Economy Financial News

By Paul Carsten

After a near 30% run-up in just three months, oil bulls are counting on OPEC to sprinkle a little more magic dust on the market. 

The third quarter was a story of dashed hopes in emerging markets, with the unraveling of some of the most profitable trades in the asset class.

An against-the-odds deal to avert a US shutdown is soothing nerves across Wall Street after a week of interest rate-spurred market disruptions. 

Sanjeev Sanyal, a Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, while speaking at the Africa Partnership Conference in Mauritius, emphasised on the importance of having clear Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) norms. The two-day Africa Partnership Conference envisaged to spur cross-boundary collaboration, which kicked off in Mauritius on October 2, will be an ideal platform for Indian stakeholders to pursue wider bilateral trade and strategic goals. Sanyal in his address, stressed that ESG norms would soon have a significant impact on various aspects of our global landscape. While the term ESG is widely recognized, precise norms have yet to be established. Currently, ESG norms are being defined by various ad hoc groups and NGOs.

MAS Financial Services, a micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) financer, has gained 16% over the past three months compared with the 1.4% gain in the S&P BSE Financial Services index. The company has been reporting healthy growth momentum in loan assets and a stable asset quality. With a focus on direct distribution, the lender expects to double the loan book every three-four years.

World Bank has maintained its forecast for China's 2023 economic growth at 5.1%, in line with its previous estimate in April, but trimmed its prediction for 2024 to 4.4% from 4.8%, citing the persistent weakness of its property sector. For East Asia and the Pacific including China, the bank slightly trimmed its 2023 gross domestic product growth forecast to 5.0% from its prior 5.1% estimate, the World Bank said in its semi-annual regional update released on Sunday. For 2024, the bank lowered its regional outlook to 4.5% growth from 4.8%, dragged down by external factors including a sluggish global economy, high interest rates and trade protectionism. «Almost 3,000 new restrictions were imposed on global trade in 2022, three times as large as those in 2019,» the World Bank said. For China, the bounce back from the reopening of the economy following three years of ultra-stringent zero-COVID policies has faded, and elevated debt and weakness in its property sector are weighing on growth, the World Bank said in the report. After months of mostly dismal data, the world's second-largest economy has started to show signs of stabilisation. China's factory activity expanded for the first time in six months in September, an official survey showed on Saturday. Initial signs of improvement had emerged in August, with factory production and retail sales growth accelerating while declines of exports and imports narrowed and deflationary pressures eased.

Sridhar Vembu, cofounder and CEO of software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Zoho, warned on Monday that the global economy is likely taking a turn for the worse, urging companies to exercise caution. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Vembu said that Zoho has seen a slowdown in growth across geographies in September.

₹7,000 crore at a function in Rajasthan's Chittorgarh. PM Modi said, "The development of Rajasthan is the biggest priority for the Central government", added, “Centre has focussed on development of modern infrastructure like expressways, highways and railways in Rajasthan". Elections in Rajasthan are scheduled during fall this year.

Aman Soni, Head of Operations at Prudent Equity. He says investors should consider maintaining some unallocated capital that can be readily deployed when lucrative opportunities arise. Moreover, he finds attempting to predict whether a rate cut will occur in the first or second half of 2024 a futile exercise.

For his manager, Barrie Chapman, the overtime he now gets is a huge boost once unheard of in the hospitality sector. Their regional manager Jen Eaton looks back in horror at the 14-hour shifts she once worked in casinos in heels with no break. Like thousands of others in lower-paid sectors of the British economy, all three have benefited from a gradual improvement in employment terms since the global pandemic and Brexit forced companies to work harder to find staff in a tight labour market. The shift follows years of warnings from unions and campaign groups that the balance of power in Britain had swung too far towards employers, leaving many lower-paid staff working unpredictable hours with poor benefits and little protection. Nick Collins, CEO of Loungers which employs Eaton, Chapman and Hughes-Davies among 8,000 staff in restaurants and bars across Britain, said expectations of employees had risen.

Also Read: Asian markets mixed as China’s factory activity expands, US govt shutdown averts; dollar gains China’s GDP growth estimates for next year have been cut to 4.4% from the 4.8% previously projected. “In 2024, improving external conditions will help growth in the rest of the region but persistent domestic difficulties in China – the fading of the bounce back from the re-opening of the economy, elevated debt, and weakness in the property sector, structural factors such as aging – will weigh on growth in China, slowing it to 4.4% in 2024," World Bank said.

DTR), a 10-month-old decentralised finance startup founded by former SoftBank top executive Akshay Naheta, on Monday announced the launch of its UAE dirham-backed stablecoin, DRAM. In an interaction with ET, Naheta said that the aim of issuing a dirham-backed stablecoin was to establish a foothold in the $130 billion market, which is currently dominated by US dollar-backed stablecoins.

A summer in which inflation trended lower, jobs remained plentiful and consumers kept spending has bolstered confidence — not least at the Federal Reserve — that the world’s biggest economy will avoid recession. A last-minute deal to avoid a government shutdown kicks one immediate risk a little further into the future. But a major auto strike, the resumption of student-loan repayments, and a shutdown that may yet come back after the stop-gap spending deal lapses, could easily shave a percentage point off GDP growth in the fourth quarter. Add those shocks to other powerful forces at work on the economy — from dwindling pandemic savings to soaring interest rates and now oil prices too — and the combined impact could be enough to tip the US into a downturn as early as this year. Here are six reasons why a recession remains Bloomberg Economics’ base case.

Sunil Subramaniam, MD & CEO, Sundaram Mutual, says from an economic news perspective, I do not see any surprises. We are in a festival season and this time we have a slightly elongated festival season with Diwali coming in around mid-November. That is good news from the consumer section, consumer durables and auto and housing sectors and that is good news for the markets. At the same time, the state assembly elections in key Hindi belt states will provide a little bit of a clue in terms of the next coming parliamentary election. While they will not have a significant impact because voters behave differently in parliament, the markets will be a bit sensitive if those elections do not go the way of the ruling party at the Centre. What is your view on the market? Right now we were cruising around that 20,000 mark headed for higher levels and then suddenly back to 19,500? Yes, it is just a reflection of stuff happening outside India in terms of oil prices strengthening as well as the US Fed being hawkish in terms of the interest rate outlook and their actions. These two tended to be a bit negative for emerging market flows and India especially is very sensitive to oil. We import 85% of our crude and hence any movement trend around oil makes a big impact.

The global cryptocurrency exchange platform market is poised for substantial growth, with projections indicating a rise from $45 billion in 2023 to $110.12 billion by 2028. This represents a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.08% over the period from 2022 to 2028, according to the «Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market — Global Outlook & Forecast 2023-2028» report by ResearchAndMarkets.com.

₹7,000 crore in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan. To promote a gas-based economy, the Mehsana-Bhatinda-Gurdaspur Gas Pipeline will be dedicated to the nation by the Prime Minister. “The pipeline has been built at a cost of about ₹4,500 crores.

The Economic Times Startup Awards on Saturday, October 7. The star-studded event in Bengaluru is set to host a galaxy of business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers — marking the ninth edition of the country’s most coveted awards for entrepreneurial excellence.

Britain's governing Conservative Party is gathering for its annual conference

Nigeria’s leader has increased the wages of some government workers in last-minute efforts to appease labor unions whose planned strike this week could shut down government offices in all sectors of Africa’s largest economy

An official Chinese survey says the country's factory activity has recorded its first expansion in six months