GLOBAL NEWS:-
An exit by Britain from the European Union without a framework agreement to preserve some economic integration is the biggest near-term risk to the British economy, an International Monetary Fund spokesman said on Thursday. IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters that all Brexit outcomes will entail costs, because they will raise impediments to the current “frictionless” single market with the EU.“Leaving without a withdrawal agreement and a framework for the future relationship with the EU is the most significant near-term risk to the UK economy,” Rice said.
China’s statistics bureau on Friday revised down its final 2017 gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 6.8 percent from 6.9 percent, after scaling back initial estimates of the industrial and services sector.The National Bureau of Statistics revised the final 2017 GDP to 82.08 trillion yuan ($12.11 trillion), down 636.7 billion yuan from the preliminary number.The revision came ahead of Monday’s release of preliminary GDP growth figures for the latest quarter and full-year 2018.
China and Germany are committed to deepening cooperation in the financial sector and will work together to battle trade protectionism, they said in a joint statement on Friday.They signed three pacts to strengthen banking sector cooperation during a two-day visit by German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz to Beijing. Germany is expected to sign pacts with Chinese financial regulators during Scholz's visit, and its Bundesbank may also conclude an agreement with China on trading yuan-denominated financial products in Europe.
Britain’s last-minute scramble to shape an EU exit, its biggest policy upheaval in half a century, stalled on Thursday as Prime Minister Theresa May and opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn dug in their heels for competing visions.After May’s two-year attempt to forge an amicable divorce with an independent trade policy was crushed by parliament in the biggest defeat for a British leader in modern history, May asked party leaders to forget self-interest to find a solution.Yet there was little sign on Thursday that either of the two major parties — which hold 88 percent of the 650 seats in parliament — were prepared to compromise on key demand.
The United States is likely to extend waivers from sanctions on Iranian oil imports in May but will reduce the number of countries receiving them to placate top buyers China and India and to decrease the chance of higher oil prices, analysts said.Washington surprised oil markets after granting waivers to eight Iranian oil buyers when the sanctions on oil imports started in November. Benchmark Brent crude futures fell 22 percent that month and the waivers influenced the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) decision to agree in December to supply cuts starting in 2019.
President Donald Trump has cancelled his delegation’s trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next week due to the partial U.S. government shutdown.Trump, who attended last year’s Davos event, had planned to go again this year but pulled out last week as he grapples with Democrats in Congress over funding for a wall on the border with Mexico that has led to a partial shutdown of the government.
Japan’s annual core consumer inflation slowed to a seven-month low in December as soft household spending kept firms from raising prices, a further sign of the growing challenge faced by the central bank in achieving its elusive 2 percent target.The data comes ahead of the Bank of Japan’s rate review next week, where the nine-member board is seen cutting its price forecasts and warning of heightening global uncertainties.The core consumer price index (CPI), which includes oil products but excludes volatile fresh food costs, rose 0.7 percent in December from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, slowing from the previous month’s 0.9 percent gain.It fell short of a median market forecast for a 0.8 percent gain and was the slowest pace of increase in seven months.
Food and agriculture group Cargill Inc will invest some $200 million in Pakistan over the coming three to five years in sectors ranging from dairy, to edible oils and animal feed, the prime minister’s office in Islamabad said on Thursday.“Cargill’s proposed investments will support Pakistan’s overall economic development and contribute to local employment,” it said in a statement following a meeting between company executives and Prime Minister Imran Khan.The announcement comes as Pakistan, grappling with a severe squeeze on its foreign exchange reserves, has stepped up efforts to stabilze its economy and attract international investors.Privately owned Cargill will expand its operations across the agricultural trading and supply chain, edible oils, dairy, meat and animal feed, the government statement said.
India’s top business groups on Thursday urged the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut its benchmark interest rate by at least half a percentage point and lower the cash reserve ratio it imposes on banks to stimulate an economy that is showing signs of weakness.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley indicated his support for the demands. Speaking through a video conference from New York, that although he respected the autonomy of the central bank, he felt domestic real interest rates should not be higher than in other countries.“(We) can’t have a real rate of interest that is higher than anywhere else in the world,” he said adding the farm sector was facing a challenge after fall in prices of food items.
The RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the repo rate unchanged last month at 6.50 percent, and some economists say with retail inflation easing to an 18-month low of 2.19 percent in December, it will have leeway to soften its monetary stance in the next few months. The cash reserve ratio is currently 4 percent of deposits.
Asian stocks advanced on Friday as a report of progress in U.S.-China trade talks stirred hopes of a deal in their tariff dispute and supported risk sentiment.The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discussed lifting some or all tariffs imposed on Chinese imports and suggested offering a tariff rollback during trade discussions scheduled for Jan. 30.U.S. stocks rallied following the report, but pared some of those gains after a Treasury spokesperson told CNBC that Mnuchin had not made any such recommendations.
all three major U.S. indexes were up, led by a surge in industrial stocks.Even the whiff of progress in the months-long Sino-U.S. trade war helped boost risk sentiment. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.7 percent. The index has gained 1.4 percent this week.The Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.8 percent.
Palladium held above $1,400 an ounce on Friday after surging to record levels in the previous session on tight supplies and robust demand, while gold stood firm amid uncertainty around the partial U.S. government shutdown. Uncertainties around the U.S.-China trade war and the U.S. government shutdown are supporting gold prices. Spot gold IS set for its fifth straight weekly gain, also supported by expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve may not raise interest rates this year and uncertainties around Brexit. Gold does need a trigger to spark it upwards, either in the way of a weaker dollar, renewed stumbles in U.S. equities or clearer indications of slowing U.S. growth.Spot gold was steady at $1,292 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures were firm at $1,291.60 per ounce.In other metals, platinum rose 0.3 percent to $807.50 an ounce, while silver was steady at $15.53.
Oil prices rose on Friday after a report from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) showed its production fell sharply last month, easing fears about prolonged oversupply.A report by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday saying that Washington was considering lifting some or all tariffs imposed on Chinese imports also buoyed financial markets, including oil, analysts said.U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $52.62 per barrel , up 55 cents, or 1.1 percent, from their last settlement.
International Brent crude oil futures were up 54 cents, or 0.9 percent, at $61.72 per barrel.OPEC, along with some other producers including Russia, cut oil output sharply in December before a new accord to limit supply took effect on Jan. 1, it said on Thursday, suggesting that producers have made a strong start to averting a glut in 2019 as a slowing economy curbs demand.OPEC said in its monthly report that its oil output fell by 751,000 barrels per day (bpd) in December to 31.58 million bpd, the biggest month-on-month drop in almost two years.But tempering that support for prices, OPEC also cut its forecast for average daily demand for its crude in 2019 to 30.83 million barrels, down 910,000 bpd from the 2018 average.