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. Here are some more of what the BIGS have been gobbling up and how the Bigs keep getting bigger and the rich keep getting richer. It should be noted...
Tag: aug 2 2022
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SPOTLIGHT: INFLATION
EUROZONE INFLATION SETS ANOTHER RECORD IN JUNE Inflation across the 19 Eurozone countries climbed to 8.9 percent in July, a record outstripping the 8.6-percent high mark set in June, the European Union’s statistics office reported last week. Energy prices soared again, rocketing up 39.7 percent on disruptions in Russia’s natural gas deliveries. Food prices gained...
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QUALCOMM REPORTS DROP IN DEMAND FOR PHONE CHIPS
Qualcomm, one of the world’s chief suppliers of computer chips for mobile phones, trimmed its sales forecast for this year as inflation forces consumers to curtail unnecessary spending. The reduced outlook comes even though the company reported a 36-percent sales increase in its most recent quarter, notching $10.94 billion in revenue and edging past analysts’...
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BANGLADESH ASKS IMF FOR EMERGENCY AID
Bangladesh became the latest Asian nation to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for aid in recent weeks as soaring fuel prices have depleted the country’s foreign currency reserves. “We can’t print dollars, we have to earn them,” finance minister A.H.M. Mustafa Kamal said in a 27 July public statement. “We earn dollars through the...
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NEW WORLD DISORDER TOP TREND: PAKISTAN STUMBLES TOWARD DEFAULT AS RUPEE’S VALUE SLIDES
The value of Pakistan’s rupee plunged 7.6 percent last week to 228 to the dollar, its lowest in more than 20 years and its steepest weekly slide since October 1998 as investors came to see Pakistan as the next country to follow Sri Lanka into default. The rupee’s tumble also reflected fears that the International...
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RUSSIA’S ECONOMY RISES ABOVE SANCTIONS AS CENTRAL BANK CUTS RATE
Russia’s economy has been harmed less than expected by Western sanctions that were imposed as punishment for its attack on Ukraine, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) noted in its new quarterly economic outlook report. Russian exports, including oil, “are holding up better than expected,” the report said. “In addition, domestic demand is also showing some...
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ECB RAISES INTEREST RATE BY A HALF-POINT
On 28 July, the European Central Bank (ECB) ended eight unbroken years of negative interest rates by boosting its key rate from -0.50 percent to zero, double the increase it had previously signaled. It was the bank’s first rate hike in 11 years and the biggest since 2000. The bank will continue to “normalize” rates...
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EUROZONE BUSINESS ACTIVITY TURNS NEGATIVE IN JULY
Business activity in the 19-country Eurozone contracted in July for the first time since February 2021, according to S&P Global’s composite purchasing managers index (PMI). The index fell to 49.4 in July from 52.0 in June. Economists surveyed by Reuters had predicted a rating of 51. Ratings below 50 indicate contraction. The turn to contraction...
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GERMANY STALLS, OTHER EU ECONOMIES CLAIM GROWTH IN JULY
Germany’s economy, Europe’s largest, stalled in this year’s second quarter as international trade slowed under China’s anti-COVID lockdowns and Russia’s varying deliveries of natural gas hobbled industrial production. Germany gets about a third of its natural gas from Russia, which has variously slowed or halted deliveries in what most analysts assume is punishment for Germany’s...
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STRONG DOLLAR WEAKENS OTHER ECONOMIES, FORCES HIGHER RATES
The U.S. dollar has gained about 12 percent in value this year relative to other major currencies, in large part because the U.S. Federal Reserve has raised interest rates more aggressively than have the central banks of many other major economies. Also, fears of a global recession and geopolitical turmoil have spurred investors to seek...