ECFH Closing Price as at September 21, 2017: $4.64

Market News

September 22, 2017

St Lucia’s PM proposes new US-Caribbean trade initiative

Chastanet in an interview with the US business network CNBC, the recent hurricanes that have devastated parts of the Caribbean. have shown that the need for diversity even as it relates to sources of food. He also pointed to a shutdown of the American hub for several days.

“The support has had to come from the south because while we were going through this, you had two hurricanes heading up north. And literally Miami was on a shutdown. So unfortunately the American hub got shutdown almost for 10 days out of Miami. And so it really has shown us that we need to diversify ourselves a bit and maybe look a bit more to Panama in terms of supplies of food.” However, Chastanet said the resilience of the Caribbean is very strong and the region will band together to recover from the disasters.

The Prime Minister also proposed the establishment of a new private sector led initiative what would allow US companies to invest in St Lucia tax free and have their resources sent back home without facing heavy US government taxes. He said there are great investment opportunities in the Caribbean for American companies. “Can we not get an incentive, and that’s what we’re in discussions with the US about, that if US companies invest into the Caribbean, that those investments in our books are always tax free that the US allow those funds to be repatriated back into the US tax-free, only on those investments.” “So it accomplishes getting the funds back into the United States of America. It creates an avenue for the private sector to participate in this growth and brings a lot of money to the table,” Chastanet said. The Prime Minister is expected to address the UN General Assembly on Thursday.

Article published September 21, 2017 on jamaicagleaner.com

GUYANA | Granger says Guyana remains ‘imperiled’ by Venezuela’s claim to its territory

Guyana has reiterated the danger that it says it is still facing on its borders as a consequence of the territorial claims by its western neighbor, Venezuela. Granger David UNIn addressing the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly Debate on Wednesday, Guyana’s President David Granger said since he addressed the Assembly last year, Venezuela’s claim to Guyana’s territory “has not diminished or been diverted.”

“Guyana remains imperiled,” he said, adding that “disturbing developments within Venezuela have attracted the world’s attention and roused the concerns of many of us over the privations of its people.” Granger said while the Caribbean people wish for the Caribbean to be a “Zone of Peace,” Venezuelan claim to Guyana’s territorial integrity, however, would be “a threat to that zone.”

“Venezuela is more than four times the size of Guyana. Venezuela, however, claims two-thirds of Guyana’s territory, including our maritime space. We depend on our territorial and maritime resources for development and for the release of our people from poverty,” he said.

The Guyanese president said the Venezuelan claim has persisted after 51 years of Guyanese independence. He said an eminent international Arbitral Tribunal provided “a full, perfect and final settlement” 118 years ago, in 1899, and that Venezuela denounced that Arbitral Award in 1962 at the Decolonization Committee of the UN General Assembly as the then British Guiana strove for its independence. “Guyana warns the world, through this Assembly, that peace will be at stake in our region if justice does not become ascendant, not only within Venezuela but also in respect to its border controversy with Guyana,” Granger said. “Four UN Secretaries-General have been seized of the Venezuelan claims,” he added. “The choice has become one between just and peaceful settlement in accordance with international law,and a Venezuelan posture of attrition that is increasingly more blustering and militaristic. In this matter, protraction is the enemy of resolution and the ally of sustained conflict.”

Fortunately, as they indicated publicly, Granger said former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and current Secretary General Antonio Guterres have decided that, under the 1966 Geneva Agreement, if by the end of the year 2017 significant progress has not been made toward arriving at a full agreement for the settlement of the controversy, the International Court of Justice will be the next means of peaceful settlement, unless Guyana and Venezuela jointly request otherwise. Granger said Guyana has been “working assiduously” with the UN Secretary General’s Personal Representative on the Guyana-Venezuela border issues, adding that Guyana looks to the international community “to ensure that Venezuela is not allowed to thwart the processes of judicial settlement, which are the clear and agreed path to peace and justice.” In stating that striving for peace must aim at resolving long-standing inter-state conflicts, the Guyana president supports calls for the reform of the UN Security Council “to give even greater voice to developing countries and a Venezuelan posture of attrition that is increasingly more blustering and militaristic. In this matter, protraction is the enemy of resolution and the ally of sustained conflict.”

