• Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Floyd Green, says the National Compliance Regulatory Authority and the Consumer Affairs Commission will be increasing visits to supermarkets and to other entities within the distributive trade, to ensure that prices for goods are stable.
• “We are and will continue to monitor trade. We have a taskforce here and we will continue to keep track of the situation and increase our visits to supermarkets. We are going to pay keen attention to prices,” he said.
• “Right now, oil prices are falling, which we anticipate will have a positive impact on most of our companies and retailers in terms of pricing. Pricing has to be balanced. We will be keeping a check on what is happening and we will be providing regular updates to the country,” the State Minister said.
• “The Government, as well as members of the private sector, are taking the potential impact of COVID-19 seriously and are putting the necessary measures in place to protect the country’s food supplies,” he added. Emphasis will be placed on the priority sectors of manufacturing and agriculture/agribusiness as well as the emerging industries of medical cannabis, hemp and bamboo.

(Source: JIS)

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• The Japanese yen and Swiss franc pulled back from recent highs on Tuesday as investors judged that the chances of an all-out conflict between the United States and Iran had fallen. 
• The safe-haven yen fell from a three-month high versus the dollar, although sentiment remains fragile due to continued worries about a further deterioration in relations between the U.S. and Iran.
• The U.S. currency, the world’s most liquid, is often bought in times of market flux, but its performance has been mixed in recent sessions - slightly better-than-expected euro zone business survey data on Monday supported the euro.
• The euro was little moved by data showing inflation in the euro zone had accelerated in December and retail sales were stronger than expected.
• Recent survey data has pointed to improving investor and business confidence in the euro zone.

 (Source: Reuters)

• President Donald Trump signed a bill into law that expresses S. support for Hong Kong protesters, a move that will strain relations with China and further complicate the president’s effort to wind down his trade war with Beijing. 
• The legislation requires annual reviews of Hong Kong’s special trade status under American law, and sanctions against any officials deemed responsible for human rights abuses or undermining the city’s autonomy. 
• China’s foreign ministry had urged Trump to prevent the legislation from becoming law, warning the Americans it “will take strong countermeasures” against it. 
• The new U.S. law comes just as Washington and Beijing have shown signs of working toward what the White House calls a “phase-one” deal to ease the trade war. 

(Source: Bloomberg)

• Low approval ratings and Costa Rica’s poor economic outlook will constrain President Carlos Alvarado’s fiscal reform efforts.
• Furthermore, the polarising debate over same-sex marriage and other social issues will also contribute to political gridlock over the coming quarters.
• Fitch Solutions maintains it's Short Term Political Risk Index (STPRI) score of 64.9 out of 100, underlining a moderate risk of increased political protests limiting the Alvarado government's capacity to implement reforms.

(Source: Fitch)

• U.S President Donald Trump declared Tuesday that talks with China on the first phase of a trade deal were near completion after negotiators from both sides spoke by phone, signaling progress on the accord in the works for nearly two years. 
• “We’re in the final throes of a very important deal,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “It’s going very well.”  
• Negotiations have been complicated by strong support in the U.S. for pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong and China’s suspicions that the U.S. is feeding unrest in the territory. 
• Trump gave no indication about whether he would sign legislation Congress passed last week backing the protest movement in Hong Kong.

(Source: Bloomberg)

• Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) Governor, Richard Byles, says the sale of US$140Mn to the foreign exchange market has served to satisfy extraordinary currency demand, which surfaced in recent weeks. 
• The spike was related to the demand for portfolio transactions and seasonal restocking by retailers ahead of the Christmas period.
• Speaking at the BOJ’s quarterly briefing last Thursday, Mr. Byles said this spurred a 5.2% (J$7.07) depreciation in the value of the dollar between October 1 and November 12, “despite normal daily inflows”.
• Additionally, he said it reversed the 1.8% appreciation that occurred in September, “and erased the sense of normal two-way movement in the exchange rate that had been evident for an extended period prior to October 2019”.
• However, Mr. Byles said consequent on the BOJ’s sale of the US$140 million, via five BOJ Foreign Exchange Intervention and Trading Tool (B-FXITT) flash sale operations to authorized dealers and cambios, “we have observed that the exchange rate has adopted an appreciating trend since November 13”.

(Source: JIS)

• Dominican Republic’s consumer price index (CPI) registered a variation of 0.67% in October 2019 compared to September and the accumulated inflation in the January-October period stood at 3.06%.
• With this result, year-on-year inflation, measured from October 2018 to October 2019, stood at 2.48%, staying below the lower limit of the target range of 4.0% ± 1.0% established in the Monetary Program, indicates the Central Bank (BCRD).
• The group with the greatest contribution to the variation in the general CPI was Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages, with an increase of 1.2%, accounting for approximately half of the month’s inflation. They are followed by Transportation, with an inflation of 0.8%, Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (2.4%) and Housing (0.6%).

(Source: Dominican Today)

• For the year ended September 2019, Eppley Caribbean Property Fund reported an unaudited net profit of BBD$4.05Mn (EPS: $0.06), a full recovery from the BBD$739.33K loss (EPS: $-0.01) reported one year prior.
• The performance was attributable to total investment income which increased from BBD$612.54K in 2018 to BBD$7.16Mn in 2019. This was supported by a fair value gain of BBD$2.15Mn which is a reversal from the BBD$2.38Mn loss reported in the previous year. Furthermore, rental income increased 18.4% (or BBD$279.42Mn) to BBD$1.84Mn, year-on-year, while the share of profit from investments in joint ventures increased by 88.6% (or BBD$1.38Mn) to BBD$2.95Mn, year-on-year.
• The stock has declined by 20.7% since listing on the JSE, closing yesterday’s trading session at $36.62 per share. At this price, the stock currently trades at a discount of 33% to its September 30, 2019 book value per share. 

 (Source: Eppley Financials)