Russia is preparing to sell bonds denominated in euros for the first time since 2013. Despite the recent drop in oil prices, it has a budget surplus and doesn’t really need to borrow; the bond placement is a test of the ‘dedollarisarion’ program, put in place by President Vladimir Putin this year. If the test and the plan are successful, ...
Read More »Rewriting history blurs India’s future
Every nation’s economic output moves up or down along a long-term trend, fluctuating in accordance with seasonal patterns, business and financial cycles and random shocks. In addition to those variables, the growth of India’s GDP now depends crucially on which party was in power when the activity occurred – and under which party it was measured. Disagreeing about the future ...
Read More »Something about Brexit everyone can agree on
Who says economists can’t agree? In recent days, four reports evaluating the long-term economic impact of Brexit have been published, and they are remarkably consistent on at least two things. First, Theresa May’s deal will hurt the economy over the next decade or longer; and, second, exiting with no deal would be significantly worse. Ironically, that relative economic clarity may ...
Read More »Facebook uses ‘WhatsApp phones’ to tap next emerging market
Bloomberg One recent afternoon in the Indian city of Pune, a 35-year-old mason named Om Prakash Gaekwad gets a crash course in technology. He watches a street-corner skit explaining the virtues of WhatsApp’s messaging service and Reliance Jio’s wireless network. He then climbs aboard a truck to find out how to set them up. Half an hour later, he’s made ...
Read More »Volkswagen, Tesco in pact on British e-car charging rollout
Bloomberg Volkswagen AG and Tesco Plc plan to build the UK’s largest vehicle-charging network spanning 2,500 bays across some 600 stores in the next three years, even as buyers have so far stayed on the fence and economic fallout from Brexit is difficult to predict. Customers will be able to charge their electric and plug-in hybrid cars using a 7-kilowatt ...
Read More »DHL’s ‘robots’ to meet e-comm demand
Bloomberg Worldwide delivery service DHL is deploying artificial intelligence, self-driving vehicles and product-picking robots at its warehouses in North America to help handle the surge in e-commerce demand. The US unit of Deutsche Post AG will spend $300 million on its plan to equip 350 of its 430 facilities with new technology that includes autonomous trolleys that shadow human workers ...
Read More »Amazon letting Apple Music onto Alexa home speakers
Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. opened up its popular home speakers to Apple Inc.’s music service, a new step in the nascent cooperation between the two tech rivals. Beginning from December 17, Apple Music will be available on Amazon’s Echo devices, according to a statement on Amazon’s blog. Music has always been one of Alexa’s most popular features, Amazon said. And Apple’s ...
Read More »Fed jumps off a predictable path of interest-rate hikes
Bloomberg Federal Reserve officials have stepped off a predictable path of interest-rate increases and are signalling to investors a hard truth about relying on increasingly contradictory economic data: There are no easy answers anymore. It’s going to be choppy. It’s going to bring more surprises. And it may get rough on those trying to track the central bank’s strategy. A ...
Read More »Danske charges raise questions on risk of sanctions breach
Bloomberg As Danske Bank A/S is investigated for money laundering, a key question remains whether it was used by anyone on US sanctions lists. Denmark’s biggest bank has so far said there’s no evidence sanctions were breached. But it’s also acknowledged that the risk can’t be ruled out. Last week, Danish police filed the first criminal charges against Danske, zeroing ...
Read More »RBA could keep rates on hold beyond 2020
Bloomberg The Australian central bank’s (RBA) lackluster wage-growth outlook indicates it may have to leave interest rates on hold even beyond 2020. Annual pay rises won’t get above around 2.75 percent for at least the next two years, the Reserve Bank projects. That’s about 1 percentage point less than the wage growth levels achieved when it last began raising rates ...
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