• The attractiveness of the United States (U.S.) as an investment destination has plunged in the eyes of British business executives who now see opportunities closer to home, a Deloitte survey showed on Monday, July 7, 2025.
• Deloitte's survey of chief financial officers at major British firms showed a net balance of +2% of respondents saw the U.S. as an attractive place to invest, down from +59% in late 2024, shortly before President Donald Trump took office. The survey polled 66 chief financial officers and executives between June 16 and June 29, including 37 listed companies with a combined market value of £386Bn.
• The report tallied with official U.S. data last month that showed inward foreign direct investment fell sharply in early 2025, a drop that coincided with high business uncertainty over Trump's tariff plans. By contrast, Deloitte said British company executives warmed to their market, with the balance for the United Kingdom (U.K.) rising to +13% from -12%, ranking top with India for investment attractiveness.
• Nonetheless, the U.S. remained more attractive than the rest of developed Europe or China, both of which had negative readings in Deloitte's survey. "These results reveal a shift in sentiment with the U.K. now viewed as a leading global investment destination," said Richard Houston, senior partner and chief executive of Deloitte U.K.
• In 2023, Britain was the fourth-biggest direct investor into the United States by ultimate beneficial owner, with a position of $636Bn, according to official U.S. data.
• The Deloitte survey showed British executives reported an uptick in business confidence compared with the previous survey published in April. While still subdued, the optimism index ticked up to -11% from -14% in the previous quarter. That said, British business surveys generally point to weak economic growth - a problem for finance minister Rachel Reeves, who is likely to raise taxes again at the next budget, according to market expectations.

(Source: Reuters)

• Caribbean-American families who regularly send remittances to loved ones across Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the wider Caribbean could face new financial hurdles under a tax and spending bill recently passed by the U.S. Senate.
• The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), approved by the U.S. Senate earlier this week in a narrow 51–50 vote with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaker, introduces a 1% tax on international money transfers sent from the U.S. to recipients abroad. Ultimately, the bill was passed on July 3, meeting President Trump’s July 4 deadline.
• Although intended to target noncitizens, particularly those working in the country without authorisation, the tax would also affect many immigrant families who rely on formal channels, such as banks and money transfer operators, to support relatives abroad.
• Caribbean-American leaders and immigrant advocates warn that the remittance tax could significantly reduce the flow of funds sent through official channels, deepening economic challenges for families who depend on this critical financial lifeline.
• The 1% remittance tax was scaled back from a 3.5% proposal in the House, but U.S. citizens will no longer be exempt (a provision that was in the previous proposal). This means that anyone in the U.S. who sends money abroad would have to pay the tax.
• This could altogether lower the amount sent from the US to the region. For Jamaica, the US is the largest source market for remittances, accounting for around 70% of all remittances. Furthermore, remittances contribute about 15% to 18% of GDP, making them significant for economic growth. As such, any slowdown in remittance transfers could have a negative impact on growth.

(Source: Caribbean National Weekly & NCBCM Research)

• Minister of Energy in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), Dr Roodal Moonilal, has indicated that while local oil and gas production has been in decline for the past ten years, it is projected to increase over the next three.
• Moonilal said that drilling programmes within the country needed to be accelerated. On land, exploration is being undertaken in six blocks with licences for acquiring and processing seismic data. Initial feedback has been positive. Onshore production, which in 2015 amounted to 22,616 barrels of oil per day, had declined to 18,005 in 2020 and slipped further to 17,000 this year. Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd, he said, accounts for most of the decline over the last five years.
• He noted that Heritage needs to make better use of its acreage and that a policy being considered was a reassessment of how it partners with lease operators and farmout companies. The company has proposed targeting deeper horizons¹ in its land acreage to improve its oil production, he said.
• This was not previously possible as Heritage did not have rights for its Cruze Horizon Block, Guapo Oropouche Brighton Horizon Block, Herrera Horizon Block and Mayaro/Guayaguayare Horizon Block. Through ministry negotiations, the licences for these blocks are being amended to include rights to deeper horizons, and in return, Heritage has committed to the drilling of one exploration well in each of the blocks. These wells will range from 5,500 feet true vertical depth to 13,500 feet true vertical depth over the next three years.
• Like oil, natural gas production has also been on the decline since 2015, falling from 3.8Bn cubic feet in that year to 2.54Bn cubic feet per day currently. He noted several projects, including bpTT's Cypre Phase 1 development, which came onstream with a peak production of 350 million standard cubic feet per day. While these are welcome, they will likely be combating natural decline from maturing reservoirs. Nonetheless, Moonilal noted that the outlook for oil in the short to medium term is positive.

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1}In the oil and gas industry, "horizon" most commonly refers to a geological layer or boundary that can be identified in seismic data and is known to contain hydrocarbons.

