WASHINGTON | Via IMF’s Staff | Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will meet on the Australina city on February 22-23. The IMF’ s staff has prepared a note as an anticipation of the event. The institution says the recovery is still weak and significant downside risks remain, thus further action and cooperation are needed to promote financial stability and robust economic upturn.
LONDON & VIGO | By Víctor Jiménez | Chairman Juan Manuel Urgoiti recently called on partners involved in Pescanova’s rescue bargaining to avoid liquidation in a public, desperate letter addressed to shareholders, workers, creditors and ‘the wider market’. But secretly, many more operators in the industry would have not felt it as far-reached if he had included among the receivers a few ancient Greek gods, whose very human moods used to govern haphazard and catastrophe over the Old World.
President Francois Hollande faces the question of whether Paris should have intervened in the CAR, where a significant percentage of the country’s citizens view France’s intervention as a form of 21st century neo-colonialism. France was clearly naïve to believe that deploying fewer than 2,000 troops to a destabilized nation bordering on anarchy and awash with arms would restore stability.
MADRID|Rafael Poch at La Vanguardia via Presseurop|At the start of her new mandate, Angela Merkel is putting the emphasis on Europe. And, as always, Europeans are expecting a lot from her. Will she go down in history as one of the great chancellors? It all depends on what happens in Europe.
LONDON | By Barclays analysts | EM markets are likely to enjoy supportive conditions over the next few weeks. The resolution of the US government shutdown, expectations of QE tapering pushed further into 2014, the emergence of some EM re-coupling to stronger global manufacturing and still-attractive EM valuations should all be helpful factors. Liquidity considerations are likely to become a less important market driver, and higher-yielding EM assets, particularly in EM credit, should attract further support where bottom-up fundamentals allow.
NEW YORK | By Daniel Altman | In economics there are few axioms and fewer laws. The science, if it can be called that, lacks the certainty of mathematics and the elegance of physics, which may be why quite a few run-of-the-mill mathematicians and physicists turn out to be excellent economists.
SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes | The ‘peddlers’ of fiscal stimulus who say monetary policy (the Fed) is powerless at the ZLB-LT, and the inflation “nutters” have both done a grave disservice.
LONDON | By Victor Jimenez | The recent push for apprenticeships the Prime Minister favours could be costlier in the long run against the meagre savings in higher education spending achieved in the short term.
LONDON | By Victor Jimenez | In a cautious tone common to other voices heard today in the City, analysts reminded investors that most governments in Europe continue amassing public spending bills worryingly higher than their income.
LONDON | By Victor Jimenez | What sounds optimistic for Italy and Spain can dampen the picture of Germany as almost unassailable European economic engine. The IMF alerted that the German over-reliance on exports would cut down its growth.