IMF: Carstens who?
Since Mexico’s Agustín Carstens threw his sombrero into the ring in the contest to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as the head of the International Monetary Fund, the international response has been underwhelming. Continue reading »
Bharti Walmart + Moneygram = $$?
Growth opportunities in India will help to distract news that Walmart’s Chinese operations have hit an unexpected bump. The world’s largest retailer has announced that it plans to begin remittance transfer services in its stores across India. Bharti Walmart, the US retailer’s Indian joint venture, will provide Moneygram’s global money transfer in India across its 139 retail and wholesale stores in India.
Offering Moneygram services in Mexico and Latin America has helped Walmart to increase sales, but will the strategic initiative show a similar success in India? Continue reading »
[Snap] Yandex debuts at $35/share
Talk about effervescent market sentiment. Yandex shares soared to $35 on their Nasdaq debut on Tuesday. This is after the company raised its price guidance in the last hours of book-building to a range of $24 to $25 a share from a previous $20 to $22. That means the company is now trading at 79x its earnings last year. Sounds good, right?
Just remember, bubbles have a tendency to leave a hangover. Shares in Renren (RENN:NYQ), “China’s Facebook”, jumped 29 per cent on its New York debut – they’re now below the original offer price. But investors knew that already, of course.
Infosys to build campus in Shanghai
India’s global outsourcing industry, one of the most successful in the world, has been quick to recognise the potential demand and competition from its bigger neighbour, China.
Now Infosys (INFOSYSTCH:NSI), India’s second biggest software services exporter, is making its biggest ever investment outside India to set up a swanky state of the art campus in Shanghai. Continue reading »
Egypt: friends rally round; will stocks rally, too?
A friend in need is a friend indeed, or so the saying goes. Egypt is certainly in need of friends that can help it financially in the wake of its revolution, and the US and Saudi Arabia have kindly obliged.
President Barack Obama on May 19 promised to cancel $1bn of debt, and offered $1bn of loan guarantees. Saudi Arabia, whose relationship with Egypt has often been complicated, on May 22 pledged $4bn in “soft loans, deposits and grants” according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency. Continue reading »
Gulf investors: daring, but not too much
Gulf nationals, though socially conservative, are anything but when it comes to making daring investments and developments in the hope of high returns.
Yet a new survey out by Invesco Middle East reminds that for all the region’s hunger for returns, investors prefer their investments to be tangible and directly-owned, and shun some of the more complex financial instruments common in Western markets. Continue reading »
Chart of the week: inflation stoking inequality in China and India
High inflation in India and China is adding to fears that increasing income inequality could soil the Asian giants’ previously unblemished growth record in years to come.
Our chart this week (after the break) shows that income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, has increased significantly more in India and China than across other emerging economies since the 1990s. Continue reading »
New York headlines
* Russia says a fifth of defense budget stolen
* Witness ties Pakistan to Mumbai massacre
* Goldman cuts China 2011, 2012 GDP growth forecasts
* Hungary emerges as surprised star of EM
* China: Unprecedented power shortages expected Continue reading »
Taiwan: slowing down?
For the past year and a half, Taiwan’s export-oriented economy managed to surpass nearly all expectations, most recently marking 6.2 per cent growth in the first quarter of this year. Its manufacturers notched up a 20 per cent growth in exports in the first four months of the year, even after exports already grew one third last year compared to the year before.
But is this run about to end? Recent data releases indicate a slowdown looms. Continue reading »
Further reading: 21st century food wars
Tuesday’s best picks from the beyondbrics team: how informal financing in China is growing at a faster rate than formal financing, what a Putin presidential run means for Russia, and how food scarcity is the new norm.
Locusts: looming in central Asia
The fear of locusts has haunted farmers since biblical times and intensifies when agricultural markets are tight and food prices are rising. At times like these the last thing anyone needs is a swarm of predatory insects devouring all plant life in its path.
So severe is the situation that the FAO is launching a battle against locusts amid warnings that global food inflation has hit poorer countries in central Asia and the Caucasus particularly hard and could stoke social and political tensions like those in the Middle East. Continue reading »
Vietnam stocks fall… and fall, and fall
Stock markets rarely move in straight lines but nervous Vietnamese investors have done their best to buck that trend of late, with shares falling for nine sessions in a row amid worries about the economic outlook.
The benchmark VN Index closed down 3.6 per cent at 402.59 points on Tuesday. Continue reading »
Better late than never: Goldman cuts China forecast
Playing catch-up? Goldman Sachs on Tuesday cut its 2011 growth forecast for China to 9.4 per cent, and 2012 to 9.2 per cent.
While likely to gain some attention – especially coming a day after disappointing PMI data – the downgrade looks to be a case of better late than never. Continue reading »
London headlines
* Taliban raid triggers Pakistan shockwave
* Witness ties Pakistan to Mumbai massacre
* Goldman cuts China 2011, 2012 GDP growth forecasts
* Hungary emerges as surprised star of EM
* China: Unprecedented power shortages expected Continue reading »
| About this blog | Headlines email | Blog guide |
| Regulars | Series | Archive |
Stefan Wagstyl
Josh Noble
Rob Minto
Pan Kwan Yuk
Jonathan Wheatley
Heba Saleh