 2019 forecast disappoints: Evans

  

  Bloomberg The Federal Reserve may have to put interest-rate increases on hold or even ease monetary policy if economic forecasts for 2019 disappoint, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans said. “At the moment, the risks from the downside scenarios loom larger than those from the upside ones,” Evans said in remarks prepared for a speech on Monday in Hong Kong. “If ...

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• 25 March

  Weidmann hits French roadblock on path to replace ECB’s Draghi

  

  Bloomberg Jens Weidmann may struggle to pass the test that France’s finance minister is setting for prospective successors to European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. In a rare foray on the matter this week, Bruno Le Maire lavished praise on the Italian incumbent for quantitative easing, and suggested France would want someone with similar “courage” as a replacement. That may ...

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• 25 March

  African Bank joins rush into digital banking

  

  Bloomberg African Bank Holdings Ltd. is joining the rush into digital banking to fail-proof the business and provide an exit for shareholders that resurrected the South African lender from its collapsed former parent. The firm’s unusual owners, which includes the South African central bank and six of the nation’s largest lenders, stepped in to save it with an equity injection ...

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• 25 March

  Wells Fargo hits more bumps amid scandals

  Bloomberg A federal judge said he’s not ready to sign off on Wells Fargo & Co. collecting $240 million in insurance payments from 20 bank officials in connection with the lender’s unauthorised-accounts scandal — even though the settlement was touted as the largest-ever of its kind. That came just hours after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated that the regulator ...

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• 25 March

  East EU to push for measures to cool growth in prices

  

  Bloomberg As major central banks scale back plans to raise interest rates amid signs of a weaker economic expansion, some parts of eastern Europe are set to push for measures to cool price growth. Hungary will kick off the deliberations on Tuesday by starting to unwind its monetary stimulus. Two days later, the Czech Republic will debate whether to resume ...

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• 25 March

  Sweden plans to force banks to handle cash

  

  Bloomberg Sweden will likely push through a proposal to force banks to keep offering cash to customers who require it as the Nordic nation grapples with how to balance the rapid transformation into a cashless society. Key lawmakers said in interviews over the weekend that the government will probably seek to enact proposed legislation that had been roundly criticised by ...

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• 25 March

  SNB cuts inflation outlook

  Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has cut its inflation forecasts again and warned that the global slowdown could worsen. A dramatic change in fortune for the world economy is making it harder for policy makers across major economies to boost price pressures. In Swi-tzerland, franc’s strength agai-nst the euro has exacerbated the issue, which the central bank has sought ...

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