He also reiterated Guyana’s support for a two-state solution to the Palestine-Israeli conflict, affirming the right of the Palestinian people to “a homeland and to a dignified existence.” In addition, Granger demanded “the withdrawal of the injurious economic embargo against the Caribbean island of Cuba,” stating that the embargo “frustrates that state’s right to development.” On climate change, he said the issues is “not a fiction or the invention of a few extremists,” adding that the small-island states of the Caribbean and parts of North America have “felt the devastating fury of a series of hurricanes – Harvey, Irma, Jose, Katia, Lee and Maria – to whose frequency and ferocity mankind has contributed through the reckless exploitation of earth’s resources.” He noted that Hurricane Irma was a “deadly, destructive portent of the extreme vulnerability and fragility of the small-island developing and low-lying coastal states of the Caribbean.” Granger said Guyana is playing its part, within the limits of its resources, to provide relief to affected populations in sister Caribbean states.

Article published September 21, 2017 on wiredja.com

Ratings agency maintains debt rating, keeps negative outlook

Local ratings agency CariCRIS has reaffirmed its ratings of CariAA+ (Foreign and Local Currency Ratings) on its regional rating scale for the USD 500 million notional debt issue of the Government of The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (GORTT).

According to a media release yesterday the company said: "The ratings indicate that the level of creditworthiness of this obligation, adjudged in relation to other obligations in the Caribbean, is high. A CariAA+ rating is an investment grade rating, both on the regional rating scale (CariCRIS’ scale), and on the global rating scale when mapped."

CariCRIS however said that it maintained a "negative outlook" on its sovereign debt rating stating: "Our decision to maintain the negative outlook is based primarily on our expectation that overall fiscal deficits may persist for at least another two years, which will likely lead to further increases in total public sector debt, and our expectation for continued external account deficits, which will likely result in a further decline in gross international reserves and deterioration in the level of import cover."

Article published September 22, 2017 on guardian.co.tt

North Korean Threats Rattle Global Markets; Stocks fall, haven assets advance after North Korea threatens nuclear test of 'unprecedented scale'

Global markets slipped Friday after fresh threats from North Korea revived the geopolitical fears that engulfed markets earlier this month. The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.2% in early trading, dragged down by falls in the financial and resources sectors. Bourses across Asia were also flashing red. On Wall Street, futures pointed to a 0.2% opening loss for the S&P 500. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said late Thursday in New York that the country may consider a nuclear test of "unprecedented scale" in the Pacific Ocean.

Those comments came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he was considering the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure" in response to President Donald Trump's warning that the U.S. would annihilate North Korea if forced to defend itself or its allies. This was likely causing investors to be "antsy heading into the weekend," said Emmanuel Ng, an analyst at OCBC Bank. Havens got a boost following the North Korean threats. The Japanese yen and the Swiss franc both advanced against the dollar, by 0.4% and 0.2% respectively, and gold rose 0.4%. The geopolitical tensions overshadowed investors' focus this week on the Federal Reserve 's next moves. The central bank suggested Wednesday that it was open to the possibility of an interest-rate increase in December.

Weak inflation numbers in recent months had made some investors skeptical the Fed would raise rates again in 2017. But after the Fed meeting Wednesday, investors now see a 75% chance of a rate rise by the end of the year, according to Fed-fund futures tracked by CME Group. For next year, the market expects one more interest-rate increase, while the Fed reaffirmed Wednesday that it foresees three rate rises. "The market is still way behind the Fed and is underpricing its next moves," said Mike Bell, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

On Friday, 10-year Treasury yields were down at 2.259%, from 2.278% on Thursday, with yields moving inversely to prices. The WSJ Dollar Index, which tracks the dollar against a basket of 16 currencies, was down 0.3%. Investors were also looking to a key speech on Brexit by U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday, in which she is expected to set out her vision for Britain's future relationship with the European Union after it leaves the bloc in 2019. The British pound was up 0.1% against the dollar at $1.359. Sterling had strengthened earlier this month after the Bank of England signaled it might raise interest rates as soon as November. On Sunday, Germany votes in federal elections. Polls suggest that Chancellor Angela Merkel 's Christian Democratic Union party is likely to win enough votes to give her a fourth term.

In Japan, gains in the yen sent the Nikkei Stock Average down 0.3% as a stronger currency would hurt the country's key export stocks. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.8%, while in South Korea the Kospi fell 0.7%. Chinese shares were broadly down after rating firm Standard & Poor's on Thursday downgraded the country's sovereign credit rating due to risks associated with its increasing debt. The Shanghai Composite Index was off 0.2%, while the Shenzhen benchmark was down 0.3%. In commodities, Brent crude rose 0.2% to $56.21 a barrel ahead of a meeting by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Friday.

Article published September 22, 2017 on invest.ameritrade.com