Mexico tourism: sun still shining
Pick up any US newspaper these days, and there is a good chance that you will read about how foreign tourists are fleeing Mexican beaches, terrorised by the wave of drug-related crime.
The story would hardly be surprising: the government’s military-led offensive against organised crime has led to a spike in the murder rate, with about 40,000 deaths resulting in the last four and a half years as a direct consequence of the violence.
The problem is that it is not true. Continue reading »
Chávez tweets again
For the man who is probably the most talkative president in the world, 12 days without uttering a single word is really quite something. Last heard calling up state television on June 12, two days after an operation on a pelvic abscess, the irrepressible Hugo Chávez could apparently bear it no longer.
From his hospital bed in Havana, Cuba, the convalescent president sent a “gigantic embrace” to the army via Twitter – his first tweet since June 5. Continue reading »
Paris Club and Argentina: are we speaking the same language?
Amado Boudou, Argentina’s economy minister, has a permanent smile and a ready answer whenever the subject of his country’s debts to the Paris Club comes up. Negotiations with the 19 Western creditor governments on the debt of some $7bn are advancing very nicely, thank you; Argentina won’t accept any deal it considers harmful to its interests; and we’ll have a deal in the bag by the end of the year. Continue reading »
China: sex, lies and photoshop
Want to get rich quick in China? In Beijing’s anti-corruption drive, some entrepreneurs have seen unusual business opportunities. Take the story of four young men from Hunan, who hatched an unusual plan, recently recounted by state-run newspaper People’s Daily. Continue reading »
Hungary: tax cut fails to lift consumers
Hungary’s centre-right government of Viktor Orban made much of the introduction of a supposed 16 per cent flat rate personal income tax at the beginning of this year, promising more money in peoples’ pockets as a result.
Except it hasn’t quite worked out that way, as evidenced by the latest retail sales figures, out on Friday. Consumption in April was down 1.3 per cent on 2010, with sales for the first four months down 0.5 per cent on last year’s figures - a disappointment after demand appeared to have stabilised last summer, and shown a glimmer of growth in February. Continue reading »
Global Ports: one that got away
It has been a tough slog for Russian companies trying to list in London this year. But here is a bit of good news: Global Ports, the Russian port operator, got away a $500m-plus City IPO on Friday (albeit at the lower end of its price range), offering hope that Russian issuers may finally have started taking a more sensible approach to pricing.
The offering brings the score for Russian first-time issuers in London to 5/10. (Five Russian companies have come to market, while five have been turned away.) Here’s what Global Ports tell us about the Russian IPO market.
India: cabinet reshuffle afoot
Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, desperately needs to re-energise an administration wallowing in corruption scandals.
What better way to do that than with an audacious cabinet reshuffle.
To right a severely listing ship of state and give the Congress party even half a chance of wining 2014 parliamentary elections, a major refresh is at hand. Continue reading »
Vietnam: Less gold for Switzerland
Amid a host of deep-seated economic problems, Vietnam’s large trade deficit shows no sign of abating. But the “Vietnam effect” helped Switzerland to post a record monthly trade surplus in May, according to Swiss customs.
The FT revealed in March how Vietnamese banks and gold trading houses had sent billions of dollars of high-grade gold jewellery to be smelted in Switzerland in the last two years to circumvent government restrictions on bullion exports. Continue reading »
China’s Communist Party: 80m strong
The Chinese Communist Party has been described as the world’s largest chamber of commerce and as it prepares to celebrate its 90th birthday next Friday that description seems more fitting than ever.
According to Wang Qinfeng, vice minister of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the number of Party members increased 2.9 per cent last year to 80,269,000, the largest number ever and more than the entire populations of the UK, Portugal and New Zealand combined. Continue reading »
Fund flows: equities mixed but EM bonds still on a roll
Sluggish. That’s how one analyst described the market for equity funds over the past week. But some markets are more sluggish than others.
DM equity and bond funds both saw outflows in the week to June 22 according to EPFR, the Boston-based fund watcher. EM investors were a bit perkier. EM bond funds notched up their 13th straight week of inflows, while, overall, EM equity funds had their third week of outflows. But here the picture was more mixed than the headline figure suggests. Continue reading »
EM yield curves: don’t panic
The recent inversion in yield curves in Brazil, India and China, spells trouble, right? It means recession’s on the way, no?
Not really, says UBS’s Jonathan Anderson. He doesn’t see why investors have suddenly started worrying about the fact that short-term interest rates have climbed above long-term in the three biggest BRIC economies. Calm down, he says. Don’t panic. Continue reading »
[snap] EU leaders back Croatia accession
German chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed on Friday that EU leaders have agreed on Croatia’s conditional accession to the EU following six years of protracted preparations.
The accession treaty is expected to be signed by December. Following this, the parliaments of all 27 members will have to ratify the document, a process forecasted to last until June 2013.
New York Headlines
* Oil reserves release shocks markets
* Chinese premier declares inflation victory
* US widens scope of Iran sanctions
* China, Russia sign currency settlement deal
* Unilever to set up venture capital fund in India Continue reading »
Further reading: ENRC, the Eurasian equation
Friday’s top picks from the beyondbrics team: Premier Wen on how China will reinforce the global recovery, and analysing ENRC’s boardroom bust-up. Elsewhere, introducing the Russian Wendy. Continue reading »
Mexico’s bulletproof economy
Put aside the bloody news headlines about Mexico’s drugs war for a moment. Look instead at how investors view the country. They are, in a word, bullish.
Why? As an FT survey published today argues, the Mexican macroeconomy is well-nigh bulletproof.
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