•  The United States, the European Union and largely western allies have blocked Belarus' bid to join the World Trade Organization, saying its complicity in Russia's invasion of Ukraine makes it unfit for membership in the global trade group. 
• G7 countries and allies have already stripped Moscow of its privileged trade treatment at the WTO, known as "most favoured nation" status, clearing the way for them to hit Russian imports with higher tariffs or ban them entirely. 
• The western group halted work on Belarus' WTO accession process after President Alexander Lukashenko crushed protests following his 2020 re-election that opponents say was fraudulent. 
• The group on Thursday said in a document filed at the WTO that it strongly condemned Russia's unprovoked military aggression against Ukraine, enabled by Belarus. Russia, which calls its actions in Ukraine a special operation, has used Belarusian territory to launch its attack.

(Source: Reuters)

• Following its most successful year on record, with consolidated revenue of $25.02Mn across 10 countries and territories, Jamaica Producers Group Limited (JP) has acquired Miami Freight and Shipping Company (MFSC) through its UK subsidiary JP Shipping Services Limited. 
• Since disposing of a 22.1 per cent stake in SAJE Logistics Infrastructure Limited in 2020, JP has been on an acquisition path as it recently acquired UK-based Geest Line Limited (GLL), Spanish-based Co Beverage Lab SL, and Dominican-based Grupo Alaska. 
• MFSC has been engaged in the freight handling, logistics, and shipping business for more than 40 years, with more than 20 years spent shipping to Jamaica and 11 other territories in the Caribbean. The company’s services include on-site packaging and crating, cargo consolidation, nationwide cargo pickup, and shipping of specialised cargo such as cars, trucks, excavators and other machinery. 
• JP continues to act on opportunities for growth in commercial cargo handling, e-commerce shipping, and export facilitation. The acquisition of MFSC is in line with this vision. Going forward the addition of this new subsidiary is expected to increase its market share in the US to the Caribbean shipping business, which augurs well for both revenue and net profit growth.

(Source: JP website and NCBCM)

• Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has expressed confidence in his government’s target of a $700Mn economic return from the agricultural sector within the next eight years. 
• Currently, agriculture in Dominica contributes approximately $230Mn to the economy based on figures from the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB). However, Skerrit and his government plan to keep growing the sector to a level where it can triple that amount by 2030. 
• The Prime Minister, who is also the Minister for Finance, disclosed that the government will assist those in the sector to increase their productive capacity and efficiency by incentivizing more women and young people to get involved in agriculture as a full-time profession. 
• Skerrit also pledged, on behalf of his government, to help local farmers improve efficiency through the application of technology to include farm automation, digitalisation, and other more familiar methods such as hydroponics, crop rotation, and greenhouse technologies. He further announced that the government will continue its support of farmers through the provision of financial support, equipment, and supplies and the construction of farm access roads

 (Source: Dominica News Online)

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed that the Bahamas exceeded its economic growth projections for 2021. The country had achieved more than double the projected gross domestic product (GDP) growth with actual economic output expanding by 5.5% relative to the forecasted 2%. 
• However, the faster-than-anticipated reflation of the Bahamian economy following the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the impact from soaring global inflation and uncertainties caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has resulted in the IMF reducing 2022’s growth forecast by two percentage points from 8 per cent to 6 per cent. However, GDP growth estimates for 2023 have been maintained at 4.1%. 
• The Bahamas’ tourism-dependent economy was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, which came on the heels of the devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian. While the economy is recovering strongly, the pandemic has exacted a tragic human and social toll and caused a significant weakening in public finances. 
• Coupled with an increase in construction activity, the output is estimated to have expanded by around 5.5% last year. Real GDP growth is estimated at around 6% this year, although a full recovery to pre-pandemic levels is not expected before the end of 2023. Furthermore, inflationary pressures are building in line with global developments and are expected to ease only gradually.  
• Risks to the outlook are however significant. A re-intensification of the pandemic cannot be discarded. With about 40 per cent of the population fully vaccinated, the emergence of new COVID-19 variants could prolong the pandemic and induce renewed economic disruptions. Alternatively, rising cases in source countries could dissuade travel and lead to a renewed decline in tourism. Higher food and oil prices, because of the effects of the war in Ukraine, could erode consumer demand and impose a particularly heavy burden on the vulnerable.

 (Sources: IMF and The Tribune)

• Federal Oil prices jumped 5.0% to over $121 a barrel on Wednesday as disruptions to Russian and Kazakh crude exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) added to worries over tight global supplies. 
• Brent crude futures were up $4.83, or 4.2%, at $120.30 a barrel as of 1:55 p.m. EDT (1755 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose $4.39, or 4%, to $113.70 a barrel. 
• Crude oil exports from Kazakhstan's CPC terminal on Russia's Black Sea coast stopped fully on Wednesday after damage caused by a major storm and continued bad weather, a port ship agent and the head of CPC said. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak later said that oil supplies by the CPC may be completely stopped for up to two months. 
• The CPC pipeline carries around 1.2 million barrels per day of Kazakhstan's main crude grade, which accounts for 1.2% of global demand. The situation adds to market worries about the ripple effect of heavy sanctions on Russia, the world's second-largest crude exporter after it invaded Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation.

