January, 2019

• 14 January

  South Africa must pursue flexible policy, says ANC

  

  Bloomberg South Africa’s ruling African National Congress said the reserve bank must consider the impact of monetary policy on economic growth when it targets inflation, re-emphasising the flexible mandate the government gave the central bank almost a decade ago. “The ANC believes that the South African Reserve Bank must pursue a flexible monetary policy regime, aligned with the objectives of ...

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• 14 January

  China’s big banks set to sell $22bn of hybrid securities by June-end

  

  Bloomberg China’s banks’ urgent want for cash is threatening to overload the country’s fledgling convertible-bond market. Four lenders are due to sell as much as 146 billion yuan ($22 billion) of the hybrid securities by the end of June after the regulator approved the deals in recent weeks. That includes what could be the largest such offering China’s domestic market ...

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• 14 January

  ‘RBI needs to reduce growth projection’

  

  Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of India needs to soften its economic growth narrative and lower its projections for the current fiscal year. That’s the view of Mumbai-based SBICap Securities Ltd after data released January 11 showed industrial production in November grew 0.5 percent from a year ago, much lower than the expected 3.6 percent. The RBI needs to cut its ...

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• 14 January

  UBS sees two fed hikes in 2019

  

  Bloomberg UBS Global Wealth Management predicts the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates twice this year despite markets pricing in little chance of that happening. An expanding US economy and low recession risk may provide opportunities for the Fed to keep ratcheting up borrowing costs, said Min Lan Tan, head of the chief investment officer for Asia Pacific in Singapore. ...

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• 14 January

  Monte Paschi drops amid ‘capital and profit issues’

  Bloomberg Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA dropped in Milan trading after the European Central Bank highlighted weaknesses in the Italian lender’s capital and profitability. The ECB told the bank that its inability to issue the second tranche of a junior bond issue last year hurt its capital position, Monte Paschi said in a statement. The Italian bank plans ...

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• 14 January

  L’Occitane inks $900mn Elemis deal in luxury skincare boom

  

  Bloomberg Luxury cosmetics firm L’Occitane International SA agreed to buy beauty and skincare brand Elemis for about $900 million, its biggest deal on record as the maker of organic lotions looks to expand in the US and UK. The Hong Kong-listed L’Occitane agreed to buy the privately-held Elemis from Steiner Leisure Limited, according to a statement from the companies. Steiner ...

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• 14 January

  Lufthansa to cancel 400 flights on strike

  

  Bloomberg Deutsche Lufthansa AG will cancel at least 414 flights due to a strike on Tuesday by security staff at eight German airports, including the airline’s hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. The cancellations include 386 flights within Europe and 28 intercontinental services, Lufthansa said. Airport-security workers in Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Hanover, Bremen, Dresden, Leipzig/Halle and Erfurt plan to walk out ...

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• 14 January

  America’s biggest supermarket chain says shoppers wary about future

  

  Bloomberg America’s biggest supermarket chain is seeing signs that US shoppers are getting nervous about the future. “It’s fascinating right now from a customer standpoint. They feel incredibly good about the economy but very nervous about where things are headed,’’ Kroger Co Chief Executive Officer Rodney McMullen said in an onstage interview at the National Retail Federation’s annual trade show ...

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• 14 January

  Snowstorm in Washington leads to flight cancellations

  

  Bloomberg Washington DC could get another four inches (10 centimetres) of snow from a storm that’s already caused hundreds of flight cancellations and several deaths as it cuts a wide swath across the US from St. Louis to the mid-Atlantic. Washington’s Reagan National Airport had recorded 5.4 inches of snow, AccuWeather reported. The nation’s capital hadn’t received more than 4.1 ...

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• 14 January

  Crashed Lion Air plane’s cockpit voice recorder found

  

  Bloomberg Indonesia found the cockpit voice recorder from the Lion Air plane that crashed in October, giving investigators a real chance at solving the mystery of what brought down a modern jet. The CVR of the Boeing Co 737 Max aircraft was intact when it was recovered in the Java Sea, according to said Agung Nugroho, a spokesman for Indonesian ...

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