The oil price has risen 70% in the last 12 months, from 45$/ barrel for Brent in June 2017 to around 80$ in May 2018. Thus, after three years of low prices, crude has returned to levels not seen since the end of 2014. What are the forces behind this increase in oil price? Could it damage the world economy?
Luis Gómez Romero via The conversation | Mexico’s next president will be Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor and outspoken critic of the political establishment both in Mexico and the United States. The 64-year-old leftist, who had for months led a crowded presidential field, beat three competitors on July 1 to triumph in his third presidential bid.
Trump’s policies are boosting inflation, stimulating asset values, depreciating debt, increasing growth prospects and decreasing democrat chances at the forthcoming polls.
New Telefonica’s commercial brand in Spain O2 will aim to cover all segments of the low and medium cost market where the entry of Masmovil has caused competition. Masmovil gained 201,000 new lines in April, while Telefonica gained 1,200 new connections, Orange lost 1,900 lines and Vodafone 4,500.
Lukas Daalder (Robeco) | Investors are making the mistake of focusing on 3%, believing the returns on US fixed income securities augur a decline in equities
Near-dated crude oil prices have rallied on robust demand and falling inventories, but long-dated prices have not moved. BoAML’s analysts see close to 1.5 mn b/d of output oil facing some risk of disruption, primarily across Venezuela, Iran, and Libya.
What does Latin America’s bumper election year hold in store for the continent? It is unclear, but as the 2018 regional report on Latin America from Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index (BTI) stresses, “structural transformation takes time and patience, which many citizens no longer have to spare.”
“Separating political noise from market signals in an era of Tweetstorms, unconventional leadership, and low public trust has possibly never been more challenging”, says Tina M. Fordham, chief global political analyst at Citi. Will geopolitical risks grow in their potential to impact markets following the withdrawal of Quantitative Easing (QE)?
The relationship between geopolitics and economic variables is a recurrent theme in the media. And not just in the media: economists are increasingly more aware of the importance of analysing geopolitical risks to complete an accurate exercise on the economic outlook.
Banco Santander announced earlier this week that it posted profits of 6.619 billion euros in 2017, up 7% from a year earlier: BBVA published its results yesterday, with profits rising 1.3% year-on-year to 3.519 billion. Ten years on, have the two banks recovered from the global financial crisis?