October, 2018

• 13 October

  What slowdown? Japan Inc. roars ahead

  

  Japan Inc. is getting its groove back. An overlooked policy change could be a driver. In recent months, Japanese companies have been posting a wave of positive data. Machinery orders — a key indicator of companies’ capital spending in the future — rose 12.6 percent on the year in August to the highest level in a decade, data showed, much ...

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• 13 October

  $46 billion, and Britain hasn’t even moved out

  

  As Britain’s negotiations to leave the European Union (EU) enter their crunch moment, let’s be clear on one thing: The EU doesn’t need to punish Britain for leaving; the referendum did that just fine. Latest figures show the warnings of economic self-harm Brexiters like Boris Johnson derided as Project Fear are fast becoming real, while the promises of a Brexit ...

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• 13 October

  Trains — a step ahead in innovation

  

  Bloomberg The airline and automotive industries are abuzz with talk of driver-less travel and electric propulsion, so much so that they might seem to be the pacesetters in transport technology. Yet train manufacturers around the world are introducing innovations that may be years away for cars and planes. Rail chiefs met recently at the biennial Innotrans trade fair in Berlin ...

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• 13 October

  Google unveils new Pixel phone, speaker

  

  Bloomberg Google showed off a pair of new Pixel phones, a tablet computer, and a speaker with a screen in a deluge of new products aimed at competing with the latest gadgets from other big tech rivals. The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL phones offer significant upgrades to prior models by adding a nearly edge-to-edge screen on the larger ...

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• 13 October

  Can robot drivers be taught to anticipate human behaviour?

  

  Bloomberg Robot cars make for annoying drivers. Relative to human motorists, the driverless vehicles now undergoing testing on public roads are overly cautious, maddeningly slow, and prone to abrupt halts or bizarre paralysis caused by bikers, joggers, crosswalks or anything else that doesn’t fit within the neat confines of binary robot brains. Self-driving companies are well aware of the problem, ...

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• 13 October

  Quantitative tightening not so frightening, even as stocks sink

  

  Bloomberg US President Donald Trump is not alone in blaming the Federal Reserve for this week’s tumble in stocks, as many investors attribute the ebbing of easy money for spurring an outbreak of market turmoil. With Bloomberg Economics declaring October as the month the world’s major central banks together start running down their bond holdings, the withdrawal of liquidity is ...

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• 13 October

  Bank of Thailand sees economy capable of absorbing rate hike

  

  Bloomberg Thailand’s economy is solid enough to handle an interest-rate increase and expectations of tightening this quarter are already partially reflected in the strength of the baht, according to the central bank. A quarter-point hike, or even a climb of 50 basis points, would have “some, but not much” impact on consumer and corporate borrowing, Bank of Thailand Senior Director ...

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• 13 October

  Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Citi join $3.8bn deal with Egypt

  

  Bloomberg Egypt struck a deal to get $3.8 billion in new financing from an international consortium that includes Deutsche Bank AG and HSBC Bank Plc to boost its foreign-currency stockpile at a time when an emerging-market selloff is spooking investors. The accord replaces a one-year, $3.1 billion agreement that will expire next month, and aims at “extending the duration” of ...

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• 13 October

  BOJ bond-buying set for slowest since ’13

  

  Bloomberg If the Bank of Japan’s “stealth tapering” of its asset purchase program were to continue at the current pace, it would need to revise its monetary easing policy within the next two years, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. By the end of 2019, the pace of growth of the central bank’s bond purchases is on track to fall ...

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• 13 October

  ‘Great bank heist’ sees $130mn plundered in South Africa

  

  Bloomberg A probe into the failure of VBS Mutual Bank found that at least 53 people and companies may have benefited from the looting of 1.9 billion rand ($130 million) from the South African lender before its collapse. Investigator Terry Motau, who was appointed by the central bank to lead the inquiry, is calling for arrests to be made and ...

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