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Daily Overview of Global Markets & the SEE Region (Tuesday, 21 May, 2019)
HIGHLIGHTS
WORLD ECONOMIC & MARKET DEVELOPMENTS
GLOBAL MARKETS: Asian bourses posted modest gains today after the US administration temporarily eased trade restrictions imposed last week on China’s Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker. On the flip side, European equity markets opened in positive territory earlier today, but gains were limited on the back of lingering worries over whether a US/China trade deal could finally be agreed upon. In addition, market anxiety ahead of the European elections that will be held from Thursday to Sunday continued to have an impact. In FX markets, the GBP remained under broad pressure amid mounting political uncertainty. UK PM Theresa May will reportedly convene a cabinet meeting today to consider how to respond to the collapse of the cross-party talks with the Labour Party ahead of Thursday’s European elections where, according to recent opinion polls, the Conservative Party’s performance will probably be the worst in recent history.
GREECE: The plenary of the Council of State definitively decided that the wage and allowance cuts in the public sector under Law 4093/2012 are not unconstitutional and hence the request for their retroactive payment was rejected. The said decision reportedly affects c. 610,000 public servants, and if their wages and allowances were to be retroactively restored, the fiscal impact would be significant. On the economic data front, according to the Hellenic Statistical Authority, the overall turnover index in industry in March 2019 decreased by 6.7% YoY while in March 2018, the respective rate of change was +3.4%.
SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
CYPRUS: Non-performing exposures (NPEs) edged up by €47mn in the first month of the year, leaving the NPEs ratio unchanged at 30.3%.
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