• In anticipation of the full reopening of the entertainment sector, the Government has proposed a list of approved venues that will be made available at subsidized rates as a stimulus for the sector, which has been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. This was disclosed by Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Olivia Grange, who said these venues will be retrofitted to comply with COVID-19 safety protocols. 
• “These venues include facilities at Independence Park, Trelawny Stadium, and the Port Royal Entertainment Zone, including Fort Rocky and Fort Charles, as well as Seville Heritage Park. We’re still finalizing the arrangements while continuing consultations with stakeholders for the reopening of the wider entertainment sector and will make the appropriate announcements soon,” she said. 
• Grange noted that in preparation for the reopening of the wider entertainment sector, the Government engaged in consultations with members of the sector on the prevailing health conditions in the country as well as the specific protocols that would have to be employed for particular activities. 
• Grange also stated that while months were spent discussing and refining proposals for the safe reopening of the wider entertainment sector, the Government has also “been busy building the capacity of members of the sector to enable them to Build Back Stronger” from the pandemic. 
• This bodes well for the recovery in the services sector, which has contracted in each quarter since the onset of the pandemic, due to restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the virus.

(Source: JIS)

• Latin America’s top central banks are coming under growing pressure to raise interest rates, as inflation stands way above the target ceiling in Brazil and Mexico. 
• Consumer prices in both countries came in above forecasts in May, showing persistent inflationary shocks even as central bankers expect them to be transitory. Inflation in Brazil was driven up by electricity prices, while in Mexico food and services were the main culprits. 
• Consumer prices in Brazil jumped 8.06% in May from a year earlier, more than double the 3.75% target for 2021. Swap rates rose, with contracts maturing in January 2022 up 5 basis points, as traders bet the central bank will have to raise borrowing costs more aggressively. 
• In Mexico, annual inflation slowed slightly to 5.89%, still way above the 3% goal. The peso fell slightly after the data was released, then pared losses.’ 
• The data came ahead of interest rate decisions in both countries. Brazil’s central bank is expected to lift interest rates by 75 basis points next week, its third consecutive hike of that magnitude this year. Mexico’s central bank, known as Banxico, will revisit later this month its decision to hold the benchmark rate at a near five-year low of 4%.

(Source: Bloomberg)

• Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line has brought its Grand Classica vessel back to its Port of Palm Beach home port as it begins to prepare for the July resumption of cruises to Grand Bahama. 
• The vessel has not sailed for more a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the cruise line said in a statement that its main priority is to begin fully vaccinating the ship’s crew - a process that has already begun. The ship’s arrival was greeted by cruise line executives, as well as employees and partners. 
• Manuel Almira, the Port’s executive director, said that: “We couldn’t be more excited to see Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line prepare for the resumption of sailings from the Port of Palm Beach. Before the pandemic, the cruise line was credited for generating more than $100Mn in local and state revenue and supporting more than 1,300 cruise-related jobs. It’s time to get crew members, cruise line support staff and parking attendants back to work.” 
• Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line said it was working closely with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to ensure all guidelines are met prior to receiving passengers.

(Source: Tribune)

• The Bank of Canada on Wednesday left its key interest rate unchanged at a record low 0.25%, as expected, and said the economy would "rebound strongly" as vaccinations against COVID-19 picked up. 
• The bank reiterated its guidance that rates would remain unchanged until at least the second half of 2022, noting there remained considerable excess in the economy. The bank said while second quarter growth would be hit by measures taken to fight a third wave of coronavirus infections, the longer-term prospects were good. 
• "With vaccinations proceeding at a faster pace, and provincial containment restrictions on an easing path over the summer, the Canadian economy is expected to rebound strongly, led by consumer spending," it said in a statement that analysts said did not break much new ground. 
• The central bank plans to maintain its current policy of quantitative easing. It is aiming to buy C$3Bn of government bonds a week as part of attempts to aid the recovery. 
• Overall inflation would likely remain at 3% through the summer, above the bank's 2% target, before easing later in the year, the bank said. Measures of core inflation had also risen due primarily to temporary factors, the Bank noted.

(Source: Reuters)

• China's May factory gate prices rose at their fastest annual pace in over 12 years due to surging commodity prices, highlighting global inflation pressures at a time when policymakers are trying to revitalize COVID-hit growth. 
• Investors are increasingly worried pandemic-driven stimulus measures could supercharge global inflation and force central banks to tighten policy, potentially curbing the recovery. China's producer price index (PPI) increased 9.0%, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Wednesday, as prices bounced back from last year's pandemic lows. 
• The PPI rise in May - the fastest on-year gain for any month since September 2008 - was driven by significant price increases in crude oil, iron ore and non-ferrous metals, the NBS said. Analysts in a Reuters poll had expected the PPI to rise 8.5% after a 6.8% increase in April. The PPI surge has yet to substantially feed through to consumer inflation, meaning the People's Bank of China is unlikely to worry for now. 
• Consumer prices rose 1.3% in May - the biggest year-on-year increase in eight months - but came in below expectations for a 1.6% gain. Consumer inflation remained well below the government's official target of around 3%.

