BEIJING | Alberto Lebrón | When the Asian crisis began in 1997, there were some countries which thought they were unjustly treated. For example, South Korea. Today, nearly twenty years on, the same pattern is being repeated, although the principal actors involved are much better prepared than they were then. But, are the Asian countries ready to face a restrictive monetary cyle imposed by the U.S.?
The international consultative Group of Thirty (G30), whose members are central bankers and bankers from big private banks, has just released a report. They conclude much work remains ahead for governments and central banks to secure a solid recovery.
On face value, the ruthless tools used by central bankers to inject piles of money into the economy point to a brand new way of conducting monetary policy. Never before, except for in wartime, did they dare to trigger such massive asset-buying programmes. And never before did they so blatantly disregard the future risks a huge liquidity glut might fuel.
HowMuch.net | The countries with the highest debt-to-GDP ratios are Japan (230%), Greece (177%), Lebanon (134%), Jamaica (133%), Italy (132%), and Portugal (130%). This isn’t necessarily a huge problem. As long as countries are using borrowed funds to successfully stimulate their economies, they will be able to pay back their debts on time.
The international organisation maintained its forecasts for Spanish GDP growth (3.1% in 2015) but cut its global growth estimate to 3.1%, the worst performance since the start of the financial crisis six years ago.
UBS | In September PM Abe fired off three new arrows: a strong economy, parenting support, and social security, setting a nominal GDP target of ¥600trn as the first of these. A nominal growth rate of 3% would achieve the ¥600trn target in FY21.
John Feffer | Latin America’s largest country once looked ascendant. Now it’s been laid low by widespread violence, structural racism, endemic corruption and external economic shocks.
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%.
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?