U.S. business economists are slightly more optimistic about economic growth than they were three months ago, and most foresee sales at their companies remaining solid. Those findings emerge from the latest survey by the National Association for Business Economics being released Monday. It found that 67 per cent of the business economists who responded to […]
An international outbreak of respiratory illness sparked by a novel coronavirus has spread from its origins in central China to at least 11 countries, with more than 1,200 confirmed cases and over 40 deaths. Like previous outbreaks, including the SARS virus 17 years ago, the flu-like disease poses a risk to economies around the world […]
With the global economy recently experiencing some significant tailwinds, will that backdrop be enough to push emerging markets, especially Asian economies, to outperform? Signs of stabilization are peeking through, with central banks acting as the key heroes by providing stimulus, said Eric Lascelles, chief economist at RBC Global Asset Management Inc., in a webinar on […]
Several factors are pointing to a possible rebound in emerging market stocks this year. Stocks in China and other developing economies notched solid gains in 2019, but lagged the blockbuster market returns delivered by publicly traded companies in the U.S. and other developed economies. The U.S.-China trade war and signs of slowing global economic growth […]
Low interest rates and reduced trade tensions will likely buoy the global economy over the next two years and help nurture steady if modest growth. That’s the view of the International Monetary Fund, which foresees world economic growth accelerating from 2.9 per cent last year to 3.3 per cent in 2020 and 3.4 per cent […]
The outgoing head of Quebec’s pension fund manager says the U.S.-China trade war threatens to fan protectionism and cleave economies in what amounts to “the defining conflict of our time.” Michael Sabia, who is slated to step down as chief executive officer of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec in February, said Thursday […]
While the amount of alternative assets in institutional portfolios is holding relatively steady, the type of investments making up allocations to alternatives are shifting. Current allocations to alternatives rose just one per cent to 25 per cent since 2018, according to the latest research from EY. While hedge funds remain the largest contributor to the […]
Four in five (80 per cent) global institutional investors are planning to significantly or moderately increase their allocations to investments in China over the next 12 months, according to a survey commissioned by Invesco. The survey of 411 asset owners and institutional investors from North America, Asia Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa, […]
Depressed bond yields are stoking institutional investor concerns over global growth prospects for the coming year. “We’ve seen a similar pattern across the world,” said Alec Young, managing director of global markets research at FTSE Russell, in a webinar on Tuesday. Alongside struggling yields, other leading economic indicators, including U.S. manufacturing data, have markets increasingly worried. However, […]
China’s debt problem is serious, but the risk of a hard landing or banking crisis is, in my view, low. The reason is that the potential bad debts are corporate, not household, debts and were made at the direction of the state—by state-controlled banks to state-owned enterprises, as part of a stimulus in response to […]