(Source: Reuters)

• British High Commissioner to Jamaica, His Excellency Asif Ahmad, has expressed confidence in the country’s ability to achieve its goal of becoming a global logistics hub. 
• Delivering an address at the Jamaica Special Economic Zone Authority (JSEZA) Virtual Summit held recently, he cited his experience witnessing the successful implementation and growth of special economic zones in Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. 
• “It is with the benefit of seeing successes on the ground in these fast-growing economies that I have confidence in lending my support to what Jamaica wants to achieve as a logistics and business hub,” said Mr. Ahmad. 
• Commenting on Jamaica’s international partnership with the United Kingdom (UK), he underscored the UK’s commitment to the process for development. “In recent years, we have committed over $20 billion as part of our development assistance programme. Our strategy is to work in areas that will sustain growth and not lock Jamaica into perpetual dependence. In fact, Jamaica is on the path to sustainable growth,” Mr. Ahmad noted. 
• These areas of partnership include disaster mitigation, market expansion and plugging the country into the global financial system. 
• “The logistics picture for air and sea transport is improving. The political climate in Jamaica is good for business. Successive governments, elected in smooth electoral processes, have adopted the same economic policies. There is cross-party support for the special economic zones. The focus is on making Jamaica an attractive place to do business. Alongside macroeconomic resilience, there is political stability and a reliable legal framework,” the High Commissioner said.

(Source: JIS)

• Production of natural gas, the main commodity in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), has been declining since 2015. Future gas output is projected to stay below 2017 numbers and then decline at a higher rate after 2024. 
• In order to maintain the same level of production in the mid-term, the country needs to stimulate the exploration sector and pour investments in less explored areas such as deepwater offshore T&T, says GlobalData. 
• According to the company’s latest report, ‘Trinidad and Tobago Exploration & Production, 2021,’ natural gas production in T&T is expected to grow by an average of 2% in the next three years and reach more than 3,400 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). However, in 2024, production will start declining at a rate of 3% to a value of 3,200 MMcf/d in 2025, assuming no new projects are brought online to compensate. 
• Svetlana Doh, Upstream Oil & Gas Analyst at GlobalData, said: “There are 10 planned or announced projects expected to come online between 2020 and 2024, which will gradually supply 150 MMcf/d of natural gas in 2021 and almost 1.1 bcf/d in 2025. 
• The largest production growth is coming from offshore Colibri and Matapal fields, operated by Royal Dutch Shell and BP, respectively. Both assets account for almost 43% of overall additional production from future fields.

(Source: Offshore)

• Government spending will fuel growth in Venezuela’s banking sector in 2021, continuing a trend that began in late 2020.  
• Asset, loan and deposit growth spiked in Venezuela in late 2020 and early 2021, fueled by public spending by the Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV)-led government, as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to shore up its popular support ahead of the December 2020 National Assembly election. 
• Public spending has been the primary driver of the sector’s asset growth over recent years, reflected in the dominance of the sector’s holdings of government bonds in the mix of total assets. For example, in March 2021 bonds comprised 66.0% of the total asset portfolio, compared to 4.9% for client loans. 
• Fitch Solutions forecasts that asset growth will reach 2,020.8% y-o-y at end-2021, in line with 2,139.4% at the end of 2020, though these headline figures largely reflect extremely high inflation in the country.   
• In the longer term, the agency expects that the sector will benefit from growing dollarization and a gradual economic recovery, though nominal asset and loan growth will likely slow.

(Source: Fitch Solutions)

• The World Bank on Tuesday raised its global growth forecast to 5.6% for 2021, marking the strongest recovery from a recession in 80 years. This growth will be driven by the U.S. stimulus spending and faster growth in China. However, overall global growth will held back by "highly unequal" access to COVID-19 vaccines. 
• The development lender's latest Global Economic Prospects report showed a 1.5-percentage-point increase from forecasts made in January, before the Biden administration took office and enacted a $1.9 trillion U.S. COVID-19 aid package. 
• Since then, vaccines have become much more widely distributed in the United States and some other wealthy countries, boosting their output, as forecasts lag for emerging market and low-income countries. 
• "This recovery is uneven and largely reflects sharp rebounds in some major economies -- most notably the United States, owing to substantial fiscal support -- amid highly unequal vaccine access," the World Bank said in the report. Many emerging market and developing economies were seeing elevated COVID-19 caseloads, obstacles to vaccination and withdrawal of support, the bank said. 
• If vaccine distribution to developing countries can be accelerated, World Bank economist Ayhan Kose said that 2022 global GDP growth, currently forecast at 4.3%, could increase substantially to around 5%.

(Source: Reuters)

• The United States will target China with a new "strike force" to combat unfair trade practices, the Biden administration said on Tuesday, as it rolled out findings of a review of access to critical products, from semiconductors to electric-vehicle batteries. 
• The "supply chain trade strike force," led by the U.S. trade representative, is looking for specific violations that contributed to a hollowing out of supply chains that could be addressed with tariffs or other remedies, including toward China, White House senior director for international economics and competitiveness Peter Harrell told reporters. 
• Officials also said the Department of Commerce is considering initiating a Section 232 investigation into the national security impact of neodymium magnet imports used in motors and other industrial applications, which the United States largely obtains from China.  
• President Joe Biden ordered the review of critical supply chains in February, requiring executive agencies to report back within 100 days on risks to U.S. access to critical goods like those used in pharmaceuticals as well as rare earth minerals, for which the United States is dependent on overseas sources. 
• Though not explicitly directed at China, the review is part of a broader Biden administration strategy to shore up U.S. competitiveness in the face of challenges posed by the world's second-largest economy.

(Source: Reuters)