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World economy 30th July 2014

Find the inequality debate boring? Then check the numbers again

MADRID | The Corner | One of 2014 most commented/loved/bashed books has been Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, which put such an old concept as inequality back on the table. The truth is, as inequality is reducing on a global scale, it is increasing within many economies, including emerging countries like China and India. Increasing access to education and electricity in poor countries and areas pays out, as the World Bank is underlining in a campaign (check the video above).

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World economy 30th July 2014

China optimism lifts Asia equities

LONDON | By EM Asia Rates Strategy analyst Rohit Arora | Asian equities continued to march higher, with stocks in Korea and Japan outperforming on the day. The Nikkei’s outperformance, despite weaker-than-expected readings on retail sales and jobless data, was counterintuitive and likely reflects increasing market expectations of BoJ easing. In FX, the NZD was a notable underperformer after Fonterra lowered its 2014-15 milk price forecast to NZD6/kg from NZD7/kg.

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World economy 28th July 2014

In some cases the central bank cannot control inflation…

SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | …while in others it cannot promote it! Japan falls in the latter category. According to this article in the WSJ “Japan´s price target looks difficult.” The nationwide core consumer price index rose 1.3% from a year earlier in June, after adjustment for a recent sales-tax hike, below a 1.4% increase the previous month, according to government data released Friday. Inflation moderated in May and June due to falling energy prices and a stable yen, which has put the break on growth in import costs.

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World economy 26th July 2014

UBS: Fed realizes a reverse repo program isn’t the answer

MADRID | The Corner | The continuous U.S. labor market upturn (on average 213K jobs/month were created so far this year) paves the way for the consumption and investment growth. The economy strength and the employment trend enabled the Fed to continue to reduce the QE program even after the weak beginning of the year. But apparently the Fed itself is still far from consensus.

russia sanctions

World economy 25th July 2014

Risk: Geography trumps Economy

WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | Geopolitics have returned with a vengeance in Europe right when Barack Obama’s economist view of international relations seemed to be on track with the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The IMF warns that geopolitical risk is back on stage.

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World economy 25th July 2014

How the hammer falls as China nails corruption

BEIJING |By Gao Yu and Wang Heyan via Caixin | Curiosity is one reason the website of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CDIC) attracts up to 2 million page views every day. Another reason is fear. Some website visitors, for example, want to know whether they or anyone they know has been targeted by a government campaign to root out corruption led by the CDIC Inspection Team.

japan prices

World economy 24th July 2014

Will the Bank of Japan act again?

MADRID | The Corner | Will the Japanese Central Bank act again to raise inflation expectations and get inflation to reach its target of 2%? Some analysts believe the BoJ should allow the economy to overheat a little in order to promote higher inflation expectations. “Kuroda is convinced that the country will reach its inflation target of 2% in the FY2015,” experts at JP Morgan pointed out on Thursday, “but the help of the yen’s depreciation is fading since expectations of further monetary expansion are lowering too.”

europe gas

World economy 23rd July 2014

Can’t live without Russian gas (yet)

MADRID | The Corner | The EU released on Wednesday a target to improve energy efficiency by 30% as part of a package of climate and energy policy for 2030, and a measure that some considered “a gift to Mr Putin.” The truth is Europe says it is on the verge to impose sanctions to Russia for the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, although it has been reluctant to use US-stule sanctions in the past due to its high dependence on Russian gas -see this chart by Statista which shows the deep interconnection-. But there seems to be a way for the Old Continent to wear off any gas cuts if things gets really nasty: liquefied natural gas (LNG). For countries like Spain, it would be a golden opportunity.