December, 2018

• 17 December

  Brexit isn’t the only thing weighing on London property

  

  Bloomberg Brokers have been quick to blame the uncertainty around Brexit for downturn in London property values, but beneath the surface there’s a number of factors suggesting declines may be inevitable no matter what the outcome. Home price growth in the city has turned negative, according to a Bloomberg analysis of Land Registry data, months after analysts expected them to ...

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• 17 December

  Anti-Orban rallies snowball to denounce Hungary’s rule

  

  Bloomberg Protests against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s regime grew as an initial call to repeal a law on overtime work widened into a demand for a return to liberal democracy, including independent courts and free public media. The demonstration was the biggest of four in five days and highlighted the backlash against Orban’s centralisation of power. The 55-year old ...

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• 17 December

  Nigerian pastoral clashes kill 3,600, says UK’s Amnesty

  

  Bloomberg Clashes between Nigerian farmers and herders killed at least 3,641 people in the past three years, with more than half of the deaths occurring in 2018, Amnesty International said. The London-based human rights organisation blamed the escalation in the conflict on the authorities’ failure to investigate the violence or prosecute perpetrators, according to the report on its website. The ...

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• 17 December

  Cars burn in Irish assault on ‘repossessed house’

  Bloomberg A number of men attacked security guards and set cars on fire at a repossessed house in western Ireland, as anger at repossessions since the financial crisis bubbled over. As many as 20 men armed with baseball bats attacked the rural property in Co. Roscommon, state broadcaster RTE reported. A number of people were injured, with three requiring hospital ...

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• 17 December

  Theresa May not planning to let UK parliament vote on Brexit options

  

  Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May is pushing back against Cabinet colleagues who are trying to take control over the direction of Brexit after her deal ran into a wall of opposition. Some of May’s ministers are calling for Parliament to get the chance to vote on what happens next, with a series of indicative ballots on the options available, ...

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• 17 December

  India offers $1.4bn to Maldives amid tussle with China

  Bloomberg India has offered the Maldives $1.4 billion through a credit line and budgetary support as the tiny island nation’s new government pivots from a pro-China foreign policy to one focussed on its close neighbour India. The loan agreement came after talks between newly-elected Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two leaders discussed regional ...

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• 17 December

  UN sees tougher US relationship without Haley as envoy

  

  Bloomberg United Nations diplomats surprised by how they managed to cope with President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda are worried that things are only going to get tougher in 2019. It’s not State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert — Trump’s pick to replace departing Ambassador Nikki Haley — who’s raising concerns. It’s her boss, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, and National ...

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• 17 December

  Good luck to the Fed

  

  The nine-year economic recovery is dead. Long live the recovery. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) — the Federal Reserve’s main policymaking body — meets this week to decide whether or not to raise interest rates. No matter what it does, the decision is likely to be criticised. Since late 2015, the Fed has increased short-term interest rates eight times ...

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• 17 December

  Italy’s 2% pledge is just cosmetic

  

  Italy’s populist government has pledged to the European Commission that it will lower its deficit target to 2 percent of national income next year. For a cabinet that vowed to defy the ‘bureaucrats’ in Brussels, this is a stunning climb-down. But unless Rome is ready to row back on some of the key pledges included in its 2019 budget, it ...

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• 17 December

  Something weird is going on with German debt

  

  Falling yields on German government debt is the sign of a classic ‘risk-off’ mentality. As fear grows, investors plump for safety. But where’s the crisis in Europe? Yields on 10-year bunds have fallen steadily by 30 basis points in the past two months. And German notes out to eight years are now in negative territory. It’s hard to fathom why. ...

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