(Source: Trinidad Express Newspapers)

• The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) issued a non-binding advisory opinion on July 3, 2025, urging member states to cooperate on climate action and avoid measures that undermine environmental protections. The court, which has jurisdiction over 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries, emphasised that states must regulate and monitor corporate greenhouse gas emissions and require companies to adopt effective climate measures.
• The opinion also called on states to discourage greenwashing and undue corporate influence, and to legislate mandatory corporate due diligence on human rights and climate risks throughout value chains. States must set binding, ambitious emissions targets with concrete timelines, and climate cooperation must go beyond transboundary harm to include a full spectrum of mitigation and adaptation efforts.
• Maria Antonia Tigre of Columbia Law School noted that while non-binding, IACHR opinions often influence domestic courts and are cited in contentious cases. She referenced the court’s 2024 ruling ordering Peru to compensate a mining town, based on a 2017 advisory opinion recognising a healthy environment as a human right.
• The opinion aligns with a growing global trend in climate litigation. It also parallels Vanuatu’s request for the UN’s top court to acknowledge the harm caused by climate change and define states' legal obligations. The IACHR opinion noted that climate litigation is an "emerging field" but also an increasingly essential tool for holding states and companies accountable for climate change and obligations.

(Source: Reuters)

• The Republican-controlled House on Thursday passed a multitrillion-dollar package of tax cuts and spending, sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk after a tense 24 hours of negotiations and arm-twisting.
• The mostly party-line vote of 218-214 came one day ahead of Trump’s July 4 deadline and caps an arduous process that lasted more than four months, rife with ideological clashes and acrimony between the House and Senate, where Republicans had little margin for error given their narrow majorities.
• In the end, the GOP largely unified to pack the bulk of Trump’s domestic agenda into a single measure, with just Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., voted against it. A bloc of Republican holdouts had initially opposed a procedural vote Wednesday to advance the bill, leading to an hours-long overnight standoff. But Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., managed to sway all but one of them, teeing up final passage in the House.
• Trump is now expected to sign the bill into law on Independence Day, marking the party’s biggest legislative accomplishment since taking full control of Washington in January.
• The 887-page package, dubbed the "one big, beautiful bill," extends the tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017, while temporarily slashing taxes on tips and overtime pay. It approves hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending on the military and to carry out Trump’s mass deportation plans. And it partially pays for all that with steep cuts to Medicaid, food aid benefits and clean energy funding. That includes an estimated US$930.0Bn in spending reductions under Medicaid, violating Trump's promise not to cut the program.
• Overall, the bill is projected to increase the national debt by US$3.3T over a decade, with the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finding that the revenue losses of US$4.5T outstrip the spending cuts of US$1.2T. The bill also increases the debt ceiling by US$5.0T.
• Every Democrat in both chambers voted against the bill, blasting it as a tax cut for the wealthy that is paid for by cutting programs like Medicaid that benefit the working class. They plan to place a heavy focus on the bill in their message to voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, emboldened by polls showing that the legislation is unpopular.

(Source: Reuters)

• President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act ends long-standing federal support for solar and wind power, while creating a friendly environment for oil, gas and coal production. Trump has made his priorities on energy production clear. The U.S. will rely on oil, gas, coal and nuclear to meet its growing energy needs, the president said last weekend, bashing wind and solar power.
• The president’s embrace of fossil fuels and hostility to renewable energy is reflected in his signature domestic policy law. It delivers most of the oil and gas sector’s top priorities, according to the industry’s lobby group, while ending tax credits that have played a crucial role in the growth of solar and wind power.
• The law opens up federal lands and waters to oil and gas drilling after the Biden administration enacted curbs, mandating 30 lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico over 15 years, more than 30 every year on lands across nine states and giving the industry access to Alaska. The law also slashes the royalties that producers pay the government for pumping oil and gas on federal lands, encouraging higher output.
• The law also spurs oil companies to use a carbon capture tax credit to produce more crude. The tax credit was designed to support nascent technology that captures carbon emissions and stores them underground. Under Trump’s bill, producers would receive an increased tax benefit for injecting those emissions into wells to produce more oil¹.
• The law phases out clean electricity investment and production tax credits for wind and solar that have played a crucial role in the growth of the renewable energy industry. The investment credit has been in place since 2005 and the production credit since 1992. The Inflation Reduction Act extended the life of both until at least 2032.
• Solar and wind farms that enter service after 2027 would no longer be eligible for the credits. There is an exception, however, for projects that start construction within 12 months of the bill becoming law. The phaseout is more gradual than previous versions of the legislation, which had a hard deadline of December 31, 2027. That gave all solar and wind projects just 2.5 years to come online in order to take advantage of the credits.

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1}The law ends the hydrogen tax credit in 2028, later than previous versions of the bill. Chevron, Exxon and others are investing in projects to produce hydrogen fuel.

