China Seen Readying for Trade War During Trump Presidency

“In the event of a trade war with the United States, China’s response would go well beyond tariff increases,” said Mark Williams, Chief Asia Economist for Capital Economics. “U.S. companies would find their products and operations in China subject to tighter regulation that hampered their capacity to do business there.”

“U.S. exports of cars and aircraft would be in the firing line,” he said. China might also subject U.S. companies to tighter regulation that hampers their capacity to do business. Beijing may also encourage its exporters by offering tax rebates to overcome any reduction in export demand in the U.S., Williams said.

Saudi Arabia withdraws $70b from global funds

Saudi Arabia has withdrawn $70 billion from global asset managers as Opec’s largest oil producer seeks to plug its budget deficit, according to financial services market intelligence company Insight Discovery.

“Fund managers we’ve spoken to estimate Sama has pulled out between $50 billion to $70 billion from global asset managers over the past six months,” Nigel Sillitoe, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Dubai-based firm, said on Monday. “Saudi Arabia is withdrawing funds because it’s trying to cut its widening deficit,” he said.

China pays $144bn to bolster stock market

When there’s no other investor to turn the market around other than the government, which nine times out of ten compounds the problem, you know it’s done.

 

China has spent $144 billion (€132bn) to bolster the country’s fragile stock market since June, Goldman Sachs has estimated, but still has more than that amount in reserve to deploy if stocks resume their sharp descent.

The coalition of state financial institutions – the “national team” – has a war chest of roughly $322 billion at its disposal to support the market, the bank believes.

The BRICs Have Hit a Wall

Major emerging markets are suffering — and frankly that’s not very surprising

Only a short time ago, the world’s emerging markets, especially the BRICs — Brazil, Russia, India and China — were supposed to be the saviors of the global economy. As the West sank into a recession in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, China, India and many other developing economies continued to post strong growth, helping to prevent the world economy from tumbling into an even deeper and more painful downturn. As the U.S. and Europe struggled to recover, talk that the giants of the developing world were destined to take their place at the top of global economic and political affairs accelerated.

Now, however, with the opening of 2014, many emerging markets look like they’re the ones that need saving. Investors are fleeing markets from Latin America to Asia, tanking currencies, stocks and sentiment. The good money is now betting on the once battered advanced nations. While stock markets in the U.S. and Japan have soared, those in the developing world have slipped.

Spain’s Youth Unemployment Rate Hits 57.7% as Europe Faces a ‘Lost Generation’

Spain saw its youth unemployment rate rise to a staggering 57.7% in November as the country registered the worse youth jobless rate in the eurozone area.

Eurostat, the statistical information arm of the European Union, also revealed the youth unemployment rate across the eurozone remained steady at 24.2% for the second consecutive month – meaning there were 3.5 million unemployed under-25s across the region.

“There is a real danger that these young people will get trapped in the ranks of the long-term unemployed,” James Howat, a European economist at Capital Economics, told IBTimes UK.

China seeks world role for ‘people’s money’

AFP – With deals from London to Singapore, China is seeking a greater role for its yuan currency in global markets to challenge the hegemony of the almighty dollar.

The most attention-grabbing reform planned for Shanghai’s new free trade zone is free convertibility of the yuan — also known as the renminbi, or “people’s money” — an unprecedented change which would allow greater use of the currency.

Germany is the ‘Most Popular Country in the World’

The survey, carried out for the BBC, polled 26,000 people in 25 countries and asked them to rate 16 countries and the European Union as a whole on whether their influence on the world was mainly positive or negative.

Germany came out on top, with 59 percent of survey participants giving it a positive rating. The country moved up three percentage points from its 2012 position. It displaced Japan, which saw its positive rating fall from 58 percent last year to 51 percent, going from first to fourth place.