Economy Financial News

UBS expects the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by as much as 275 basis points in 2024, almost four times the market consensus, as the world's largest economy tips into recession.

World’s Best Cities, Dubai retained its ranking among the top 10 cities, securing the sixth spot globally. In the midst of geo-political headwinds, trade protectionism, and supply chain disruptions, the UAE and Dubai have shown robust growth in economy, business and tourism. The report further states that Dubai does particularly well in wealth and prosperity measures that include business infra, number of startups, corporate HQs and regulatory access.

IEA) on Tuesday raised its oil demand growth forecasts for this year and next despite an expected deceleration in economic growth in nearly all major economies. Although voluntary supply cuts from Saudi Arabia and Russia until the end of the year will keep supply tight, with demand growth still set to slow, the market could shift into surplus at the start of 2024, the Paris-based IEA said. While overall economic and oil demand growth are expected to lose steam next year, demand in 2023 has been supported by resilient U.S. deliveries and record September demand from China. Expectations for 2024, meanwhile, are underpinned by hopes of interest rate cuts and the recent fall in crude prices, the IEA, the energy adviser to industrialised nations, added. «For now, with demand still exceeding available supplies heading into the Northern Hemisphere winter, market balances will remain vulnerable to heightened economic and geopolitical risks — and further volatility ahead.» Brent oil prices have weakened to around $82 a barrel from a 2023 high in September near $98.

Vodafone said Tuesday that it sank into a first-half loss and revenue dipped after one-off gains from asset sales were not repeated as it undergoes a vast overhaul. Net losses totalled 346 million euros ($370 million) in the six months to the end of September, Vodafone said in a results statement. That compared with profit after tax of 945 million euros in the same period a year earlier. Revenues fell 4.3 percent to 21.9 billion euros, hit by adverse foreign exchange rate moves as well as the sale of Vantage Towers, Vodafone Hungary and Vodafone Ghana last time around. But services revenue grew 4.2 percent to 18.6 billion euros. Vodafone added that its transformation plan was «progressing», two weeks after it announced the sale of its Spanish division to investment fund Zegona for up to 5.0 billion euros. In a further streamlining, Vodafone in June agreed to merge British operations with Three UK, owned by Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison, to create Britain's biggest operator with 27 million customers, as it targets an acceleration in faster 5G connectivity. «During the first half of the year, we have delivered improved revenue growth in nearly all of our markets and have returned to growth in Germany in the second quarter,» said chief executive Margherita Della Valle. «Vodafone's transformation is progressing.

₹500 irrespective of the increase in price. "I want to tell the youths if you want to take guarantees, take those of (given by) PM Modi. What the Bhupesh Baghel government was not able to give in five years, we will give within five weeks on the occasion of former PM Atal Bihar Vajpayee's birthday on December 25.

Amid the violent challenges to the world system in Ukraine and the Middle East, it’s easy to overlook the corroding economic pillars of international order. Under President Biden, American economic policy is morphing into a toxic combination of protectionism and green activism guaranteed to slow growth and create global friction. That matters.

By William Schomberg and David Milliken

BEIJING (Reuters) — China has ordered its local governments to halt public-private partnership projects identified as «problematic» and replaced a 10% budget spending allowance for these ventures with a vetting mechanism by Beijing as it tries to curb municipal debt risks.

By Roxanne Liu and Kane Wu

ANZ will make five key arguments in a hearing next month when it will attempt to convince the Australian Competition Tribunal to overturn the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s decision in August that blocked its $4.9 billion acquisition of Suncorp Bank. 

On a 2011 visit, then US vice president Joe Biden went for lunch at Yaoji Chaogan, sparking a social media craze over his "noodle diplomacy". Outside the eatery in one of the capital's historic hutong neighbourhoods this week, Chinese people expressed hope that a meeting between leader Xi Jinping and now President Biden might help the two men to cook up a diplomatic success of their own. Biden and Xi will hold talks this week in San Francisco — their first in just over a year — set to address hot-button issues from trade to geopolitical tensions. Near Beijing's 700-year-old Drum Tower, passersby told AFP the two leaders needed to learn to get along for the sake of the world. The China-US relationship is «tense, you can see that», said economics student Yuan, who only offered her family name. «But they're also very closely linked,» she added. «These are two very large countries with huge global economic systems, so this is very important. Their relationship has a great impact on the entire world's economy.» Outside the packed bistro — where steaming bowls of soup and buns offered a welcome respite from freezing weather outside — retired driver Yu said he welcomed the meeting between the rival powers' leaders and expressed a little admiration for the US president.