(Source: Reuters)

• The first week of July has seen several leadership changes or board appointments for listed companies Kintyre Holdings (formerly iCreate Limited), Access Financial Services, and Dolphin Cove.
• Kintyre’s Chairman, President & CEO Mr. Tyrone Wilson, has formally taken on the additional role of Chief Executive Officer of Visual Vibe, a wholly owned subsidiary. In this capacity, he will spearhead the expansion of the company’s digital screen network, drive investments to support new location rollouts, and diversify service offerings, including entry into new geographic markets. Additionally, Ms. Jasmin Aslan will join Kintyre Holdings as Chief Business Officer while Mr. Andrew Wildish will resign as Chief Investment Officer effective June 30, 2025. The company’s investment will transition to Tyrone Wilson, supported by the Board’s Investment Committee, chaired by Mr. Nick Rowles-Davies.
• For Access, Mr. Marcus James concluded his one-year leave of absence and will resume his position as Executive Director on the boards of Access Financial Services and Embassy Loans Inc. Meanwhile, Mr. Michael Shaw will remain Chairman of both organisations.
• Lastly, on July 30th, Dolphin Cove’s board saw the removal of Eduardo Albor Villanueva and three other Mexican directors. The leadership changes follow a shareholder request under Article 95(h) of the company’s Articles of Incorporation. Following the departures, former chairman Stafford Burrowes and Steven Robert Strom were appointed as directors effective July 1st.
• The swathe of changes in DCOVE’s board occurred amid the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for its parent company, World of Dolphins, which followed a similar filing by its intermediate parent, Dolphin Discovery, in Mexico. Since the filing, DCOVE’s share has declined by 37.1%, closing at $12.40 on July 2, 2025. At this price, the stock is trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 23.2x, which is above the Junior Market “Others” average of 20.7x

(Sources: JIS, Compiled by NCBCM Research)

• The Caribbean region was featured prominently during a Board of Directors meeting of the CAF (Spanish acronym for Andean Development Corporation) - Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Seville, Spain, with several landmark developments in its deepening partnership with the region. 
• A record US$5.4Bn in development financing was approved for operations across Latin America and the Caribbean. These include energy sector reforms and the green energy transition, support for Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) development, railway infrastructure expansion, agriculture, and sustainable urban development. 
• In keeping with its commitment to channelling increased development financing to the Caribbean, CAF approved its first sovereign loan to The Bahamas. The loan will support key objectives outlined in the Bahamas National Energy Policy, including the modernisation and digitalisation of the electricity network, enhanced integration of renewable energy sources, improved affordability, and strengthened institutional capacity in the energy sector.
• The CAF also approved the issuance of Series C shares for the incorporation of Saint Lucia as a new shareholder country and the issuance of increased Series C shares to Antigua and Barbuda. Once the internal incorporation process is complete, Saint Lucia will be able to access CAF’s financial, technical, and knowledge services in support of its development priorities. Additionally, with the increase in Series C shares, Antigua and Barbuda will be able to access a larger envelope of development financing to advance its national development priorities.
• CAF’s Board of Directors also endorsed Barbados’ request to transition from Series “C” to Series “A” shareholder status, the highest level of membership. This will enable Barbados to appoint a Director to CAF’s Board and deepen its participation in the institution. Upon completion of the transition process, Barbados will join Trinidad and Tobago as a full member of the bank.
• The meeting was also historic in that it marked the first time a CARICOM country, Trinidad and Tobago, chaired CAF’s Board of Directors meeting. 

(Source: CAF)

• Brazil's central bank signalled a "very prolonged" pause in its interest rate-hiking cycle because policymakers need more time to assess whether data are moving in the desired direction, a senior official said on Wednesday, July 2, 2025.
• The bank's monetary policy director, Nilton David, stressed that the decision to halt the tightening cycle reflects the need to wait for signs that excess economic growth beyond potential has been absorbed, allowing inflationary pressures to ease.
• "We do believe the length of time (rates remain unchanged) has an effect," he told an event hosted by Citi. David added that the process inevitably involves a slowdown in Latin America's largest economy, which has been consistently surprising to the upside for four years. "We are absolutely convinced that monetary policy works," he said. "It's only a matter of time, and things will converge."
• The central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points (bps) last month to a near two-decade high of 15% and signalled it would pause tightening at its next policy meeting in July. Since September, cumulative hikes have totalled 450 basis points to tame annual inflation, which has been long running above 5%, exceeding the 3% target.
• Looking ahead, Fitch anticipates that the BCB will begin monetary policy easing before the end of 2025, with the central bank set to cut rates by 25bps to 14.75% in December and by a further 275bps to 12.00% by end-2026. However, the hawkish forward guidance that accompanied June’s rate hike means that risks to this forecast are tilted to the upside.

(Sources: Reuters & Fitch Connect)

• U.S. job openings unexpectedly increased in May, but a decline in hiring added to signs that the labour market had shifted into lower gear amid uncertainty over the Trump administration's tariffs on imports, with a 90-day pause on higher reciprocal duties ending.
• Job openings, a measure of labour demand, were up 374,000 to 7.77Mn by the last day of May, the Labour Department's Bureau of Labour Statistics said in its Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 7.30Mn vacancies.
• Economists were mostly dismissive of the surprise rise in job openings, noting that the bulk of the increase was in the leisure and hospitality sector. Hiring, however, decreased by 112,000 to 5.50Mn, with declines concentrated in healthcare and social assistance, manufacturing, as well as professional and business services. But hiring surged by 107,000 in accommodation and food services. Ultimately, the hire rate fell to 3.4% from 3.5%.
• Economists said the JOLTS report suggested the Federal Reserve could wait until September to resume cutting interest rates. The U.S. central bank last month left its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range, where it has been since December.

(Source: Reuters)