Daily Archives: Nov 7, 2011

Argentine autos: bumpy road ahead

Nov 7, 2011 9:00pm by Jude Webber

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World economic slowdown – in Brazil above all – has slammed the brakes on Argentina’s car industry, the country’s biggest manufacturing activity.

Until August, car makers had been zooming along with the wind in their hair: production was up 25 per cent in the first eight months versus the same period last year; exports rose nearly 29 per cent to a new record (Brazil buys four fifths of Argentine car exports); sales to domestic concessionaires rose nearly 24 per cent and the number of new registrations jumped 32 per cent. Continue reading »

Tags: Argentina economy, autos, manufacturing Posted in Argentina, LatAm | Permalink

HSBC: why Mexico won’t cut rates

Nov 7, 2011 8:00pm by Jonathan Wheatley

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A consensus is building that Mexico is preparing to follow Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey and cut interest rates in readiness for a global economic slowdown.

Some economists expected the central bank to cut its policy rate – unchanged for more than two years – at its last monetary policy meeting on October 14. It didn’t – and now they expect it to do so on December 2. HSBC is among those who disagree. Continue reading »

Tags: interest rates, monetary policy Posted in LatAm, Mexico | Permalink

Poland: cracking down on tax loopholes

Nov 7, 2011 6:43pm by Jan Cienski

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Polish savers are going to have to work a little harder to squeeze a higher return out of their money – as the finance ministry moves to close a loophole that has allowed an increasing number of people to avoid a capital gains tax.

Named “anti-Belka” accounts after the former finance minister and current central bank governor Marek Belka who brought in the tax in 2001, banks have been using them to do an end-run around the 19 per cent tax for the last three years. Continue reading »

Tags: Poland economy, tax Posted in Europe, Poland | Permalink

Nord Stream: turning on the tap

Nov 7, 2011 5:01pm by Stefan Wagstyl

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Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, pressed the start button on gas supplies from Russia to Germany through the controversial $10bn Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea. Two months later, president Dmitry Medvedev will travel to Germany for a ceremony on Tuesday to mark the arrival of the first shipment.

Medvedev will meet German chancellor Angela Merkel, French prime minister Francois Fillon and Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte in a gathering that emphasises the political importance of Europe’s newest energy link. Continue reading »

Posted in Russia | Permalink

Indonesian GDP: 6% and counting

Nov 7, 2011 3:30pm by Anthony Deutsch

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Consumers are buying cars and motorbikes by the million, exports have jumped 18.5 per cent and fixed capital investment are up 7 per cent from July to September. It was the fourth consecutive quarter of GDP growth above 6 per cent. Indonesia is doing well, and people have noticed.

But can the country keep it up? Continue reading »

Tags: GDP Posted in Indonesia | Permalink

Indian stocks: recovery, from a low base

Nov 7, 2011 3:03pm by Neil Munshi

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Traders aren’t ready to bust out the champagne just yet, but over the course of the past three months, Indian stocks have quietly staged a comeback, outpacing most of their Asian peers. Continue reading »

Tags: equities Posted in India | Permalink

From FT.com November 7, 2011

Bank of China: a very iffy Sifi

Bank of China’s inclusion on the inaugural list of 29 “G-SIFIs” – global systemically important financial institutions – may have caused some raised eyebrows around the world. Sure, BoC is big, with Rmb11,530bn ($1,816bn) of assets. But ICBC and CCB (not on the list) are bigger, by that measure. Neither does BoC seem to fit the Financial Stability Board’s requirement for “complexity.” Like most of China’s state-owned lenders, it pursues a pretty unexciting mix of corporate, personal and trade finance. And as for “systemic interconnectedness,” with 95 per cent of its assets in greater China, BoC is easily the most insular on the list.

