• Britain's new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday delayed the announcement of a keenly awaited plan for repairing the country's public finances until Nov. 17, two-and-a-half weeks later than originally planned.
• The postponement, Sunak's first policy decision since taking over from Liz Truss on Tuesday, pushed up British borrowing costs in financial markets but by far less than seen in the panic bond selling caused by Truss' September tax-cutting plan.
• Finance minister Jeremy Hunt announced the delay in a televised statement, saying it would take more time to ensure the new plan took into account the latest economic forecasts.
• "The prime minister and I have decided that it is prudent to make that statement on the 17th of November," Hunt said. The plan is expected to set out how the government will plug a budget shortfall of as much as 40 billion pounds ($46 billion). Unlike Truss' plan last month, it will be fully audited by Britain's fiscal watchdog.

(Source: Reuters)

• The Jamaican Government and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed a Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) to avoid double taxation and prevent fiscal evasion concerning income taxes. 
• The objectives of DTAs are to provide complete protection to taxpayers against double taxation and to allow for the free flow of international trade or cross-border transactions and investments, as well as the transfer of technology.
• The perceived benefits include clarifying each state's taxing rights, avoiding double international juridical taxation, and preventing fiscal evasion with anti-avoidance provisions.
• Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith noted that bringing this agreement to fruition has resulted from deep interest, and the agreement provides a backdrop to the future of business and investment relations that the government aims to foster between both countries.
• Additionally, she highlighted that the prevention or elimination of internal double taxation in respect of the same income, exchange of goods and services, and the movement of capital and persons constitute a significant component in Jamaica’s bilateral investment outlook.

(Sources: JIS and NCBCM Research)

• As Guyana prepares to auction its remaining oil blocks this year, President Dr Irfaan Ali announced that some of those blocks will be set aside for government-to-government partnerships in the future. Therefore, instead of auctioning all of the remaining blocks, an undisclosed number will be kept for state partnerships.
• He alluded to the United Kingdom (UK) being a potential partner that will benefit from this arrangement. He also highlighted that the two countries are seeking to deepen cooperation in the energy sector.
• The much-anticipated auction of the blocks was scheduled for the end of September but it has not occurred yet. An auction will essentially see the highest bidder gain control of a specific area to search for and possibly produce oil and gas.
• The blocks that will be up for auction include those areas that have been relinquished by oil companies searching for oil offshore.

(Source: Newsroom)

• The Cayman Islands remains on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list of 23 countries or jurisdictions that are subject to increased monitoring by the global anti-money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog.
• Just two countries – Pakistan and Nicaragua – were removed from the grey list following the FATF plenary in Paris, France, which was concluded on Friday, October 21st.
• The FATF placed Cayman on the grey list in February 2021, citing as reasons for the move a lack of fines and enforcement actions by Cayman’s regulatory bodies. This automatically led to Cayman also being placed on the European Union grey list in February this year.
• The FATF said, since it was placed on the list, Cayman had made a “high-level political commitment” to work with the FATF and the Caribbean FATF to strengthen its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism regime and had imposed “adequate and effective sanctions in cases where relevant parties (including legal persons) do not file accurate, adequate and up-to-date beneficial ownership information in line with those requirements”.
• Cayman’s Finance Chief Executive Steve McIntosh explains that “this represents significant progress towards the jurisdiction’s removal from the FATF “grey list” and demonstrates the country’s commitment to meeting the highest global standards for transparency, information sharing and the combatting of international financial crime”. Consequently, he remains optimistic that the ongoing efforts by authorities to investigate and prosecute money laundering offences in the jurisdiction will lead to its removal from the grey list in due course.

(Source: Cayman Compass)

• Rishi Sunak will become Britain's first prime minister of colour on Tuesday after he won the race to lead the Conservative Party, tasked with steering a deeply divided country through an economic downturn set to leave millions of people poorer.
• One of the wealthiest politicians in Westminster, Sunak, 42, will become the country's youngest leader in modern times - and it's third in less than two months - as he takes over during one of the most turbulent eras in British political history. He replaces Liz Truss, who only lasted 44 days before she said she would resign, needing to restore stability to a country reeling from years of political and economic turmoil and seeking to lead a party that has fractured along ideological lines.
• The multi-millionaire former hedge fund boss will be expected to make deep spending cuts to try to rebuild Britain's fiscal reputation, just as the country slides into one of the toughest downturns in decades, hit by the surging cost of energy and food.
• Sunak, who will be appointed prime minister by King Charles on Tuesday, will also have to work hard to hold Britain's dominant political party together after some accused him of treachery earlier this year when he resigned from the cabinet of former leader Boris Johnson, triggering his downfall too. Other Conservatives say he is too rich to understand the day-to-day economic pressures building in Britain and worry whether he could ever win an election for a party that has been in power for 12 years.
• Britain has been locked in a state of perma-crisis ever since it voted in 2016 to leave the European Union, unleashing a battle at Westminster over the future of the country that remains unresolved to this day.

