Fund file: from hot tips to cool heads
China is expected to double its assets under management by 2015, but before asset managers start anticipating a sales bonanza they should take note of some failings, notes Amin Rajan, chief executive of CREATE-Research, in a report in Monday’s FTfm.
The problem is not just the well publicised difficulties with breaking into the tightly controlled distribution market. The difficulty, says Rajan, lies with the investors themselves. Continue reading »
Week ahead: October 1 – 5
This week China celebrates its national day, and Nigeria kicks off its soveriegn wealth fund. Plus lots of manufacturing index numbers, and Brazil reports inflation figures. Continue reading »
The weekender
Catch up with the week on beyondbrics, with the ten most popular stories from the blog, a few things we’ve learnt and a chart. This week: Santander Mexico Continue reading »
Mexico labour reform: watered down, but still a positive
Despite a clamour of protests by leftwing legislators and street protesters, most foreign investors are likely to be heartened by Felipe Calderón’s undoubtedly diluted labour reform in Mexico.
So said Rogelio Ramírez de la O, who was the chief adviser in economics to none other than Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the left’s defeated candidate in the recent presidential election. Continue reading »
Colombia holds rates, ups dollar buying
After cutting interest rates for two consecutive months, Colombia’s central bank is taking a break. On Friday, the bank held its benchmark rate steady at 4.75 per cent and announced plans to expand its dollar purchasing programme in a bid to ease pressure on the peso. Continue reading »
Putin-Chavez: puppy love and oil investments
The Russians are doing their bit to help with Hugo Chávez’s re-election. Despite the all-too-evident problems in Venezuela’s oil industry – exploding refineries is just one of them – the start of early production at an oil project in the Orinoco Belt a little more than a week before presidential elections seems aimed at convincing voters that things are going well.
But that’s not all: Russia is also stepping up investment in the Orinoco, with state-controlled oil company Rosneft signing a deal on Thursday to participate in a major new project. As if that wasn’t enough, Vladimir Putin even gave Chávez a three-month-old black terrier puppy. Continue reading »
Tam cuts capacity as Brazil slows
If you’ve ever flown last-minute from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro, and been forced to pay as much as R$900 ($448) for the 50 minute flight, you won’t like what you’re about to read.
Brazilian airline, Tam, plans to cut its domestic flight capacity by 7 per cent next year to boost profitability, helping to offset higher fuel costs and a slowdown in demand. The airline, which recently merged with Chile’s Lan to form Latam but continues to operate under its own brand, is already reducing its seating capacity by 2 per cent this year. Continue reading »
Mongolia: we want to be Chile
What do you do if you’re a small country, rich in minerals that went from boom to bust when the bottom fell out of the commodities market? Copy Chile, is the answer.
Chile’s experience as a small, copper-dependent economy that prudently stashed cash during the boom years, allowing it to ride out the 2008-09 world economic crash and uncork anti-cyclical spending, was the perfect case study for Mongolia. Continue reading »
BB interview: Peru’s central banker warns of consumers’ foreign currency loan risks
Photo: Bloomberg
The golden pre-Incan and Incan relics on display at the lobby of the Banco Central de la Reserva del Peru, the central bank, seem like good imagery of abundance for an economy that is currently one of the region’s darlings.
“We are doing very well,” Julio Velarde, Peru’s central bank chief, told beyondbrics in his windowless office, with mahogany-covered walls. Continue reading »
India: a tale of two deficits
It was a good news/bad news day for the Indian economy Friday, as the fiscal deficit grew while the current account deficit shrank.
First the good news: the current account deficit for the quarter ending in June shrank to 3.9 per cent of GDP, or $16.55bn, down from a record 4.5 per cent, or $21.76bn, in the previous quarter, but up from 3.8 per cent during the same quarter last year, according to Reserve Bank of India data released Friday. Continue reading »
Serbia puts hopes in Chinese finance for infrastructure projects
With a yawning budget deficit and debt soaring above target levels, Serbia is not in a strong position to pump money into infrastructure programmes. The economy is going backwards and a swift recovery its public finances isn’t on the cards. So how to build much-needed roads and replace aging power plants? Like many emerging markets across the world, Serbia is turning to China. Continue reading »
Kenya: slowing inflation
Kenya’s inflation fell this month, from 6.1 per cent year-on-year in August to 5.3 per cent in the second and third weeks of September, making this the tenth consecutive month of slowing inflation. Continue reading »
Slovenia: police question Ljubljana mayor
Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, has gained a reputation for personal honesty. In a Reader’s Digest experiment in 2007 citizens in this picture postcard city returned 29 of 30 seemingly “lost” mobile phones to their owners – the highest number of 32 such tests in cities around the world.
But many Slovenes despair that such praiseworthy rectitude seems less apparent at the higher levels of politics and corporations. The latest senior figure to be suspected of wrong doing is Zoran Janković , leader of the centre-left opposition Positive Slovenia party and mayor of Ljubljana. Continue reading »
San Miguel part 2: delisting
San Miguel Brewery of the Philippines, maker of the eponymous beer that celebrates long-lasting friendships in its long-running television commercials, is bidding goodbye to the country’s stock market. Continue reading »
San Miguel part 1: listing
San Miguel Corp, the Philippine food and drinks group that is rapidly diversifying into energy and infrastructure, listed preferred shares worth 80bn pesos ($1.9bn) on the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, capping a month-and-a half long capital raising exercise said to be the country’s biggest to date. Continue reading »
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