March, 2017

• 6 March

  A stranger’s living room

  

    LONDON / AP Claire Brynteson had a house, a job and a dining table that was empty once she got her three children out the door every morning. When she received a flyer telling her she could make money by renting seats at the table to people looking for short-term office space, she jumped at the chance to list ...

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• 6 March

  Housing worries may make Australia to hold rates

  

    Bloomberg Philip Lowe has some high-powered backing if he leaves interest rates on hold Tuesday as widely expected. Days after the Reserve Bank of Australia governor signaled that rate cuts weren’t in the national interest amid record household debt, the securities regulator said it was looking at mortgage lending standards across the banking sector. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation ...

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• 6 March

  China defense-spending confusion highlights strategic worries

  

    Bloomberg China omitted a key defense spending figure from its budget for the first time in almost four decades — before an official disclosed the number — highlighting concerns about transparency in the world’s largest military. While authorities said defense expenditures would rise “about 7 percent” this year, the budget report published by the Ministry of Finance on Sunday ...

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• 6 March

  China’s credit target implies adding entire German GDP

    Bloomberg China’s credit engine will keep humming this year, adding the rough equivalent of Germany’s annual economic output to its already massive stock of total social financing, according to estimates derived from the nation’s 2017 targets. Adding higher equity market financing and about 5 trillion yuan ($725 billion) worth of local government bond swaps to the official credit growth ...

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• 6 March

  Beware China’s wealth management reforms

  

    A major factor behind the soaring growth of risky wealth-management products in China is that investors typically think the government stands behind them. Lately, nervous regulators have been emphasizing that this isn’t so. But they’ll have to do a lot more to change expectations in a state-dominated economy. Wealth management products are short-term, high-yielding investments that are issued by ...

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• 6 March

  A battle plan for Mexico’s US trade war

  

    Disputes between Mexico and the United States over the North American Free Trade Agreement are not new. In March 2009, after years of litigation, the US government abruptly suspended a pilot program that allowed Mexican truck drivers to deliver goods across the border. Mexico retaliated, imposing tariffs as high as 45 percent on $2.4 billion worth of US goods ...

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• 6 March

  China’s nonprofit schools get a gold star

  

    Not-for-profit industries are hardly associated by most investors with rising returns. Not so in China, whose private-school sector has become initial public offering gold in Hong Kong. Two of the city’s five biggest IPOs so far this year have been of Chinese nonprofit school operators: China Yuhua Education Corp., which made its trading debut this week, and Wisdom Education ...

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• 6 March

  Saudi Aramco’s green energy push widens appeal of IPO

  

    Bloomberg Aramco is the world’s largest oil company, but when it sells shares next year its foray into renewables is what may lure investors who would otherwise be forced to stay away. Saudi Arabian Oil Co., as it is formally called, is considering investments of as much as $5 billion in renewable energy, part of the kingdom’s effort to ...

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• 6 March

  Egypt’s non-oil business activity slows down

  

    Reuters Business activity in Egypt shrank for the 17th consecutive month in February although the pace of decline slowed from a month before, a survey showed on Sunday. The Emirates NBD Egypt Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the non-oil private sector came in at 46.7 points, well below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction but higher from ...

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• 6 March

  Peak gasoline demand looms with engine efficiency gains

  

    Reuters Demand for gasoline in the United States, which accounts for a tenth of global oil consumption, is expected to peak next year as engines become more efficient, WoodMackenzie analysts said. Global demand for gasoline, which accounts for more than a quarter of the world’s oil consumption, is set to peak as early as 2021 even in the face ...

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