(Source: Reuters)

• A sharp increase in mortgage interest rates is taking its toll on loan demand, especially refinances. Total mortgage application volume fell 8.1% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) seasonally adjusted index. 
• The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($647,200 or less) increased to 4.50% from 4.27%, with points rising to 0.59 from 0.54 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment. 
• Mike Fratantoni, the MBA’s chief economist noted that the jump in rates comes as markets moved to price in a much faster pace of rate hikes, as well as expectations of fewer MBS purchases from the Federal Reserve. He added that MBA’s new March forecast expects mortgage rates to continue to trend higher through the course of 2022. 
• As a result, applications to refinance a home loan, which are highly sensitive to weekly rate moves, fell 14.0% from the previous week and were 54.0% lower than the same week one year ago. The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 44.8% of total applications from 48.4% the previous week. 
• Mortgage applications to purchase homes, which is less sensitive to weekly rate moves, fell 2% for the week and were 12% lower than the same week one year ago. Economists are starting to revise their home sales forecasts lower, due to rising rates. The housing market is already expensive, as a supply-demand imbalance puts upward pressure on prices. Rising rates are weakening affordability even further.

(Source: CNBC News)

• All new vehicles for the public fleet are to be electric. This is the intention of the Government as disclosed by Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, when he addressed the House of Representatives in his contribution to the Budget Debate on Thursday (March 17). 
• This measure is being driven by two key factors. Firstly, several global automobile manufacturers have decided to discontinue the manufacturing of internal combustion engines by 2030 to meet regulatory requirements for climate change goals. Therefore, the world will have to transition to cleaner and more environmentally friendly alternatives such as electric vehicles. Secondly, the transition towards electric vehicles will help to reduce the government's import bill. Oil imports used for the creation of gasoline weighs heavily on Jamaica's import bill and have been exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war. Going forward a transition towards electric vehicles will result in significant cost savings for the country as a whole. 
• The government has developed a strategic framework to guide the introduction of electric vehicles in Jamaica. This was done with the assistance of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). According to the IDB, a conversion to e-mobility of 12%-16% of our private and public fleet would result in savings to Jamaica of approximately 2% of gross domestic product (GDP).

(Source: NCBCM and JIS)

• Bahamas’ Central Bank Governor on Tuesday stated that nearly $3Bn in Russian connected assets held by the country’s international financial services industry represents “less than 1 per cent” of the sector’s total business. 
• As an extension of its regular surveillance, the Central Bank has gathered data from international banks and trust companies on their level of Russian business activities. The results of this exercise indicated as of February 28, 2022, this sector held approximately $420Mn in deposits and $2.5Bn in custody or trust assets with ultimate beneficial owners from or connected to Russia. 
• The Attorney General’s Office, in a statement last week, listed 22 individuals including Roman Abramovich, owner of the UK’s Chelsea football club as well as 99 private and public Russian and Belarus entities now subject to sanctions. However, the Central Bank made clear that none of this near-$3bn sum was necessarily connected to the 121 sanctioned Russian individuals and entities it named last week. 
• The Bahamas, as a major international financial centre (IFC), has come under growing pressure from the US, its major trading partner, to act in imposing sanctions over the Ukraine invasion. The Davis administration had been hoping to act in unison with other CARICOM members but has now moved on its own after a common position among the region has failed to develop just yet.

 (Source: The Tribune)

• The Prime Ministers of Belize and Barbados, both stressed the importance of a unified response to the multiplicity of global economic challenges facing the region. The emphasis now, they suggested, must be on actions that result in self-reliance and resilience.
• CARICOM heads agreed that the region urgently needed to implement measures intended to create self-sufficiency in food production and energy, deliver an effective and viable CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), and more aggressively seek out the funding required to drive regional economic recovery. 
• To coordinate this, a resuscitated and enlarged CARICOM Economic Recovery Committee is to meet to recommend how these and other overlapping strategic issues, including post-pandemic recovery, long-term indebtedness, the shameful absence of international resources to support climate change adaptation, and measures to offset the alarming global economic disruption caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 
• Whether member states can rapidly achieve even a part of what is required is unclear, but as Prime Minister Mottley pointed out, without a unified response, the region's development trajectory will be derailed.

 (Source: MENAFN- Caribbean News Global)

• Federal Reserve officials are doing little to downplay rising market expectations the U.S. central bank will raise interest rates by half a percentage point in May to curb the surge in inflation, but they also are not dispelling fears the tightening cycle could blow a hole in the economy and labour market. 
• Louis Fed President James Bullard told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday that the Fed needs to move aggressively to keep inflation under control, repeating his call for the central bank to raise its benchmark overnight interest rate above 3% this year. 
• Bullard, who dissented on the Fed's decision last week to raise the federal funds rate by just a quarter of a percentage point from the near-zero level, has made this same point before. But his view appears to be gaining traction. 
• On Monday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank must move expeditiously to raise rates and said that nothing would prevent the central bank from raising rates by half a percentage point at the May 3-4 policy meeting. 
• Those comments prompted a flood of bets in futures markets on half-point interest rate increases in May and June. Traders now see the federal funds rate rising to the 2.25%-2.50% range by the end of the year - short of Bullard's view but higher than the 1.9% suggested by Fed forecasts last week. 
• Powell said the economy is strong enough to withstand higher borrowing costs without damaging the labour market and argued the best thing the Fed could do to ensure continued labour market strength is to get inflation under control.

(Source: Reuters)