Brazilian rates: A race to single digits
An article in Brazil’s Valor Econômico has got economists’ pulses racing. According to Brazil’s top business newspaper, the government will send legislation to Congress that will change the country’s popular savings account system, or “poupança”.
This is a deposit scheme commonly used by lower income people that pays 0.5 per cent interest a month plus the reference rate (presently 0.062 per cent per month) and is exempt from income tax. Continue reading »
Carwash goes waterless in Peru
Lima may be the world’s second driest capital city after Cairo, but its residents don’t act like they live in a desert.
On average, Limeños use 250 litres of water a day – double that of European Union residents and 2.5 times as much as their peers in dusty Cairo.
Even as the Andean glaciers melt at an alarming rate and squabbles over water for agriculture and industry escalate, Limeños just keep turning on their taps. Continue reading »
TNK-BP: tightening the screws on BP
BP has been putting a brave face on the mounting legal problems surrounding its failed bid for a strategic alliance with Rosneft, the Russian state oil champion. At its third quarter results presentation on Tuesday, the UK oil group touted a 57 per cent year-on-year jump in net income at TNK-BP, its lucrative Russian oil venture, to $2.27bn.
But the legal net is tightening around BP after TNK-BP’s management recommended its main board discuss filing suits claiming billions of dollars in damages over the failed Rosneft bid. Continue reading »
Tough questions for Kazakhstan’s BTA
It’s crunch time for Kazakhstan’s embattled BTA bank. Having made a huge upward revision last week to its its first half net losses, the bank will face some tricky questions when it holds a conference call on Friday to discuss the results. Foreign creditors who took huge hair cuts when BTA restructured $12bn of debts during the global financial crisis, are wondering if more trouble is in store. Continue reading »
Poland: the pessimists must wait
Poland continues to confound those who keep waiting for the country’s unusually resilient economy to show signs of sputtering – such as is happening in much of the rest of the EU.
In yet another in a series of unexpectedly strong economic data, Poland’s retail sales numbers released earlier today surprised on the upside, coming in at an annual increase of 11.4 per cent for September, up from 11.3 per cent in August and far above the 10 per cent market consensus. Continue reading »
Russia: not as unequal as you think
Beyondbrics loves nothing more than a bit of myth-busting. So a research note on Tuesday by Renaissance Capital debunking the notion that Russia is a society of rich playboy oligarchs surrounded by poor workers certainly caught the eye.
Russia, in fact, is only marginally more unequal than China and India, and far better placed than Brazil. Continue reading »
Dubai’s Russians: accentuating the positive
In the latest in our occasional series, Camilla Hall meets Irina Ivanova of Russian Emirates, a magazine for Russians – Russian women, mainly – in Dubai.
“Russia is full of negative things. Many people don’t buy magazines or watch TV because there is so much negative information. Why would we do the same? We prefer to always be on the positive note.”
So says Irina Ivanova, managing partner of Russian Emirates. And if Dubai’s 70,000 Russians – her estimate – have come to escape harsh realities back home, Russian Emirates is here to help. Continue reading »
India’s banks: a much-needed shot in the arm – or one in the foot?
India’s interest rate rise may have been widely anticipated, but the deregulation of savings rates was more of a surprise – and one which the market initially didn’t like: the Bombay Stock Exchange’s banking index fell over 4 per cent during trading on Tuesday.
While customers may rejoice at the extra percentage or two, the short-term effect on the banks could be negative, and of much greater magnitude. Deregulation should drive up competition and could push rates from 4 per cent into the 6 per cent range. This could spell both good and bad news for banks. Continue reading »
India: making bigger bets
Now is the season of lights in India where households buy gold and exchange gifts. India’s biggest Hindu festival is also the peak of the informal gambling season.
At the weekend, some friends held a Diwali party at their home in an upscale suburb of New Delhi, the nation’s capital. Once passed the luminous festive lights, the carefully flower petal-decorated stairwell and a dinner table laden with culinary delights, visitors were ushered towards the impromptu gaming parlour. Continue reading »
Fatscreen is the new flatscreen
Over the past decade, technological advancements have made televisions thinner and thinner, with giant cathode ray tube sets replaced by flatscreen TVs whose thickness are now measured in millimeters.
Starting next year, however, ‘fatter’ flatscreen TVs may be making a comeback in emerging markets, according to one screen maker. Continue reading »
New York headlines
* Moderate Islamists ahead in Tunisia poll
* Search for fund options extends beyond Europe
* Thai floods reach northern Bangkok
* Zuma fires ministers in graft scandals Continue reading »
Bimbo advances in US
Bimbo may not be the word that most US citizens think of when they bite into their breakfast toast, but it probably should be.
The Mexican company plans to invest US$1bn over the next five years on modernising and making more efficient its US facilities. Monday’s announcement came just three days after the US Department of Justice gave Bimbo the go-ahead to purchase practically all the assets, brands and distribution networks of Sara Lee bakeries in the world’s biggest economy. Continue reading »
Further reading: a cloudy dawn?
Tuesday’s top picks from the beyondbrics team: David Gardner on the threats to democracy in the Arab world; China’s local debt problems; Burma’s, limited, change; and Tunisia’s Islamist-secular divide. Continue reading »
China: jobs and the myth of growth
The slowing of China’s GDP growth rate to 9.1 per cent last week prompted the Hang Seng to drop 4.2 per cent on the news. So what will happen if GDP lowers to around eight per cent, or even as Pimco suggested on Monday, to seven per cent in 12 months? After all, the annual average between 2008 and 2010 was 9.7 per cent. Can China actually allow the growth rate to slip without sparking social unrest over jobs?
Contrary to widely held opinion, it might. Continue reading »
Guest post: Rate hikes alone won’t fix India’s inflation problem
By Leif Eskesen, HSBC
The Reserve Bank of India raised its policy rate yet again on Tuesday, as its extended fight against inflation continued.
They had good reason. Inflation, not the global slowdown, is still the primary economic policy concern in India. It is much higher than in many peer countries and is now running close to double digits – and proving to be very sticky. Moreover, India’s domestically-driven economy is less vulnerable to the world’s current woes. Continue reading »
| About this blog | Headlines email | Blog guide |
| Regulars | Series | Archive |
Older entries
Stefan Wagstyl
Josh Noble
Rob Minto
Pan Kwan Yuk
Jonathan Wheatley
Heba Saleh