(Source: Reuters)

• One thing’s clear at the start of the corporate earnings season: Inflation is still a hot topic for companies.
• About two-thirds of companies in the S&P 500 that reported earnings in the first two weeks of the season (Oct. 10-21) had representatives mention inflation, according to a conference call transcript search run on FactSet. Among those companies are PepsiCo, Citigroup and Abbott Laboratories.
• “The environment clearly is still inflation-ridden with a lot of supply chain challenges across the industry,” said Ramon Laguarta, chief executive of PepsiCo. The snack and drink maker beat analyst expectations for both revenue and earnings per share as its price hikes buoyed its bottom line, even as some units saw volume declines.
• Recent economic data shows little sign of inflation letting up. The consumer price index increased 0.4% in September, which was a hotter reading than the 0.3% expected by Dow Jones, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. It was at 0.6% without food and energy factored in, which was also above Dow Jones’ estimate of 0.4%. The producer price index, which gauges wholesale prices, also rose 0.4% in September. That was similarly above the Dow Jones expectation of 0.2%.

(Source: CNBC)

• Supreme Ventures Limited (SVL) reported a net profit attributed to owners of the parent company of $2.04Bn for its nine months ended September 30, 2022, which represents a 34.3% or $520.97 increase relative to the prior period.
• This was supported by an 18.3% increase in gaming income. All three of its main gaming segments, lotteries, sports betting and Pin codes, saw revenue increases of 21%, 146% and 8% respectively.
• The Group continues to focus on improving its business segments as well as launching products through its retail channel. Management has also highlighted that it continues to build out its business in Guyana and add improvements to its horse racing product through technological and new product initiatives.
• Going forward, management expects to see further growth fueled by new games and initiatives along with the continued expansion in the mobile and online gaming space. SVL’s stock price has increased by 53.78% since the start of the calendar year. The stock closed Thursday’s trading session at $27.36 and currently trades at a P/E of 25.7x.

(Sources: Company Financials and NCBCM Research)

• Barbados’ current account deficit is forecasted to narrow to 6.6% of GDP in 2022 and 6.9% in 2023, from 11.2% in 2021. This is a negative revision from the previous 3.4% forecast, due to recent government data revisions.
• It is still expected that the recovering tourism sector will support a sharp rebound in services exports, though sustained demand for goods imports will keep the overall current account in deficit. Consequently, the deficit is expected to average 6.8% of GDP from 2022-2026, slightly larger than the historical average of 4.1% from 2015-2019.
• The services trade surplus is expected to widen to US$1.0Bn in 2022, from US$769.0Mn in 2021. The slow but continued recovery of the tourism sector will underpin the wider services trade surplus in 2022. Compared to tourist arrivals in 2019, arrivals peaked in March 2022 at 64% of 2019 levels, but have come down slightly in subsequent months.
• Remittance inflows have hit records in 2022 across most Caribbean countries, due to the strength of the US labour market and Fitch expects inflows to Barbados will remain high through 2022. So far through Q2 2022, incoming transfers have increased by 33.0% from the same period in 2021, which is further anticipated to widen the secondary income surplus to US$76.0Mn, from US$33.1Mn in 2021. 
• Fitch’s global team is currently forecasting a worldwide slowdown which will impact growth in the US and other developed markets that are a major source of Barbadian tourist arrivals and remittances. That said, falling commodity prices will bring import growth down to 9.0%, compared to 17.0% in 2022, limiting the overall size of the current account deficit.

(Source: Fitch Solutions)

• Fitch Ratings on Thursday revised Peru's outlook to negative from stable, saying a deterioration in political stability and government effectiveness has increased downside risks to the country's ratings.
• The rating agency said it expects the weakening of Peru's political governance institutions will be difficult to reverse before the end of 2024, adding that "weaker governance poses greater downside risks to investment and economic growth" than the agency had expected earlier this year.
• Peru's 'BBB' ratings are supported by its moderate public debt, net external creditor position, and track record of solid macroeconomic policy and fiscal frameworks. Rating constraints include lower governance, income per capita, and social indicators than the 'BBB' median, high commodity export dependence, and the low government revenue base.
• Further deterioration of political conditions or governance indicators that undermine the political and economic framework; sustained economic growth underperformance relative to historical levels or weakening of the policy framework; sustained increase in general government debt/GDP could all lead to negative rating action.
• On the other hand, higher economic growth performance and prospects; easing political gridlock and uncertainty that improves governability; and maintenance of prudent fiscal policy settings that lead to a durable stabilization of government debt/GDP ratio are all factors that could lead to better ratings.

(Source: Fitch Solutions)

• President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is set to kickstart a new era of wind and solar growth after global economic headwinds slowed progress in recent years.
• The IRA extends tax credits for wind and solar for the next ten years and allows stand-alone energy storage projects to qualify for the first time. The bill also includes tax credits for the manufacturing of wind and solar components.
• The act could lead to an additional $160 billion of investments in onshore wind, doubling installed capacity over the next decade to 280 GW, compared with an earlier growth forecast of 38%, Rystad Energy consultancy said.

(Source: Reuters