• At the launch of Sagicor’s Bds$170Mn investment, The Estate at St. George, Prime Minister Mia Mottley reiterated that the country is open for business.
• The Estates at St. George is an adult, wellness and amenity-driven community with continuing care facilities on 19 acres. The first community of its kind in Barbados and the Caribbean, it will be built over three phases, and once completed, will offer a range of amenities, including a 4.5-acre green space.
• The infrastructural works have commenced, and the first phase will offer 120 independent living homes for sale.
• Executive Vice President and General Manager of Sagicor Life Inc., Barbados Operations, Edward Clarke disclosed that following infrastructural work, construction of the first phase would commence in the first quarter of 2020. He added that keys were expected to be handed over to proud homeowners before the end of the following year.  

(Source: GIS Barbados)

• NINE Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries on Friday signed a trade continuity agreement with the United Kingdom that will allow them to trade as they do now without any additional barriers or tariffs.
• The United Kingdon’s Trade Policy Minister, George Hollingbery, signed the CARIFORUM-UK Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with ministers and representatives from Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts, and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

(Source: Trinidad Express)

• What started as an American phenomenon is now being felt around the world as U.S. oil exports surge to levels unthinkable only a few years ago.
• American oil exports stepped up a gear last year, jumping more than 70% to just over 2 million barrels a day, according to government data. Over the past four weeks, U.S. oil exports have averaged more than 3 million barrels a day.
• Oil traders and shale executives believe U.S. crude exports are set to reach 5 million barrels a day by late 2020, up another 70% from current levels. If the U.S. hits that target, America will be exporting, on a gross basis, more  crude  than every country in OPEC except Saudi Arabia.
• “This will shake up international oil and gas trade flows, with profound implications for geopolitics”, said Faith Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency.

 (Source: Bloomberg)

• New York Fed President John Williams and his co-authors concluded in their research that neutral interest rates had fallen across advanced economies thanks to demographics, slower productivity growth, and other factors.
• With rate setting expected to stay at its current 2.25% to 2.5% target range -- roughly Williams’ current estimate of the neutral rate, it means the Fed policymakers will have less room to cut rates to stimulate growth come to the next recession than they’ve historically enjoyed.
• Come the next downturn, officials will likely be “reduced to poor man’s monetary policy – changing the size and composition of the Fed’s balance sheet,” Citigroup’s Willem Buiter wrote in a March 19 note.
• The euro area and Japan may enter the next recession with still-negative rates, and neutral rates are unlikely to save the day by rising anytime soon.

 (Source: Bloomberg)

• Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon Nigel Clarke, has announced changes to the recently announced $14-billion stimulus package.
• Closing the 2019/20 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on March 20, Dr. Clarke noted that the ad valorem Stamp Duty payable on any instrument pursuant to the Stamp Duty Act will be replaced with a flat stamp duty of $100 per document/parcel related to transactions valued below $500,000, and $5,000 per document related to transactions valued at $500,000 and more.
• It is pertinent to note that the ad valorem calculation for Betting and Gaming tickets remains unchanged.

(Source: JIS)

• The Company invites applications for up to 150,000,000 units of new 8.75% fixed rate cumulative redeemable preference shares due 2021, being offered at a price $2.00per share.
• The offer opens on Thursday, March 28, 2019, and closes on Thursday, April 4, 2019.
• Mayberry Investments Limited is acting as a sole lead broker to the Company for the offer.

(Source: PTL Prospectus)

• There is a possibility that the Jamaica-based Sandals Resorts International (SRI) could pull the plug on its highly publicized US$400 million Beaches project which has started at the old Almond property in St Peter.
• Prime Minister Mottley, in her speech on Wednesday, said her administration has sought changes to the sweeping concessions the hotel chain was granted by the former administration when it first entered Barbados in 2013.
• Mottley admitted, “We have reached a difficult moment in the negotiations that may result in the project being stalled or pulled.”

 (Source: Barbados Today)

• Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") yesterday affirmed the Cayman Islands' Aa3 government bond and issuer ratings. At the same time, the rating outlook was maintained at stable.
• The action reflects Cayman Island’s continued fiscal surpluses that have resulted in low and falling government debt metrics. The rating action also considers Cayman’s very high per-capita income which is balanced by the risks posed by its small, narrow economy that is susceptible to weather-related shocks. 
• Additionally Moody’s also took into account Cayman’s strong institutional framework, reflecting a broad consensus on macroeconomic policies, supported by fiscal oversight from the UK.

(Source: Moody’s Investor Service

• The spread between 3-month and 10-year Treasury notes has fallen below 10 basis points for the first time since 2007.
• An inverted yield curve, where short-term yields are higher than their longer-term counterparts, is considered a reliable recession signal.
• The Federal Reserve this week said the U.S. economy is still strong but is facing challenges from global weakness.

(Source: CNBC)

• U.S. President Donald Trump noted that trade negotiations with China were progressing and a final agreement "will probably happen," adding that his call for tariffs to remain on Chinese imported good for some time did not mean talks were in trouble.
• He expected to keep a 25% tariff on European light trucks amid separate on-going trade talks with the European Union, but that company could avoid it by building factories in the United States.
• The Trump administration is engaged in on-going trade talks with both the European Union and China as part of the President's "America First" agenda. Top U.S. officials are headed to Beijing in coming days amid a possible Trump summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping to seal any final deal.

(Source: Investing.com)