Isn’t it a bit late for Ben Bernanke to suggest a preventative measure for the financial crisis? The Fed chair has recommended state-level sovereign wealth funds:
Building a rainy-day fund during good times may not be politically popular, but it can pay off during the bad times Read more
Trillion-dollar mineral deposits apparently found in Afghanistan have the potential to make the country and its citizens comfortable for years to come – but only if wealth generated from the find is handled equitably. Without care, the ‘resource curse’ could trigger conflict, and make most Afghans worse off than they are now.
Ashby Monk suggests creating a sovereign wealth fund straight away, to hold and manage the revenue for future generations. Read more
Oh dear. China’s ‘big four’ commercial banks lent money so willingly in 2009 that their capital adequacy ratios are barely above the statutory minimum of 11 per cent. The Bank of China, for instance, is apparently at 11.14 per cent.
Why should this affect China’s – and, by some accounts, the world’s – largest sovereign wealth fund? Because its domestic arm is the majority shareholder of the ‘big four’*. So China Investment Corporation has asked for a cash injection from the State Council, the country’s cabinet.
That cash would head for Central Huijin Investment Ltd., the domestically orientated Read more
Perhaps for old times’ sake, the inaugural meeting of a new uber-network took place at the Bundesbank in Frankfurt. The next one is being held at the central bank of Kuala Lumpur, and subsequent meetings are planned for Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
The network consists of central banks, sovereign wealth funds, regulators, asset managers and retail banks. Membership is by invitation, and discussions are under the Chatham House rule. Reasons for meeting range from tips on investment strategies to regulation proposals. But one unnamed attendee observed “it ma[de] sense” for buyers and sellers of government bonds to get together. From ft.com:
Central banks and debt management offices are on a charm offensive
Please welcome Guoxin Asset Management to the world’s growing family of sovereign wealth funds. But don’t expect to read much more about it: GAM looks set to be exclusively domestic.
China’s state council has apparently approved the fund’s creation, says the Oxford SWF project. It will be owned by China’s SASAC and its purpose is to consolidate 128 state-owned enterprises to about 80 – oh, and make them profitable. The new fund is unlikely to have either mandate or budget to make international investments. Read more
Is Norway calling the bottom of global property markets? Its central bank has given approval for its oil-funded sovereign wealth fund to invest up to 5 per cent ($22bn) in the asset class. “Investments will principally be made in well-developed markets and within traditional types of real estate,” Finance Minister Sigbjoern Johnsen told Reuters. “We must be prepared for real estate prices to fluctuate a good deal.”
Norway has form calling turning points. Last year the fund was allowed to increase its proportion of equity holdings to 60 per cent. During that year, major indices rose about 50 per cent. The fund made 13.5 per cent in Q3 alone. I wonder if they’re planning to reduce the equity proportion now (Bloomberg). Read more
Commodities inflation could rise rapidly if China follows the advice of one of its central bank officials, who recommends spending forex reserves on strategic resources such as oil. The move would further China’s diversification from the dollar.
Many emerging economies, such as Indonesia, list commodity inflation as a principal risk to continued economic recovery. Read more
This might seem like a currency special edition. The dollar fell after China hinted at renminbi appreciation. The People’s Bank of China said foreign exchange policy would take into account “capital flows and major currency movements”, a pointed reference to US dollar weakness and the large speculative inflows of capital that China is receiving. Those speculative inflows are a growing concern for many emerging markets, whose currencies are rising quickly: Taiwan, Russia, Brazil, Thailand and Chile are all planning how best to slow the influx of capital.
Dollar reserves have been going out of fashion over the past few months, and now two IMF economists have called for diversification away from the greenback. This will make Geithner’s (widely mocked) ‘commitment’ to a strong dollar even harder to achieve. Read more
Banks face higher refinancing costs as $7,000bn of short-term debt is due to mature in the next three years. The IEA is accused of overstating energy reserves and the chief economist of the World Bank says China should not be forced to allow appreciation of the renminbi Read more
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Chris Giles has been the economics editor of the Financial Times since 2004. Based in London, he writes about international economic trends and the British economy. Before reporting economics for the Financial Times, he wrote editorials for the paper, reported for the BBC, worked as a regulator of the broadcasting industry and undertook research for the Institute for Fiscal Studies. RSS
Michael Steen, Frankfurt bureau chief, covers the ECB and the eurozone's economies. He joined the Financial Times in 2007 as Amsterdam correspondent and later worked as a front page news editor in London. Before joining the FT, he spent nine years as a correspondent at Reuters, mostly in foreign postings that included a previous stint in Frankfurt, as well as Moscow, Kiev and central Asia. He read German and Russian at Cambridge.RSS
Robin Harding is the FT's US economics editor, based in Washington. Prior to this, he was based in Tokyo, covering the Bank of Japan and Japan's technology sector, and in London as an economics leader writer. Robin studied economics at Cambridge and has a masters in economics from Hitotsubashi University, where he was a Monbusho scholar. Before joining the FT, Robin worked in asset management and banking. RSS
Ralph Atkins, capital markets editor, has been writing for the Financial Times for more than 20 years following an economics degree from Cambridge. From 2004 to 2012, Ralph was Frankfurt bureau chief, watching the European Central Bank and eurozone economies. He has also worked in Bonn, Berlin, Jerusalem and Brussels. RSS
Claire Jones is Money Supply economics team writer, based in London. Before joining the Financial Times, she was the editor of the Central Banking journal and CentralBanking.com. Claire studied philosophy and economics at the London School of Economics. RSS
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