By Emily Chow and Trixie Yap

By Ankur Banerjee

Investing.com-- Gold prices fell below key levels in Asian trade on Tuesday, as traders pivoted into the dollar before U.S. inflation data due later in the day, which is widely expected to determine the path of interest rates. 

Investing.com-- Most Asian stocks rose slightly on Tuesday, recovering a measure of recent losses as investors hunkered down before key U.S. inflation data, while Chinese markets lagged following weak lending activity data. 

Investing.com-- Most Asian currencies crept lower on Tuesday, while the dollar clocked small gains before key U.S. inflation data that is expected to determine the path of monetary policy.

That’s because the container shipping industry, cast as the Grinch that spoiled Christmas over the past two years with record-high freight rates and slow deliveries, is returning to its pre-pandemic place in the corporate world: perennial underachiever Charlie Brown. The biggest carriers posted net income totaling $364 billion in 2021 and 2022, according to figures compiled by industry veteran John McCown, after a decade of scant profits. They’ll likely drift back into the red this quarter as the rates they charge fall below costs and look to stay there for the foreseeable future. Booms-turned-busts have been more abrupt and sensational, but rarely has an established industry so tied to the global economy lurched from historic profits to below break-even levels more directly than the shipping lines that move 80% of the world’s merchandise trade have this year.

The PSU banks continued to show a sustained improvement in the September quarter. At the aggregate level, the provisioning for bad loans or loan loss provisioning for the 12 listed PSU banks fell to Rs 16,552 crore compared with Rs 16,875 crore in the previous quarter and Rs 18,138 crore in the year-ago quarter. Barring the June 2023 quarter, the loan loss provisioning for the sample banks fell in each of the quarter since June 2022.

Georgia, the first nuclear reactors built from scratch in the United States in more than 30 years illustrate the enormous promise of nuclear power — and its most glaring weakness. The two new reactors at the Vogtle nuclear power plant will join two older units to create enough electricity to power 2 million homes, 24 hours a day, without emitting any of the carbon dioxide that is dangerously heating the planet. But those colossal reactors cost $35 billion, more than double the original estimates, and arrived seven years behind schedule. That's why no one else is planning to build large reactors in the United States. Instead, the great hope for the future of nuclear power is to go small. Nearly a dozen companies are developing reactors that are a fraction of the size of those at Vogtle, betting that they will be quicker and cheaper to build.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.49% higher, while Tokyo's Nikkei gained 0.36%. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index was up 0.61%. The Japanese yen was at 151.71 per dollar in Asian hours, having touched a one-year low of 151.92 on Monday.

India presents a promising growth story and, ideally, a sustainable one, but the inflow of investments may not match the scale witnessed in China, said Krishna Memani, chief investment officer at Pennsylvania- based Lafayette College's endowment fund. In an interview with Rajesh Mascarenhas, the seasoned money manager said sectors like healthcare and technology can deliver exceptional growth. Edited excerpts: What is your evaluation of India and where does it fit in your portfolio allocation? India's economic growth will be decent, perhaps not as turbocharged as it has been over the last few years. But it will still be the world's largest or fastest growing economy by a wide metric. Although India is an expensive market, foreign investors may have to accept this reality to participate in its growth potential, hoping that growth justifies the high valuation. However, Indian stakeholders must remain cautious. While India presents a promising growth story and, ideally, a sustainable one, the inflow of investments may not match the scale witnessed in China. Therefore, expectations should not outpace the capital allocation process. India is attracting attention from global fund managers alongside Brazil, albeit for different reasons, making them the focal point in the emerging market landscape.