Author Archive: Jeremy Parkinson
China market access more critical to US firms
US firms working in China are more concerned about regulatory and policy issues than about pushing China to revalue its currency, the head of the American Chamber of Commerce said in Beijing recently. American businesses are encountering new obstacles to market access as China’s growing economy leads them to expand deeper into inland provinces, AmCham […]
Greek PM requests activation of EU/IMF aid package
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou asked for the activation of an EU/IMF aid package on April 23 aimed at pulling the nation out of a debt crisis. “It is a national and imperative need to officially ask our partners in the EU for the activation of the support mechanism we jointly created,” Papandreou said in […]
Kiwis: Economy picking up, fiscal pressures remain
New Zealand is growing more strongly than expected but the recovery is still patchy and the government will face high deficits and borrowing for several years yet, Finance Minister Bill English said in a speech recently. He said the economy had emerged from the global slowdown and domestic recession in better shape than many other […]
GM repays US, Canada $5.8bn
General Motors Co has completed repayments totaling $5.8bn to the US and Canadian governments for loans that helped fund the US automaker’s bailout last year, the company has announced. GM, which emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009, had pledged to repay the balance of loans from the US Treasury and Export Development Canada “in full […]
Ukraine seeks $12bn in new IMF programme
“We will present a Ukrainian draft programme for cooperation with the IMF over the next two an a half years. It’s a new programme aimed at supporting economic growth”, Tigipko told reporters. “I think such a programme might hover around $12bn,” he said. The ex-Soviet republic of 46 million people, which needs fresh IMF credit […]
Goldman Sachs profit tops forecast, UK opens probe
Goldman’s results came four days after the firm was accused of fraud by the US SEC in the structuring and marketing of a debt product tied to subprime mortgages. “On the face of it, Goldman’s numbers are pretty good, which they do time and time again,” said David Morrison, market strategist for GFT Global Markets […]
Ghosts of past shackle Bosnia’s economic future
The conflict between Serbs, Muslims and Croats may no longer be waged with heavy artillery and ethnic cleansing, but a toxic combination of de facto partition, obstruction and graft by politicians in each group keeps a stranglehold on the economy. “What sort of investment can we expect when our political leaders are sending such very […]
KKR flotation takes it back to the future
An analysis of the firm’s listing documents underlines the way the industry has changed in the years since it was forced to withdraw its 2007 listing as the financial crisis set in. A comparison of the two documents also shows the changes to the firm’s ambitions and the way it does its business as it […]
Bridging the pensions gap
How has the past year affected OTP Pension Funds’ performance? After a negative, pessimistic year in 2008 we achieved real success last year. In terms of investments, 2009 was also the most successful year of the Funds. Last year for instance we achieved a yield of 33.51 percent in our growth portfolio, having the highest […]
Maintaining the balance
Specialising in market niches such as government banking, infrastructure projects, factoring to suppliers of government-owned firms, agribusiness, and fiduciary services, Banco Interacciones continues to strengthen its structure through good results and a 100 percent plough back net income policy. In 2009 the net income was 39 percent higher than the previous year, exceeding shareholders expectations. […]
