April, 2018

• 9 April

  Trump’s South Korea trade victory will end in defeat

  

  Donald Trump said he got a ‘great deal’ in renegotiating America’s bilateral trade agreement with South Korea. This is the first trade pact Trump has successfully revised, and it reflects the intellectual core of his America First approach to trade: The US can use its great economic and geopolitical leverage to drive harder bargains with weaker powers. That approach appears ...

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• 9 April

  Asia’s largest hedge fund also makes iPhones

  

  In operation for more than 40 years, this outfit has grown to $106 billion in assets with investments in more than a dozen countries. Most of that is in China. Its returns probably wouldn’t have you celebrating — 12.8 percent last year on a return-on-equity basis, 4.6 percent if you’re looking at return on assets. But it has never posted ...

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• 9 April

  ECB has to do more than copy the Fed playbook

  

  Ewald Nowotny, the governor of Austria’s central bank and a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, said last week that “It’s no secret, we’re monitoring closely what the Fed did, and is doing.” Such sentiments are understandable, even desirable. After all, the Federal Reserve’s process of monetary policy normalization is unprecedented and, at least so far, ...

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• 9 April

  Deutsche Bank’s new chief faces familiar questions over strategy

  

  FRANKFURT / Reuters Christian Sewing must quickly come up with a coherent strategy for Deutsche Bank after the retail banking veteran was promoted to chief executive of Germany’s largest lender. Sewing, 47, was appointed after a crisis meeting to discuss how to end three years of losses. He replaces Briton John Cryan who failed to meet cost targets, and his ...

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• 9 April

  BOE may have a silent dissenter to rate hikes

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of England may have a quiet dissenter among its ranks when it comes to the need for higher interest rates this year. In speeches, interviews and Parliament testimony, eight of the nine Monetary Policy Committee members, including Governor Mark Carney, have backed the view that tightening is warranted — and at a faster pace than previously thought. ...

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• 9 April

  ICICI board divided over CEO Kochhar’s future

  

  Bloomberg The board of India’s ICICI Bank Ltd., which less than two weeks earlier expressed full faith in Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar, is divided over whether to ask her to step down as federal authorities investigate allegations of impropriety over loans made to Videocon group, people with knowledge of the matter said. At least some outside directors are opposed ...

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• 9 April

  Indian court issues warrants against PNB fraud accused

  NEW DELHI / Reuters A special court of India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) issued non-bailable warrants against two Indian jewellers who are central figures in an alleged $2 billion scam at state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB), according to a source within the investigative agency. The CBI, a federal police body, is now also questioning some officials at overseas branches ...

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• 9 April

  HSBC to expand further in China

  

  Reuters HSBC will seek to cut internal bureaucracy and expand investment in China’s southern region to the rest of the country, executives at the bank said on Monday, in the first hints of the strategy to be pursued by its new leadership duo. Mark Tucker, the bank’s first externally appointed chairman, told analysts and investors at a meeting in Hong ...

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• 9 April

  Uganda keeps interest rate at record low of 9%

  Bloomberg Uganda’s central bank maintained the benchmark interest rate at a record low as risks to the east African nation’s inflation outlook remain balanced. The key rate was kept at 9 percent, Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile told reporters on Monday in the capital, Kampala. Inflation slowed to 2 percent in March, the weakest level since 2014, and the risks to the ...

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• 9 April

  Barclays Africa to split into four units in growth strategy

  

  Bloomberg Barclays Africa Group Ltd., South Africa’s third-biggest bank, will split into four operating units as the lender outlines its growth strategy after the sale by its UK parent. The Johannesburg-based firm will separate retail and business banking, investment banking, wealth and insurance, and its operations in the rest of Africa, it said in a statement on Monday. Deputy Chief ...

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