FURTHER FURTHER READING
- JP Morgan investors shrug off 27 days of bad press.
- The key US economic risk.
- The possible ripple effects of the sharing economy.
- Your mortgage documents are fake!
- The submerging economies.
ROUND-UP
Japan growth figures add noise not clarity to sales tax debate: "The debate over raising Japan's national sales tax was already noisy. But Monday's second-quarter growth figures will force the volume even higher, doing little to add any clarity. The 2.6 per cent annualised expansion in gross domestic product would have been seen as a straightforward blessing at almost any time in the past 20 years. It was the third consecutive quarter of growth and the rate was almost three times greater than the average during Japan's "lost" two decades." (Financial Times)
US seeks better access to Africa as part of trade pact review: "The US will launch a review of its 13-year-old preferential trade agreement with sub-Saharan Africa on Monday that will consider asking the region to offer better commercial access to American companies. The African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), originally crafted under President Bill Clinton in 2000 and renewed by George W Bush, has become a cornerstone of US-Africa economic relations worth $58bn for business on both sides of the Atlantic. But it is due to expire in 2015, just as growth in Africa gains traction and global competition to attract trade and investment deals there intensifies." (Financial Times)
India's SUV boom runs out of gas: "India's car sales contracted for a record ninth consecutive month in July, as sales of sports utility vehicles, previously the industry's only bright spot, fell for the first time in four years. The country has been hit by sluggish economic growth and high interest rates that have curtailed demand in a once-booming market that has attracted billion-dollar bets from almost all of the world's major carmakers." (Financial Times)
Mexico opens up energy sector: "President Enrique Peña Nieto has unveiled plans to change Mexico's constitution and open up the country's energy sector to foreign investors for the first time in 75 years, a move that could unleash billions of dollars of investment from oil majors struggling to find new resources elsewhere. His proposal to loosen the grip on Mexican energy of Pemex, the state oil monopoly, and invite in companies such as ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, is potentially the country's biggest overhaul since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994." (Financial Times)
Foreign banks brace for India regulatory shake-up: "Standard Chartered, Citigroup and HSBC – the three largest foreign banks operating in India – are bracing themselves for a regulatory shake-up in the country that will, in effect, force them to set up separately capitalised local subsidiaries. The Reserve Bank of India's new policy on overseas banks is "imminent", and will potentially be unveiled as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the situation." (Financial Times)
