Services

NEWS FLASH

UPCOMING WEBINAR - PANAMA IN FOCUS: US RELATIONS, CANAL STRATEGY AND FI...

Learn More

COUNTRY INSIGHTS

​On Syria and domestic tensions: Political risk is rising
TURKEY · In Brief · 17 Dec 2018

Since my last comments on Turkey’s stated intention to invade North East Syria, it made irrevocable commitments to carry out its promise. Negotiations with White House are presumably underway, which will delay the execution the military campaign, but room for compromise is very narrow. At the end...

Mexico's president in search for lost credibility
MEXICO · In Brief · 16 Dec 2018

As you know the economic and fiscal package was submitted yesterday to Mexican Congress. It is expected to be approved by sometime next week with no maor changes. In general it is designed to preserve economic stabilty next year, after consider loss of confidence by cancelling Mexico City new air...

Ukrainian ports almost deserted
RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS · In Brief · 16 Dec 2018

Since Ukrainian warships were seized by Russia in November traffic to and from the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk has almost stopped. Russia allows merchant ships to sail through the Kerch Strait that connects the ports to the Black Sea. However, inspections in the Kerch Strait often cause delay...

Autocephaly of Ukrainian Church
UKRAINE · In Brief · 16 Dec 2018

Yesterday, on December 15, gathering of Ukrainian clerics established independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church and elected a 39-year-old Metropolitan Epifaniy as the leader of the new church. That was a historical event, see for more details “Ukrainian church to receive Independence: Russia might es...

Russian Central Bank hikes key rate
RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS · In Brief · 15 Dec 2018

On 14 December the Russian Central Bank (CBR) raised the key rate by 25 basis points. It is not 7.7%. The bank noted the danger of short term inflation and the possibility of US sanctions prompted the move. This moved surprised many. From 15 January 2019 the bank shall recommence foreign currency...

​Russian Ministry of Finance plans to restrict regional debt
RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS · In Brief · 14 Dec 2018

In Russia, regional governments will not be permitted to spend over 10% of their budgets on servicing debt. The Ministry of Finance will place further restrictions on regions that it regards as overly indebted. Some of the poorer regions have borrowed heavily and have debts over 100% of GDP. Solu...

The NBU keeps policy rate unchanged at 18%
UKRAINE · In Brief · 14 Dec 2018

On Dec 13, the NBU Board decided to leave policy rate unchanged at 18.0%. The Board ignored Kerch Strait crisis and treated easily still strong inflation (+1.4% m/m or 10% y/y) sine the large part of November CPI growth was driven by a 23.5% gas tariffs’ increase. Positive signals from the IMF (t...

“Our proposal has been misunderstood”
COLOMBIA · Report · 13 Dec 2018 · 1 response

President Iván Duque recently gave an interview to a Cali radio station as part of an effort to counter the negative (to put it mildly) press coverage that both student protests and his tax reform proposal have attracted. The president contended that his tax plan had been “misunderstood.” Indeed,...

Inflation closes at 2.2 million percent in 2018
VENEZUELA · Report · 13 Dec 2018

We adjusted down our August-November 2018 inflation series reflecting new data available. As a result, our inflation forecast for December goes down to 198.7 percent % and the 2018 year-on-year rate closes at 2.2 million percent for 2018. This annual forecast is significantly lower than the proje...

MPC: Policy rate kept at 24%, as expected
TURKEY · In Brief · 13 Dec 2018

In line with the market consensus, the CBRT’s Monetary Policy Committee kept the policy rate (one-week repo rate) unchanged at 24% (simple) today, at the last meeting of the year. Recall that after raising the policy rate by 625 bps at its September meeting (on September 13th), the Bank had kept ...

The capital of the Russian Far East will be shifted
RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS · In Brief · 13 Dec 2018

On 10 December President Putin announced that the capital of the Far Eastern Region will be shifted from Khabarovsk to Vladivostok. Vladivostok is the southernmost Russian Pacific port. It does a lot of trade with Japan and North Korea. By contrast Khabarovsk does more trade with China.

​HEADS UP: Erdogan promises military campaign East of Euphrates
TURKEY · In Brief · 12 Dec 2018

Erdogan and other senior members of his administration including Defense Minister retired Gen Hulusi Akar openly stated that Turkey will launch a military campaign in North-East Syria (East of Euphrates) to shut down “the terror corridor”.The target area is controlled by a pro-PKK Kurdish entity ...

Russian Ministry of Finance pegs borrowing to inflation
RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS · In Brief · 12 Dec 2018

As of 19 December the Ministry of Finance will issue inflation linked Rubles denominated debt OFZs on a monthly basis. There is a growing demand for bonds linked to inflation. This is because economic uncertainty makes investors want to ensure that the value of their returns are not diminished by...

MPC preview+
TURKEY · Report · 12 Dec 2018

The Monetary Policy Committee will meet tomorrow (December 13, 2018). The consensus forecasts we’ve seen from multiple media sources uniformly anticipate no change in short-term rates. We strongly concur with the consensus, although, given the Bank’s track record, we would never completely rule o...

Armenian election victory for governing party
RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS · In Brief · 12 Dec 2018

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's electoral alliance won over 70% of the vote on 9 December. The My Step Alliance smashed the Republican Party which used to be the government. The Republican Party now has no one left in parliament. Pashinyan came to office earlier this year after a wave o...

Copyright 2025 GlobalSource Partners. All rights reserved.