December, 2017

• 23 December

  China has a ‘gift’ for emerging market bulls

  Everything comes at a cost. To ensure steady economic growth, China is considering softening its focus on cutting debt in 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Let’s face it. It’s not realistic to reduce leverage when the whole economy relies on banks for financing,” an official told the Journal’s Lingling Wei. For emerging-market bulls, that’s the best news this holiday ...

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• 23 December

  Blockchain can revolutionise commodity markets

  

  Blockchain technology, which has already been adopted by gold traders, is starting to show the potential to transform other sectors of the global physical commodities markets. While it wouldn’t necessarily boost commodity prices, the innovation could offer a secure means of exchange of raw materials, open up channels of trade among buyers and sellers that had until now have been ...

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• 23 December

  BOJ maintains stimulus as inflation lags behind growth

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of Japan left policy settings unchanged in the final meeting of 2017, retaining its unprecedented monetary sti- mulus as it waits for a pickup in stubbornly low inflation. With Japan’s economy continuing to grow at a healthy pace, and inflation at least moving in the right direction, there is little pressure on the BOJ adjust its interest-rate ...

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• 23 December

  Danish minister slams ECB’s stimulus policy

  

  Bloomberg Denmark’s government is wondering how much longer the economy will be exposed to the distortions wrought by negative interest rates, and is urging European Union leaders to enter a debate on the appropriateness of the current monetary policy environment. The country, which has lived with negative rates longer than any other, has been forced to keep its main monetary ...

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• 23 December

  Banxico chief defends tight stance on rates

  

  Bloomberg Mexico’s central bank Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon reinforced the bank’s tight monetary policy stance, saying there was far too much uncertainty over US trade talks and persistently high inflation to change course now. While acknowledging the impact high interest rates have on already sluggish economic growth, the central bank sees an even larger cost if it doesn’t anchor ...

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• 23 December

  BOE’s Carney picks glass half full view on rules for European banks

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of England is holding off from forcing most European banks operating in the UK to become subsidiaries, but says it’s ready to get tougher if progress towards a Brexit deal breaks down. Governor Mark Carney told lawmakers in London that making lenders and insurers go through the process of setting up subsidiaries, only to then reverse course ...

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• 23 December

  ANZ: New Zealand regulator rejected UDC Finance takeover by China’s HNA

  

  Bloomberg ANZ Bank New Zealand said the country’s Overseas Investment Office has declined the application of China’s HNA Group to acquire UDC Finance. “While the sale agreement between the parties remains in place, unless HNA successfully overturns the OIO decision, the sale will not proceed,” ANZ New Zealand Chief Executive David Hisco said in a statement. “We don’t know if ...

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• 23 December

  ‘BofA jockeying to handle more China debt sales’

  

  Bloomberg Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said the lender is pushing to deepen some of the busin-ess it conducts in China as the world’s No. 2 economy opens further to foreign investment. The US bank is working towards “local incorporation” in China so that it can more easily help firms there sell debt, Moynihan said in ...

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• 23 December

  Bombardier chief dials down new-plane ambitions

  

  Bloomberg Bombardier Inc. is scaling back plans to begin a new aircraft programme, preferring instead to focus on generating cash flow and whittling down about $9 billion in debt, said Chief Executive Officer Alain Bellemare. “Over the past few years there was an overinvestment in aerospace,’’ Bellemare said in an interview. “We don’t want to jump and launch an investment ...

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• 23 December

  China’s airlines set to fly world over riding on $1.3bn subsidies

  

  Bloomberg China is set to become the world’s biggest aviation market in five years thanks to hefty subsidies from local governments beseeching airlines to fly mainland tourists overseas. Local governments, especially those outside mega cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, spent at least $1.3 billion subsidising airlines in 2016, mostly for them to start direct services to far-flung places such ...

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