GlobalSource Partners | Country Insights

New measures to mitigate the economic effects of the coronavirus are expected. CNI/Ibope may release a new opinion poll about the government. The Lower House will implement its online voting system. On Wednesday, the IBGE releases partial inflation results for March (IPCA-15). This week’s Talk...

President Ramaphosa puts South Africa into a 21-Day lockdown to fight COVID19

SOUTH AFRICA · In Brief · 23 Mar 2020

In a move, largely expected, President Ramaphosa exercised his full constitutional authority to put the country under a 21-day nation-wide lockdown to avoid a "human catastrophe". South Africa has an estimated 10 million citizens with severely compromised immune system; either due to Aids and.or ...

Contagion continues to rise reaching 245 positive cases

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC · In Brief · 23 Mar 2020

As of March 22, the Ministry of Public Health confirmed 245 positive cases for Covid-19, 43 cases more than the previous day and 133 more than the number confirmed as of March 21. This means the number of positive cases is growing exponentially. Part of it is related to a significant increase in ...

Politics: Seeds of a potential governability crisis

MEXICO · Report · 23 Mar 2020

Could Mexico be teetering on the verge of a governance crisis? President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador’s administration is now faced with a three-pronged crisis, a combination strikingly reminiscent of when spiraling criminal violence under the administration of President Felipe Calderón eventually...

The money tap remains far from being fully open

HUNGARY · In Brief · 23 Mar 2020

Today, PM Orbán announced new measures to protect the economy against Covid-19 effects, in addition to the ones made public a few days ago (on March 18). However, the new package appears to be even slimmer than last week's, and in fact it is nothing else than a few additions and refinements added...

Economics: A manufacturing outlook change for the worse

MEXICO · Report · 23 Mar 2020 · 1 response

Last week’s updated aggregate supply and demand results for 2019, as well as the few indicators for the first months of 2020 released to date, already provided plenty of evidence that the economy was heading in the wrong direction, long before the Covid-19 pandemic began to cast its shadow. Inves...

COVID-19 and the Economy – Reactions in the World and Brazil

BRAZIL ECONOMICS · Report · 23 Mar 2020

Governments the world over have uniformly reached decisions to minimize the deaths caused by the pandemic, even at the cost of economic paralysis. The smoothing of the contagion curve sought by social distancing has reduced the stress on the health system of each country, and hopefully will low...

Markets await more bond purchases by the BoI

ISRAEL · Report · 23 Mar 2020

Israel is entering a recession from the partial lockdown due to the coronavirus, with the duration difficult to assess. This supports low inflation (we expect 0.0% in 2020) and looser monetary policy, as well as a more expansionary fiscal policy. Bond yields have spiked, in part due to fiscal de...

Unconventional monetary policy to fight covid-19

PHILIPPINES · In Brief · 23 Mar 2020

The Monetary Board approved today the purchase of P300 billion of government securities under a repurchase agreement with the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr). In a statement, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the additional liquidity is “intended to provide support for those most affected by the enh...

Georgia declares state of emergency

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS · In Brief · 23 Mar 2020

On March 21 the Georgian Parliament voted for a one month state of emergency proposed by the president. The country has 49 coronavirus cases and no deaths to date. The law allows the government to close bars, restaurants and entertainment venues as well as banning gatherings and sports matches. T...

Markets await more bond purchases from the BoI

ISRAEL · In Brief · 22 Mar 2020 · 1 response

Highlights of weekly macro review: Most recent economic indicators refer to pre-crisis and therefore of little value. The PMI (manufacturing) declined in February by 4.8 points to 45.3. All components contracted especially production, employment and domestic orders. The Employment Agency is repor...

Investors remove wealth from Russia

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS · In Brief · 22 Mar 2020

In the week leading up to 18 March investors took USD 1.8 billion out of Russia. This is an all time high. Asset flight was provoked by plunging confidence in the country's economic health due to coronavirus and the oil price collapse. Asset flight has happened several times before in Russia. It ...

Essential CIS Politics: March 2020

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS · Report · 22 Mar 2020

▪ Coronavirus has had a serious impact on almost every country in the region. Some countries such as Russia have taken active measures to contain the disease. ▪ Russia’s fallout with OPEC has led to a precipitous fall in the RUB. ▪ The détente in Eastern Ukraine continues. ▪ President of Ukrai...

COVID-19 and Turkey: Take II

TURKEY · Report · 22 Mar 2020

With 947 cases and 21 deaths having been reported from the virus as of Sunday, we upgrade our assessment for Turkey to a pandemic. Currently, diagnosed cases/tests ratio runs around 9%, with an average of 3,300 tests. As tests increase to 10K a day and encompass high-risk groups, the cases ought ...

Russian maintains key rate

RUSSIA / FSU POLITICS · In Brief · 21 Mar 2020

On March 20 the Russian Central Bank (CBR) announced that the key rate would be kept at 6%. The rationale was this is to counteract the inflationary drop occasioned by the double whammy of coronavirus and the abrupt fall in oil prices. CBR cut the key rate on 6 consecutive occasions owing to lowe...