Venezuela: not quite workers’ paradise
Socialist Venezuela has some way to go before becoming the workers’ paradise it would like to be.
Workers at state oil company PDVSA, one of the flagships of Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian revolution, are expressing “alarm” over the fact that they may be facing lean times in their twilight years after hundreds of millions of dollars went “missing” from their pension fund, because of fraud and even Ponzi activity. Continue reading »
Egypt and the MSCI: a patriotic reprieve?
As widely predicted, circuit breakers were triggered within moments of the resumption of trading on the Cairo stock exchange on Wednesday. As beyondbrics reported on Tuesday, any sustained interruption could result in Egyptian stocks being expelled from the benchmark MSCI Emerging Market Index.
But things didn’t go as badly as they might have. By the close, the 100 share index was down 8.95 per cent – bad, but not a bloodbath. Crucially, circuit breakers were only triggered the once. If trading continues like this over coming days, Cairo could win a reprieve. And it might owe its salvation to a surge of popular patriotism. Continue reading »
Buffett in India: selling rather than investing
Warren Buffett left it late to visit India for the first time. He did the same to another fast-growing emerging market: China. His first visit there was in 2007, and he only visited again three years later.
The 80-year old chairman of the Berkshire Hathaway, his investment group, and one of the world’s richest men needs a good reason to get out of his hometown Nebraska. Continue reading »
Hungary budget cuts: battle of the orchestras
Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, is keener than his predecessors to propel Magyar cultural and sporting prowess onto the international stage. So even as many ministerial budgets have been slashed, money is being found to promote football and the performing arts.
So reports of cuts in public money for the Budapest Festival Orchestra, one of Hungary’s most illustrious cultural institutions, have been met with consternation – and accusations of political bias. Continue reading »
Emfesz hits back
What on earth is going on at Emfesz? Hungary’s largest independent gas distributor is embroiled in a bitter ownership dispute; a Swedish court has ordered it to hand over more than $500m for allegedly unpaid-for gas; and its customers base is disappearing like leaking gas.
Can the company hold out? Not a problem, it says. Just a matter of “finding its place among the new circumstances”. Continue reading »
Beijing: thank you for not smoking?
China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of tobacco and revenues from tobacco sales by state-owned monopoly China Tobacco Corporation make up around 7 per cent of the Beijing’s tax income.
That’s one reason why some people could be forgiven for having doubts about how serious the Chinese government is about imposing a ban on all smoking in indoor public places by May 1 this year. Continue reading »
Woori: tempting but inaccessible
South Korea is set to renew its push to sell Woori Financial Group but investors shouldn’t get their hopes up; not much progress is expected in finding a buyer for the country’s second-largest financial group by assets.
Kim Seok-dong, the country’s top financial regulator, said on Wednesday the government would announce a plan to divest its 57 per cent stake in Woori in the second quarter. But while investors have expressed interest in buying Woori shares, very few want a controlling stake because of South Korea’s complex legal restrictions on bank ownership. Continue reading »
Russia’s electricity industry: the good old days are gone
Vladimir Putin has been regaling TV viewers with his memories of the good old Soviet days when electricity was cheap and Russians paid their utility bills on the nail. But fond stories from the Russian prime minister’s past may just rub salt in the wounds of his people as a sharp increase in energy prices kicks in.
The government has sanctioned a 15 per cent increase in household electricity tariffs in 2011 – well above its inflation target. And in a final break with the Soviet past, energy prices for industrial consumers have been deregulated altogether. Continue reading »
New York headlines
* Emerging powers join in opposition over Libya strikes
* China could overtake US economy by 2030: WBank
* Buffett looks beyond home turf to India
* China: ODI ‘set to grow’ despite setbacks
* Russia to double oil exports to Japan Continue reading »
Further reading: dragon wagons
Wednesday’s top picks from the beyondbrics team: examining Britain’s antiquated approach to Latin America, advice to China on how to rule the world, and the Kremlin’s Libya about-face.
Also, China’s extensive censorship now includes Shakespearean quotes. Continue reading »
Evergreen’s Chang joins nuclear debate
The wisdom of building nuclear plants on an earthquake-prone island has always been a contentious issue in Taiwan and the Fukushima nuclear crisis has already reignited a heated debate on whether the government should go ahead with a fourth plant.
Up to now, those fighting against nuclear power have largely been limited to environmentalists and opposition politicians. On Wednesday, however, they received support from an unexpected quarter: Chang Yung-fa, chairman and founder of the Evergreen Group and one of Taiwan’s richest and most-respected businessmen. Continue reading »
India’s homegrown payment system
India has a cheaper, locally manufactured alternative for almost everything produced abroad. The same will soon be true for electronic card payments systems like Visa and Mastercard.
The new system, aptly named RuPay, akin to the Chinese Union Pay, is set to be launched at the end of the year. Continue reading »
Western pop music in Vietnam: from “social evil” to sign of status
Throaty song-writing legend Bob Dylan and 90s teen favourites the Backstreet Boys might not have much in common as far as most music fans are concerned.
But both are playing big gigs in Vietnam over the next few weeks as music promoters test out the appetite for expensive, international standard entertainment.
RBI to Indian banks: work harder
Duvvuri Subbarao, India’s central bank governor (pictured), is never short of recommendations of how India can reach double digit economic growth.
A few months ago he was touting more foreign direct investment to make what he called the “quantum leap” from India’s current 8.5 per cent growth rate to something nearer neighbouring China’s. But a recent fall in FDI has persuaded Subbarao to turn to domestic savings as the key.
[snap] Egyptian shares plummet; trading suspended
Egyptian shares fell by 10 per cent on Wednesday morning, triggering circuit breakers after a matter of minutes in the first trading session since January 27.
It was no surprise that shares fell sharply on their first day since trading was suspended following the violent unrest that led to the fall of president Hosni Mubarak. But the size and speed of the fall will dismay investors. Egypt’s expulsion from the benchmark MSCI Emerging Market Index now looks like a foregone conclusion.
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