With a net worth of US$32.6 billion, Li Ka-shing is Hong Kong’s richest man, and was long all of Asia’s richest man until edged out by Wanda Dalian’s Wang Jianlin in August. His business empire has historically been China-centric, though his conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa is far-reaching with 270,000 employees in 52 countries.
The G20’s Financial Stability Board will apparently demand higher capital requirements from global systemic insurers to avoid collapses such as AIG’s in 2008. The capital increase could be around 10%.
BARCLAYS | The results of the general election in Portugal came in broadly in line with recent polls: the PSD/CDS conservative coalition, currently in government, won again with 38,5% of the vote, but it fell short of an absolute majority of seats in parliament. Political instability could potentially also result in early elections after one year.
Fernando Barciela | The IMF and other international organisations including the OECD are very worried these days that the global economy will only grow 3.3% or less this year. On the other hand, they are very happy about Spain achieving the same level. Why? What makes the diference?
Although the Bank of Spain expects economic growth to slow to 0.8% in the third quarter from 1.0% in the second, international investors are still betting on Spain. Foreign investment outflow fell to 1.5 Bn€ in July compared from 5.5 Bn a year earlier, according to the central bank’s figures.
BARCLAYS | With an early official communication laying out the macroeconomic assumptions, and a reaffirmed government strategy to reduce the deficit by cutting expenditures, today’s presentation of the 2016 Budget provided few surprises.
ATHENS | Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | The September 20 election, the second this year, has probably generated more questions about Greece’s political future and how stable it will be than it has answered. Repetition, it seems, has failed to provide clarity.
Yukon Huang via Caixin| The prolonged slowdown in China’s economy has generated a fierce debate about whether the country needs a new “growth model.” All economies, however, are guided by the same growth model developed decades ago by Nobel Prize winner Robert Solow: growth of investment and labor along with productivity.
Estimations for the Eurozone’s inflation in September have been met: prices turned negative again after six months above zero. Some analysts think this time “the ball in not in the ECB’s court”.