Mexican central bank boosts transparency
Mexico’s central bank is just about to get more transparent: as of next year, the institution will start publishing the minutes of its monetary-policy meetings.
Confirmation of the change in procedure – the idea is to publish the minutes 10 days after the each meeting – came on Wednesday when Agustín Carstens, the governor, spoke at the bank’s quarterly policy meeting. Continue reading »
Americas markets wrap: Brazilian banks fall while Argentine bonds soar
Markets fell across the region on Wednesday, but Argentine stocks and bonds soared on international exchanges following the death of former president Néstor Kirchner. Continue reading »
EM magic: turning $100 into $2,000
Lately it seems that stock prices in one emerging market or another are hitting a new record high every day, but the landmarks don’t matter so much to buy-and-hold investors.
More interesting to them is seeing what kind of money they would have made if they’d got into the best EM companies a few years ago, when big success was still ahead of them. That’s what a new study does, and it puts developed world businesses to shame. Continue reading »
South Africa’s green power ambitions
Here are two of South Africa’s biggest challenges: reducing one of the world’s highest unemployment rates and curbing carbon emissions growth by a target of 42 per cent over the next 15 years.
A government statement this week suggested the country will aim to kill both birds with one stone by growing green industries – and that includes, according to a ruling party bigwig, seizing an opportunity to become a leading player in the electric fuel cell business. Continue reading »
CEE markets wrap: Istanbul tumbles; Mobius predicts big drop
Central and eastern European markets fell on Wednesday, after US capital good orders fell in September. Turkey’s benchmark index slipped over 3 per cent, its biggest fall for five months, with investors taking profits after a recent rally.
Mark Mobius, who said less than a month ago that his fund would invest another $250m in Turkish equities, predicted that the country’s stocks would fall 15 to 20 per cent by the end of 2010. Continue reading »
Néstor Kirchner’s death
The title of an unauthorised political biography of Néstor Kirchner published last year summed up the power of late former president, who died suddenly of a heart attack Wednesday. It was called, simply, “The Boss”.
A measure of his influence was the stock market’s reaction to his death: Argentine shares rose to two year highs in New York trading on Wednesday, Bloomberg reports, as investors speculated that Kirchner’s death would lead to a more stable Argentine economy and less government spending. Continue reading »
India’s planners relearn an old phrase
The phrase left the lexicon of India’s financial planners for two years. Now “currency intervention” is back.
Pranab Mukherjee, the finance minister, has warned that, if the rupee continues to rise, India’s central bank stands ready to intervene. With foreign capital flooding the fast-growing economy, the minister plainly sees currency-market intervention as preferable to any form of cap on inflows. Continue reading »
Wen: pushing China’s political boundaries?
The People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese communist party, used its front page on Wednesday to denounce any move in China towards multi-party democracy. No surprise there – the paper is not known as a fan of western political ideas. Except that the front page article might also have been an attack on Premier Wen Jiabao. Continue reading »
What’s lifting San Miguel?
In a booming stock market that’s regularly hitting all-time highs, a stock gaining 12 per cent in a single day to its highest level in at least two decades can still cause a stir.
When San Miguel Corp.’s shares did just that on Wednesday, many investors began wondering what the food and drinks giant is up to. “I was getting calls left and right asking me what’s up with San Miguel,” said Astro del Castillo of First Grade Holdings, an investment advisory firm. Continue reading »
China: consumers want better TVs
Not only are Chinese consumers set to become the world’s biggest TV buyers next year, but the Chinese TV market is rapidly catching up with the rest of the world in terms of technological development. That’s because Chinese consumers are demanding newer, more sophisticated things like internet TV and 3D TV.
Chinese consumers already, on average, buy bigger TVs than their American counterparts . And new data from AU Optronics, the world’s third-biggest flat panel maker, is sure to bring some much-needed cheer to TV makers. Continue reading »
Asia markets wrap: stocks fall; Bank of China posts strong profits
Concern over further stimulus from the US Federal Reserve hit Asian stocks on Wednesday, with the MSCI Asia ex Japan index falling 0.8 per cent. Chinese and Indian markets fell furthest, while the South Korean Kospi was also down after data showed the country’s economic growth had slowed.
The Chinese bank earnings season got off to quick start, as Bank of China’s third-quarter profits rose 29 per cent to $4.1bn. Agricultural Bank of China will announce its earnings later on Wednesday. Continue reading »
New York headlines
* US and emerging markets lift SAP
* Taobao.com aims for overseas net sales expansion
* Indonesian tsunami kills more than 100
* China and US closer on trade targets
* China official: dollar printing causing inflation
Russia’s WTO conundrum
A few centuries ago, travelling from Moscow to Siberia took two summers and a winter. Even by that standard, Russia’s journey towards membership of the World Trade Organisation has been a slog. Negotiations started in 1993 when Boris Yeltsin was in the Kremlin and Russian troops were in Poland. Seventeen years later, Russia is the largest economy and the only Bric country not to have joined the organisation.
Now the end may be in sight: US and Russian officials have suggested (optimistically) that accession will happen in 2011. But given that Russia’s economy is focused on oil and gas, which are exempt from tariffs anyway, how much does membership of the WTO actually matter? Continue reading »
China scrambles to adjust
A new FT special report on China published on Wednesday looks beyond the country’s growth numbers at a mixture of hot issues: regional rebalancing; the housing boom; and Shanghai’s struggle to become a financial centre.
Statistics junkies will also find some quick fixes: the Shanghai Expo has cost twice as much as the Beijing Olympics ($55bn); Foxconn, whose smartphone factories were rocked by several suicides, employs nearly 1m people; and the Chinese government plans to spend up to $751bn on green technologies. The report is online here.
Piñera’s next task: peace with Bolivia?
Fresh from moving mountains to rescue 33 trapped miners, Chile’s president should now work to solve a 130-year-old diplomatic dispute: Bolivia’s claim to a stretch of Pacific coastline.
That at least is the view of Pablo Longueira, a senator from the UDI party, part of President Sebastián Piñera’s rightist coalition. He wants a referendum on the issue next year. But there are reasons for Piñera himself to be cautious. Continue reading »
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