Continue reading: “Lex: Bank of China: a very iffy Sifi”

Tags: banking, China economy Posted in China | Permalink

Hajj: the business of spirituality

Nov 7, 2011 12:33pm by David Keohane

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This year’s Hajj, the Muslim religion’s most important event of the year, saw up to 3m devout, roughly 2m of whom come from abroad, worshipping in Saudi Arabia. The Arab world’s largest economy faced a huge logistical task to cater and care for this mass of humanity.

Happily, the economic benefits those pilgrims brought with them were just as a big. According to some estimates, the Saudi economy enjoyed an injection of more than $30bn from the five-day holiday which ended on Sunday. Continue reading »

Tags: GDP, investment, tourism Posted in Saudi Arabia | Permalink

New York headlines

Nov 7, 2011 12:12pm by beyondbrics

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* Greece to form coalition government

* Stocks soar on reports of Berlusconi exit

* G20 seeks more talks on eurozone crisis

* BP’s $7bn Argentina disposal collapses Continue reading »

Posted in Global | Permalink

Vietnam’s exploding reefers

Nov 7, 2011 11:59am by Ben Bland

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It is thanks to the seemingly seamless international shipping network that Americans can buy computers made in China, Europeans can enjoy Argentine steak and people from all over the world can sustain themselves with rice, fish and coffee produced in Vietnam.

But the ease of transporting the humble twenty-foot container around the world means that problematic cargo in one port can swiftly become a global problem, as with a recent spate of exploding refrigerated containers traced to Vietnam. Continue reading »

Tags: infrastructure, transport Posted in Asia, Vietnam | Permalink

Commerzbank: a chill wind for CEE

Nov 7, 2011 10:58am by Stefan Wagstyl

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Commerzbank is Germany’s leading bank in central and eastern Europe. So its move on Friday to freeze new loans outside Germany or Poland will have sent a chill through the region.

Banks have trimmed their balance sheets in the more vulnerable CEE countries before, notably in 2008-09. But Commerzbank’s public announcement of a “temporary suspension of new loan business without connectivity to Germany or Poland… with immediate effect” will multiply fears of a coming credit crunch. Continue reading »

Tags: banking, eurozone Posted in Europe | Permalink

EM currencies: staying power required

Nov 7, 2011 10:45am by Josh Noble

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Like equities and bonds, emerging market currencies had a pretty miserable summer. All of them – bar the renminbi and Peru’s sol – gave up the year’s gains, and many of them sank deeply into the red as Greek convulsions traveled far and wide.

But in the last month, EM currencies have roared back. Compared to the start of 2010, many are comfortably back into positive territory. So what next? Continue reading »

Tags: currencies, EM currencies sell-off, fund flows Posted in Global | Permalink

Guest post: WTO club may boost Russian GDP by over 3%

Nov 7, 2011 9:26am by beyondbrics

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By Sergei Guriev of the New Economic School in Moscow

The last week brought long-awaited news: Russia has completed its negotiations with all the members of the World Trade Organization. Russia is expected to sign the documents by mid-December and finally join WTO – after almost 18 years of talks. Why is this news so important and if it is, why has it taken so long? Continue reading »

Tags: trade, WTO Posted in Russia | Permalink

London headlines

Nov 7, 2011 5:24am by beyondbrics

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* Greece to form coalition government

* G20 seeks more talks on eurozone crisis

* BP’s $7bn Argentina disposal collapses Continue reading »

Posted in Global | Permalink

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Daily Archives: Nov 7, 2011

Argentine autos: bumpy road ahead

HSBC: why Mexico won’t cut rates

Poland: cracking down on tax loopholes

Nord Stream: turning on the tap

Indonesian GDP: 6% and counting

Indian stocks: recovery, from a low base

Bank of China: a very iffy Sifi

Hajj: the business of spirituality

New York headlines

Vietnam’s exploding reefers

Commerzbank: a chill wind for CEE

EM currencies: staying power required

Further reading: the end of the revolution

Guest post: WTO club may boost Russian GDP by over 3%

London headlines

BB: time to register

Global equities macromap

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