The German economy will shrink by 6.5% this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the government’s council of economic advisors said on Tuesday, adding that the slump will be prolonged if the number of new infections jumps.
The bleak outlook came after the premier of Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, put the Guetersloh region back into lockdown until June 30 following a coronavirus outbreak at a meatpacking plant there.
The Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries has developed a National Five-Year Manufacturing Growth Strategy for Jamaica, aimed at achieving $81 billion per annum in manufacturing output by 2025.
“This translates to an approximate annual average growth rate of three per cent over the five-year period,” said Portfolio Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw.
The key objectives being proposed are enhanced workforce productivity via a core training curriculum for manufacturing; improved cost competitiveness, including access to finance; expanded infrastructure, including provision of suitable factory space and addressing transportation logistics challenges; facilitation of market expansion; and incorporation of innovation strategies.
Minister Shaw said that the expected results from the implementation of the five-year manufacturing growth strategy include, inter alia, increased jobs in the manufacturing industry; increased foreign and local direct investment; increased attractiveness of Jamaica as a location for manufacturing; increased ability for local manufacturers to supply products into the domestic market, thereby reducing the level of the country’s imports; and increased export sales of manufactured goods.
The EX-IM Bank will be disbursing at least $8.1 billion in loans to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) this fiscal year. This is an increase over the $6 billion in financing to the MSME sector for 2019/2020.
Minister of Industry Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Audley Shaw, said that the increased support “is particularly within the context of the challenges being faced by MSMEs because of the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Minister Shaw said that the EX-IM Bank’s programmes will seek to incorporate new and innovative approaches, including the increased use of trade credit insurance, receivables financing, digitisation and e-commerce, and trade credit guarantees.
In addition, the Bank will continue to work closely with its public- and private-sector counterparts to support the provision of business advisory services geared at allowing MSMEs to pivot to increased exports as well as navigate through the crisis to recovery.
Investors holding Belize's sovereign US dollar-denominated 2034 bonds said in a statement late Thursday they formed a creditor committee to address the government's request for a six-month interest payment deferral due to the economic strain of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Acknowledging the impact of the pandemic on its tourism-led economy, the committee said that it looks forward to discussing the situation and the economic pressures that are constraining its capacity to "service full coupon payments in the near term."
Belize is asking creditors to forgo the interest payments, with the next being on August 20, until the February 20, 2021 payment due date.
Mexico has lost 1 million formal jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and preliminary numbers suggest that economic activity fell 18% to 19% in April, but conditions are conducive for a healthy recovery in the wake of the pandemic, Finance Minister Arturo Herrera said on Wednesday.
The recovery will take much longer than it took for the economy to collapse after a lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, but Mexico will carry on with an orderly reopening in the second half of the year, underpinned by some specific motors.
In contrast to previous crises, this time around Mexico will be able to rely on a "fairly robust" financial sector with high levels of capitalization, especially among commercial banks. It can also count on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a trade pact that came into effect on July 1, to spur economic growth in coming years.
U.S House of Representatives Democrats on Thursday unveiled a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill that they will seek to pass in coming weeks, arguing it has been made more urgent by the coronavirus pandemic.
The legislation would spur construction or improvements f roads, bridges, ports, clean energy, schools and other projects that experts say have long been neglected. It comes at a time when the United States is in desperate need of new jobs amid an economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus.
The Federal Reserve’s stash of assets shrank this week for the first time since February, reflecting a sharp drop in currency swaps with foreign central banks and a continued slackening in demand for other emergency credit facilities.
The size of the Fed’s balance sheet - composed of assets ranging from U.S. Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities to loans to banks and state governments - fell to $7.14 trillion on June 17 from $7.22 trillion a week earlier.
Bank of Jamaica announced that, effective 1 July 2020, the limit on the foreign currency net (FXNOP) of authorised dealers will be as follows: the limit will remain at 25% of regulatory capital denominated in Jamaica Dollars, for short positions. As it relates to long positions, the limit will be reduced by 10 percentage points to 15% of regulatory capital denominated in Jamaica Dollars.
The FXNOP limit is calibrated to ensure adequate levels of liquidity in the foreign currency market. The decision to adjust the limit is based on the prevailing market conditions as well as Bank of Jamaica’s commitment to conducting periodic reviews of the limit since its introduction in 2018. All other guidelines relating to the FXNOP limit remain unchanged.
The Bank will continue to monitor the implications of financial market developments and will appropriately adjust FXNOP limits in accordance with the Bank’s objective of maintaining financial system stability.
For the year ended February 29, 2020, Portland JSX Limited (PJX) reported audited net profits of US$1.35Mn (EPS:US0.43¢), a two-fold increase relative to the $1.32Mn (EPS: -US0.43¢) loss reported in 2019.
The main driver of this performance was a US$2.31Mn net fair value gain on financial investments reported for the year, which was up from the US$665k loss reported in 2019.
PJX’s stock has risen 9.7%% since the start of the year and closed trading at $7.90 on Wednesday. The stock currently trades at a P/E of 13.8x, which is in line with the Main Market Financial sector average of 13.8x
The Government of Belize asked on Wednesday for a six-month moratorium on interest payments tied to its US dollar-denominated 2034 sovereign bond, citing the COVID-19 pandemic for wreaking a "devastating" effect on its tourism-led economy.
In recent years, Belize's tourism industry accounted for approximately 60% of the country's foreign exchange earnings; however tourism has collapsed due to the rapid deterioration of worldwide economic conditions and the lockdown measures imposed by many countries, including Belize, to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Belize has restructured its debt three times in the last decade, having come to an agreement with creditors the last time just over three years ago. The government said it would be discussing the financial situation with its creditors over the next two weeks and a formal "Consent Solicitation for temporary capitalization of interest is expected to be launched in early July."
