Each week, we report instances where the money junky hedge funds, private equity groups and the already big companies swallow another piece of the global economy.
Category: 4 October 2022
SPOTLIGHT: CHINA
For the first time since 1990, China’s economic production this year will be less than the rest of Asia’s, the World Bank has predicted.
IMF SCOLDS U.K. GOVERNMENT OVER PLAN TO CUT TAXES AND BORROW
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave a “stinging rebuke” to the government of British Prime Minister Liz Truss over her plan for massive tax cuts—the most drastic since 1972—while also initially borrowing more than £72 billion to subsidize household energy bills, the Financial Times reported.
TOP 2022 TREND: DRAGFLATION—NIGERIA LIFTS INTEREST RATE TO RECORD HIGH
Nigeria’s central bank has raised its benchmark interest rate to an all-time high of 15.5 percent.
ENERGY COSTS WILL “KILL THE ECONOMY,” SLOVAKIA PRIME MINISTER WARNS
The skyrocketing price of electricity has pushed Slovakia’s economy to the brink of “collapse,” prime minister Eduard Heger said last week in a public warning.
COTTON PRICES TUMBLE
Cotton futures prices have slid 25 percent since late August, reversing the rise in price that followed the U.S. agriculture department’s forecast that 40 percent of this year’s U.S. cotton harvest would be lost to drought.
…AND RATES KEEP RISING
On 29 September, Mexico’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to a record 9.25 percent.
NEW BUSINESS OPENINGS IN CANADA FALL BY ALMOST 50 PERCENT
In the second quarter of this year, Canadian business starts fell by more than 49 percent compared to a year earlier and compared to the same quarter in 2019, according to the Equifax credit reporting agency.
GERMANY ROLLS OUT €200 BILLION IN ENERGY SUBSIDIES
Germany’s government will provide a €200-billion “shield” for businesses and low-income households grappling with relentlessly rising energy bills, the government announced last week.
REFINANCING DEBT COULD ADD $1 TRILLION TO COSTS
Emerging nations and wobbly corporations needing to refinance debt will need to pay interest an average of 1.56 percentage points higher than the current rate for the same securities—a total of $1.01 billion extra, according to Bloomberg’s analysis of bonds owed by current public-and private-sector debtors.