HIGHLIGHTS
WORLD ECONOMIC & MARKET DEVELOPMENTS
GLOBAL MARKETS: Trade frictions between the US and its major trading partners continued to escalate. According to Sunday’s US press reports, the US Treasury Department is crafting rules to: (i) bar firms with at least 25% Chinese ownership from investing in US companies involved in “industrially significant technology” and; (ii) to block additional technology exports to China. In addition, the US President threatened on Friday to impose an extra 20% tariff on all cars imported from the EU cars unless the EU reduces its trade barriers to US companies. In reaction to the above, risk sentiment took a decidedly sour turn while government bonds firmed. Sunday’s informal summit in Brussels failed to yield a tangible result on how refugee and migration flows should be handled. As a result, this week’s EU Summit (28-29 June) might prove critical for the stability of Germany’s coalition government.
GREECE: According to press reports, the Bank of Greece will carry out its own debt sustainability analysis (DSA) for Greece, which will be published in the BoG July 2 interim report. According to the latest Bank of Greece data for the period January to April 2018, travel receipts reached €1,047 million, higher by 7.4% YoY (+0.1%YoY in January-April 2017) and inbound traveler flows stood at 2,902 thousand up by 11.5%YoY (+3.2% YoY in January-April 2017). On the negative side, for the period January to April 2018, the average non-resident expenditure per trip in Greece fell to €348.9 from €360.1 in the same period of the previous year.
SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
BULGARIA: The main Bulgarian equity SOFIX index advanced by 0.5% on a weekly basis on Friday. Elsewhere, external and local-currency government bonds ended little changed.
SERBIA: The EUR/RSD ended the week little changed just below the 118 level, with renewed Central Bank interventions in the FX markets offsetting appreciation pressures on the dinar.
TURKEY: Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan won another term in office in the first round of Sunday’s dual snap elections, while his ruling AKP and partner MHP also secured parliamentary majority in a separate ballot.
Viewers can log herebelow and read the full report: Daily Overview June 25 2018
