Share prices for many of Europe’s biggest banks closed down as much as 7 percent last week, dropping further than many market indexes hit by the coronavirus scare. Standard Chartered PLC, which focuses on Asia, has warned of new difficulties meeting its 2020 profit targets. It has temporarily halted face-to-face services in many Asian branches,...
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CORONAVIRUS: ECONOMIC EPIDEMIC
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 3,500 points last week, vaporizing about $6 trillion in investors’ assets. After back-to-back 1,000-point drops during the seven-day rout, stocks last Friday shaved that day’s loss to 356 points, indicating the virus-sparked panic may be fading and confidence cautiously returning. Markets in Europe and Asia lost about 3 percent...
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CORONAVIRUS 9/11: SPREADING TERROR
Last week, you couldn’t open a mainstream newspaper, turn on the TV news, or check out the news online without being met with another blaring headline about the spread of the coronavirus. Some examples: “Coronavirus: Two new cases confirmed in UK” “France bans large gatherings to slow spread of coronavirus” “High school student in Washington...
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AFRICA: LOOKING BLEAK
Africa’s resource-centered economy has become another a victim of the coronavirus. China’s virus epidemic has shut off about 900,000 barrels of daily use in that country, weakening oil prices. That prompted the IMF to cut its 2020 growth forecast for Nigeria’s oil-based economy from 2.5 percent to 2.0 percent. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy. China...
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TURKEY DROPS INTEREST RATES AGAIN
Turkey’s central bank cut interest rates for the sixth time in a row, dropping its repo rate from 11.25 percent to 10.75. With inflation clocked at 12.15 percent, the real interest rate – the difference between the interest rate and inflation – is -1.40 percent. President Tayyip Erdoğan is pressuring the bank to bring interest...
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SWEDEN: TIME TO MOVE BEYOND NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES
Sweden’s central bank has ended its five-year experiment with negative interest rates, raising its repo rate from -0.25 percent to zero on 20 February. Other tools will be needed to guide economies through the coming global downturn, says Stefan Ingves, the bank’s governor. Because negative interest rates put banking systems in jeopardy, government spending and...
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