UK expands its diplomatic network across the Caribbean
LONDON, England — British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson announced on Thursday an expansion of the UK’s overseas network, with the opening of nine new diplomatic posts across the Commonwealth.
Three of these nine posts will be in the Eastern Caribbean, with new British resident commissioners’ offices in Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda and St Vincent and the Grenadines. These posts, along with the existing resident commissioner’s office in Saint Lucia, will form an expanded network of UK representation in the Eastern Caribbean, under the auspices of the British High Commission in Barbados.
In addition there will be new UK posts in The Bahamas, Lesotho, Swaziland, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu.
Announcing the opening of the new posts, Johnson said: “As a Commonwealth family of nations, it is in our shared interest to boost prosperity, tackle security issues and clear up the environment… After we leave the EU, Global Britain will remain outward facing, open for business and a champion of the rules-based international order.”
British High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Janet Douglas, said that the expansion was part of a wider initiative to increase the breadth and depth of UK diplomatic presence across the world.
Douglas said: “I am delighted that we will be opening new offices in the Eastern Caribbean, and are aiming for them to open in early 2019. This decision reflects our historical links with the region, and the UK’s commitment to strengthening our existing excellent relations. These new missions will be innovative and agile, and will improve the UK’s engagement with, and support for the Eastern Caribbean.”
Britain has one of the largest diplomatic footprints in the world and the expanded network puts Britain in peak position to enhance cooperation in a number of areas of shared concern, such as security – including disaster preparedness; trade; common values; protection of the environment – particularly oceans; and climate change.
Article published April 19, 2018 on caribbeannewsnow.com
Cayman Islands is Least Complex Jurisdiction To Do Tax and Accounting Business
NEW YORK, United States, Thursday April 19, 2018 – When it comes to accounting and tax compliance, two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean are considered the least complex jurisdictions to do business.
For the second year in a row, the Cayman Islands earned the title of least complex location out of 94 countries in the TMF Group’s Annual Financial Complexity Index (FCI), which weighs economic, legal, tax and accounting policies to determine the most and least complex regions for businesses. It was followed by the British Virgin Islands, while Guyana was the seventh least complex.
“Between the OECD’s push for transparency with the new BEPS [Base Erosion and Profit Shifting] actions, the introduction of the CRS [Common Reporting Standard] and the ongoing requirements of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), there has been a lot of changes in financial regulation. It’s interesting to discover, then, that two of the most well-known offshore jurisdictions remain among the least complex in the world in which to do business,” the FCI report noted.
“While there is an increase in reporting needed, our experts say that from an accounting and tax perspective, the overall increase in burden for companies is relatively small. However, directors and administrative providers will need additional access to relevant information to ensure proper and timely reporting.”
The FCI report ranks each country based on overall financial complexity, with the overarching parameters exploring four distinct service areas: compliance (cross-border transactions, data governance), tax (registration, compliance and type), reporting (processes, legal regulations) and bookkeeping (accounting, government policy and technology.)
In compliance, the Cayman Islands and Afghanistan were the least complex, with a 22 per cent score in the survey.
In the tax category – which assesses responses that measure the level of complexity associated with adhering to local tax policies, in each region – the Cayman Islands was again the least complex, with a score of zero per cent.
Cayman Islands also held the lowest position, with a score of 16 per cent, in the bookkeeping complexity list.
Article published April 19, 2018 on caribbean360.com
Miguel Diaz-Canel selected as next president of Cuba
HAVANA (AP) — The Cuban government on Wednesday selected 57-year-old First Vice President Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez as the sole candidate to succeed President Raul Castro in a transition aimed at ensuring that the country’s single-party system outlasts the aging revolutionaries who created it.
The certain approval of Diaz-Canel by members of the unfailingly unanimous National Assembly will install someone from outside the Castro family in the country’s highest government office for the first time in nearly six decades.
The 86-year-old Castro will remain head of the Communist Party, designated by the constitution as “the superior guiding force of society and the state.” As a result, Castro will remain the most powerful person in Cuba for the time being. His departure from the presidency is nonetheless a symbolically charged moment for a country accustomed to 60 years of absolute rule first by revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and, for the last decade, his younger brother.
Facing biological reality but still active and apparently healthy, Raul Castro is stepping down as president in an effort to guarantee that new leaders can maintain the government’s grip on power in the face of economic stagnation, an aging population and increasing disenchantment among younger generations.
Article published April 19, 2018 on apnews.com
Flows into U.S., EM equities and high-yield bonds show investors still hungry for risk: BAML
LONDON (Reuters) - Investors are still keen on risk assets despite bearish signals such as a flattening U.S. yield curve and a surprise move by China to cut bank reserve requirements, Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategists said on Friday.
As a strong earnings season rekindled risk appetite, investors pushed money into U.S. and emerging market equities, while they pulled out of European and Japanese stocks, BAML strategists said, citing EPFR flows data.
Overall, a modest $2.8 billion flowed into bonds while equities drew small inflows of $3.3 billion.
High-yield bonds drew $2.3 billion inflows this week while $1.5 billion flowed into government bonds, in flows strategists said were starting to reflect more dovish central banks and investors’ expectation yields have peaked.
The bank’s “bull and bear” indicator of market sentiment was at 5.9, a neutral level, but strategists struck a pessimistic tone, focusing on the flattening U.S. yield curve and China’s surprise move to cut reserve requirement ratios. CNCBRR=ECI
The U.S. yield curve has hit its flattest since the global synchronized recovery, they said, despite record earnings, U.S. tax cuts, unemployment at record lows and surging commodity prices.
An inversion of the yield curve would be a bad omen, indicating a recession around the corner. By 1023 GMT the curve was at 48.32, up slightly from the previous session.
Strategists saw Chinese easing as another sign of a slowdown, saying the surprise move to cut reserve rates was triggered by a strong yuan and slowing export growth.
“As macro data reflect global slowdown and central banks blink ... rotation to defensives to accelerate,” they said, adding they expect defensives to outperform cyclical assets.
Flows since the start of the year indicate risk aversion in bonds and risk appetite in equities, a pattern BAML’s strategists labeled “schizophrenic”.
Commodities were easily the best-performing asset class of the year so far, returning 23 percent, while the U.S. dollar nursed losses of 9 percent since January, in price action the bank said was typical of this late stage in the economy.
“Last time asset performance ranked this way was in 2007,” strategists noted, striking an ominous tone.
Investors reversed sharply out of Japanese equities this week, driving record $5 billion outflows from the region after 19 straight weeks of inflows.
European stocks also suffered outflows of $2 billion, taking year-to-date flows into negative territory - reflecting the region’s fall from grace this year as macroeconomic data shows signs the “Euroboom” is slowing.
U.S. equities saw $5.1 billion of inflows while emerging markets drew in $3.7 billion.
Tech remained the most popular sector, drawing in $0.6 billion, while healthcare, energy, materials and financials all saw outflows.
BAML’s fund manager survey this week showed investors have been cutting down on their tech exposure, considering the sector the “most crowded” trade for the third month running.
In commodities, precious metals, whose prices have soared as Russian sanctions sparked fears of a supply squeeze, drew in strong inflows of $0.8 billion.
Italian and Greek equities topped the chart of “overbought” areas of the stock market, indicating investors’ newfound appetite for European periphery markets.
Article published April 19, 2018 on reuters.com
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