The Dominican Republic's (BB-/Negative) timely external financing and budgetary belt-tightening have eased some near-term risks from the COVID-19 pandemic, Fitch Ratings says.
The administration of President Luis Abinader is moving to tackle longer-standing structural weaknesses, which could help stabilize the rating outlook, but its capacity to pass fiscal reforms will be critical to the success of its medium-term fiscal objectives.
January's US$2.5Bn sovereign bond issuance means the government has secured half of its 2021 budgeted financing needs, while December's liability management operation reduced 2021 debt payments by nearly US$430Mn.
The sovereign tapped the external bond market twice in 2020, including September's US$3.8Bn issue, having quickly secured external liquidity from the IMF (US$650Mn) and multilateral banks to offset plummeting tourism foreign-exchange receipts. Prudent management of external amortizations limits refinancing risk.
Guyana said on Thursday it had terminated an agreement with Taiwan, just hours after Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said it had signed a deal with the South American country to open a Taiwan Office.
In a statement, Guyana’s foreign ministry said it had not established any diplomatic ties or relations with Taiwan and continues to adhere to the “One China” policy.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is kicking off a renewed effort to overhaul rules around money market funds, soliciting public input on how to reform the sector.
The consultation, announced Thursday, suggests the SEC wants to kick-start languishing efforts to address the sector, which has twice needed government intervention in recent years to stabilize after investor runs.
Specifically, the agency is seeking comment on a report issued by a Treasury-led working group in December, which called for significant policy changes to address weaknesses in the market.
The report laid out a number of reform options, including setting stricter rules around fund redemptions, or higher capital buffers for such funds, but did not advocate any particular approach.
Democrats in the U.S. Senate were poised on Thursday to take a first step toward the ultimate passage of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal, in a marathon "vote-a-rama" session aimed at overriding Republican opposition.
Senate Democrats need to pass a budget resolution to unlock a legislative tool called reconciliation, which would allow them to approve Biden's proposal in the narrowly divided chamber with a simple majority. The House of Representatives approved the budget measure on Wednesday.
Most legislation must get at least 60 votes in the 100-seat Senate to pass. But the chamber is divided 50-50 and Republicans oppose the Democratic president's proposal. Reconciliation would allow the Senate's 48 Democrats and two independents to approve the relief package with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.
PROVEN wishes to advise that further to the upsizing of the Additional Public Offer of ordinary shares to a maximum of 134,124,037 New Ordinary Shares, the Offer closed early on January 26, 2021, with applications totaling 154,231,234 Ordinary Shares, representing an oversubscription of US$4.3Mn.
A total of 4,148 applications were received totaling just over US$34.5Mn. The Key Investor Pool in particular was oversubscribed by 51.22%.
All applicants in the General and Existing Shareholder Pools received the full allotment of the shares purchased, while Key Investors received a partial allotment representing 70.75% of the subscription amount, rounded to the nearest share.
Fitch Ratings has downgraded Panama's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'BBB-' from 'BBB' and assigned a negative rating outlook.
The downgrade reflects the severe weakening of public finances due to the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has exacerbated underlying weakening fiscal trends predating 2020.
The unprecedented GDP contraction and government revenue loss have prompted a material rise in public debt (estimated to have risen to 68% of GDP in 2020 from 46.4% in 2019).
The negative outlook reflects risks to the government debt trajectory and uncertainty that the fiscal consolidation path set out in the revised Fiscal Responsibility Law can be achieved, given underlying fiscal challenges.
A prolonged pandemic and delays in vaccination distribution are the main risks to the economic recovery, which will underpin fiscal consolidation over the coming years.
Mexico’s central bank is likely to wait until after April to consider further interest rate cuts, Deputy Governor Jonathan Heath said in an interview published Wednesday.
Heath, who is on the dovish wing of the five-member board, pushed unsuccessfully to cut rates by a quarter-point to 4% at the bank’s last two meetings. Instead, the bank paused a record cycle of 11 straight cuts.
At the bank’s next meeting on Feb. 11, the discussion will center on whether a window of opportunity has reopened to continue the accommodative cycle, or if the pause should be sustained because inflation is starting to climb again slightly.
Oil prices rose for the third day in a row on Wednesday as the U.S. government reported a second straight weekly drawdown in crude stockpiles against market analysts’ consensus for an inventory build.
The broad two-month-long rally in oil prices has convinced physical crude traders to cash in more of the barrels in their hold, rather than store them, despite a slack in demand for fuel products caused by sluggish traffic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, the key indicator for U.S. crude, climbed 93 cents, or 1.7%, to settle at $55.69 per barrel. WTI has risen about 6% since Friday’s settlement of $52.50.
London-traded Brent, the global benchmark for crude, settled up $1, or 1.7%, at $58.46. Brent has actually risen four days in a row, gaining about 5% since Thursday’s settlement of $55.53.
The coronavirus pandemic should ease over the first half of the year and give way to "very strong" U.S. economic growth during 2021, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Wednesday.
"The health crisis will wane in the months ahead" as more people are vaccinated, Bullard said. As it does, families will be able to tap an "exceptionally high" level of savings and financial resources in hand after a year in which government programs pumped trillions of dollars into the economy.
Bullard's bullish outlook suggests the U.S. unemployment rate could fall from the current 6.7% to as low as 4.8% "in the months ahead." That is higher than the 3.5% seen before the pandemic, but less, Bullard noted, than the median of 5.6% in the period after World War II.
The Producer Price Index for the Mining and Quarrying industry increased by 1.3% for December 2020, while the index for the Manufacturing industry increased by 0.9% as released in the December 2020 Bulletin by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN).
The movement in the index for the Mining and Quarrying industry was influenced mainly by a 1.3% increase in the index for the major group ‘Bauxite Mining & Alumina Processing’.
The main contributors to the increase in the index for the Manufacturing industry were the major groups, ‘Refined Petroleum Products’ which moved up by 5.3%, ‘Food, Beverages & Tobacco’ up by 0.1% and ‘Other Non-Metallic Mineral Products’ up by 0.5%.
For the period December 2019 – December 2020, the point-to-point index for the Mining & Quarrying industry decreased by 3.3%, due mainly to a decline of 3.5% in the index for the major group 'Bauxite Mining & Alumina Processing’. The Manufacturing industry on the other hand increased by 1.1%.
