The Brexit talks have started, and there’s little sign yet of an intelligible UK strategy. All is disarray. The shambles makes two bad possible outcomes more likely. One is that the UK will crash out of the European Union in 2019 with no agreement in place. This would cause enormous economic disruption — damage that would take years to repair. ...
Read More »Greece shouldn’t be greedy in its second rehab attempt
Greece has decided to brave the waters with a new five-year benchmark bond, the first fresh deal for nearly three years. Fortune favors the brave — but not the greedy. For now, a successful return to the fixed income markets matters more than securing the very best terms or the most money. Greek bonds have been the stand-out performer in ...
Read More »1997 legacy makes Indonesia’s balancing act harder
Never again. That’s the mantra of Indonesia’s class of 1998 — the officials who were young adults when the country plunged into the Asian financial crisis that began two decades ago this month. The question now is whether their understandable caution could hold back Southeast Asia’s biggest — and at times, most frustrating — economy. Most retrospectives of the crisis ...
Read More »Rich Singapore investors stuck as bond restructuring drags on
Bloomberg Keith Kueh was expecting Pacific Andes Resources Development Ltd. to pay back the company’s bonds last year so he could finance his son’s college bill and his own retirement. Now it’s 18 months after the Singapore-listed fishing company didn’t honor some obligations and he hasn’t gotten his money yet. “For investors like myself, we are not portfolio managers who ...
Read More »Zombie companies across Europe may tie ECB’s hands
Bloomberg The plethora of companies propped up by the European Central Bank will limit policy makers’ ability to withdraw monetary stimulus that’s been supporting the continent’s bond market since the financial crisis, according to strategists at Bank of America Corp. About 9 percent of Europe’s biggest companies could be classified as the walking dead, companies that risk collapse if the ...
Read More »Ghana banks turn to mobile money in bid to enhance deposit base
Bloomberg A record number of Ghanaians are saving money using mobile phones as lenders push products to lure deposits using technology that is cheaper than building branches. Deposits with mobile-money providers jumped 25 percent to 1.57 billion cedis ($360 million) this year through April, the Accra-based central bank said in a response to questions this month. That compares with 19.6 ...
Read More »Is ‘exceptionally’ weak dollar good news?
Bloomberg The US dollar, down 8 percent this year, will probably weaken further, according to Morgan Stanley. That is primarily good news for American stock investors. The greenback may finish 2017 down 13 percent, handing S&P 500 companies a 6.5 percent boost to their rolling 2018 per-share estimates, Morgan Stanley analysts including Michael Wilson said in a note on Monday. ...
Read More »Worst of Mexico’s inflation, growth struggles may be over
Bloomberg After months of investor concern that slammed everything from Mexico’s currency to its inflation outlook, the nation’s economy is riding a good streak. A report showed the annual inflation rate fell in early July by the most since January, suggesting that the pace of consumer price increases may finally be stabilizing after a year of acceleration. Another key indicator ...
Read More »China’s Unipec seeks closer ties with teapot refiners
BEIJING / Reuters State oil trader Unipec will develop “really strong†ties with China’s independent refiners, said a company executive on Tuesday, even as they present a growing challenge to its parent and Asia’s top refiner, Sinopec Corp. China issued crude oil import quotas to privately run refiners, often called “teapotsâ€, for the first time in 2015, ending decades of ...
Read More »Saudi raises $4.5bn in 1st local bond this year
Bloomberg Saudi Arabia raised 17 billion riyals ($4.5 billion) from its first local Islamic bond sale this year as the biggest Arab economy seeks funds to bridge a budget deficit amid low oil prices. The government received investor offers in excess of 51 billion riyals, three times the deal size, according to a statement posted on the Ministry of Finance ...
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