EUROPE

A shot in the arm for Huawei

Following up to the story from two weeks ago, on US imposing a ban on Huawei accessing 5G technology, on 17th February, the UK intelligence declared the risk to be manageable. Neither UK nor Germany were convinced of the necessity of a ban or the possibility of any potential threat of sabotage from China to be mitigated. This follows a series of recent disagreements over policy between the US and its Transatlantic allies which are expected to follow their policies.

Source: Financial Times

ECJ overturns the European Commission decision

The Commission’s claim that Belgium had extended 700 million euros of de facto aid through a tax scheme was rejected by the European Court of Justice. This related to an alleged tax scheme where large corporations could lower their tax base on ‘excess profits’ giving them an unfair advantage, according to the Commission. This decision could have its implications in other tax recovery cases under appeal worth nearly €1.6 billion.

Source: Financial Times

EMERGING MARKETS

Middle East military spending increases

Because of political tensions with regional rivals, defense spending is increasing rapidly in the middle-east. UAE has declared about $1.35 billion in defense deals with local and international companies.

Source: CNBC

Uzbekistan to debut with first bond sale

Through its first international bond offering, Uzbekistan aims to be more accountable to the world. This follows a series of reforms aimed to improve business, political and civil liberties, following the death of Islam Karimov, the dicator in 2016.

Source: Financial Times

Venezuela’s GDP falls by 54% from 2013 peak

Venezuela’s economic collapse exceeds that of the former Soviet Union. It is also the second most severe economic crash behind Zimbabwe. Maduro’s policies along with rampant corruption led to increasing food shortages, hyperinflation, disease and violence.

Source: Financial Times

CHINA & JAPAN

China’s debt to GDP ratio to increase according to UBS

UBS believes this year will be one of constant re-leveraging for China due to the country’s current economic slowdown. Lending to the private sector is expected to be increased as well as the overall debt as shown in the graph below. Estimates say that Chinese nominal GDP growth will be slowed this year to about 8% from last year’s 9.7% figure.

Source: Bloomberg

China to build its own space station

Chinese space ambitions are rapidly increasing. After their recent probe to the far side of the moon where they have grown cotton seeds, China is now developing a prototype for a the first ever power station in space. This venture is alongside their aspiration to complete a Chinese space station named “Tiangong” within the next three years.

Source: Bloomberg

US & CANADA

Canadian beef producers see increased exports to Japan

Japanese imports of Canadian beef have surged on account of the TransPacific Partnership reducing the tariffs among member countries. Japan had to cut tariffs on beef from 38.5% to 27.5%, giving an edge to members of the TPP.

Source: Financial Times

US industrial output falls for the first time in 8 months in January

Manufacturing fell by 0.9% due to a fall in motor vehicle assemblies. The ongoing trade war and slowdown in the Chinese economy were also cited as a reason in the dip in manufacturing. The cold weather helped raise utilities output to 0.4%, while mining output rose by 0.1%.

Source: Financial Times