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| Bank Negara's foreign reserves fall by US$300m on Aug 15 BANKING Tuesday, 21 Aug 2018 3:27 PM MYT KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia’s international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia fell by US$300mil to US$104.2bil as at Aug 15, 2018 as the local unit weakened against the greenback. This was a decline from the US$104.5bil as at July 31. “The reserves position is sufficient to finance 7.6 months of retained imports and is 0.9 times the short-term external debt,” the central bvank announced on Tuesday. The ringgit was was trading at 4.1030 to the US dollar on Aug 15 and at 4.0605 on July 31. Bank Negara said the short-term external debt is mostly accounted by banking institutions, reflecting the centralisation of liquidity management of Malaysian banks operating in the region and the sizeable presence of foreign banks in Malaysia. “These institutions hold substantial external assets, which can be drawn upon to meet their external obligations without creating a claim on Bank Negara Malaysia’s international reserves,” it said. - The Star Online |
Brace for extremely hard economic times? And, 'thank' the BN for it!
https://youtu.be/OnY1WQPZwAk (Economic Collapse Confirmed! Most Credible Video Ever!)
The above video link was posted by ProjectClarity on July 22, 2016.
It has to date registered more than a million views and 1,597 comments.
Perhaps, and arguably, Malaysians have done themselves a great favour in the May 9 14th General Election (GE14) by dumping the super corrupt Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN), ending its 61-year rule.
However, the new Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government had inherited an almost useless corrupt Putrajaya administration that had run up a more than RM1 trillion federal debt.
And Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has advised Malaysians to tighten their belts, spend and live prudently in the coming economic hard times rocked by a global economic meltdown.
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| Construction work in the Grand Canal Dock area of Dublin. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images Ten years on, how countries that crashed are faring A decade of austerity has had a lasting legacy for eurozone members Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Spain Phillip Inman Sat 16 Jun 2018 16.00 BSTLast modified on Sat 16 Jun 2018 22.00 BST Ireland Three years after it was saved from bankruptcy in 2010 with a €67.5bn rescue loan, Ireland became the first stricken eurozone state to stand on its own two feet. Dramatic austerity measures, including steep cuts to many public sector workers’ pay, had satisfied the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund that their loans would be safely paid back. The finance minister at the time, Michael Noonan, was quick to dampen the celebrations with a warning against ever allowing another property bubble to grow and burst. The crash, he said, caused the country’s worst period since the potato famine of the 19th century … for more, go to https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/16/ireland-portugal-greece-spain-ten-years-after-crash-austerity |
Perhaps, the hard economic times would be that much less devastating on Malaysians if the BN federal government was toppled much earlier.
However, Malaysians should not cry over spilled milk but start preparing for the reality to face the hard times and, supporting and rebuilding Malaysia’s economy.
Like everything else, be it political, economic or social, unity and stability are the foundations for conducive domestic growth environments.
The fact that Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has taken the unpopular decision to introduce new taxes shows the BN had left a super rotten financial kitty in Putrajaya.
Also, the fact that Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM)’s international reserves fell by US$300 million to US$104.2 billion as at Aug 15, 2018, speaks volumes of the dire straits of Malaysia’s financial standing.
Just ask yourself this: Malaysia’s federal debt is more than RM1 trillion but its reserve is only about RM416 billion. But the super corrupt individual Malaysians have stolen and stashed hundreds of millions or billions of ringgit! Thank the BN for ‘successfully’ leading Malaysians and Malaysia to a bright future.
"WORLDWIDE BLOODBATH – 1MDB INDEBTED MALAYSIA WILL BE BADLY HIT: DOW CRASHES 832 POINTS, ‘GEOPOLITICAL RECESSION’ IS HERE AS U.S. WORLD ORDER STARTS TO END UNDER TRUMP
Business, Politics | October 12, 2018
Overnight Dow Jones futures indicated that the Dow will open Thursday market down by 377.74 points. That means the stock markets around the world will continue to plunge after the DJIA closed 831.83 lower on Wednesday. That’s the third biggest stock market plunges this year, after February 5 (1,175-point drop) and February 8 (1,033-point drop).
Dropping like rock, the Nasdaq Composite plummeted 4% or 315.97 points. Even the S&P 500 lost 3.29% (94.66 points) and small cap Russell 2000 shed 2.86% (46.45 points). The technology stocks was beaten so terrible that Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos lost US$9.1 billion, lowering the billionaire’s net worth to US$145.2 billion – lowest since July.
Oracle of Obama – Warren Buffett – was among the biggest losers when the Wednesday market bloodbath saw his net worth slid US$4.5 billion, while Europe’s wealthiest person, Bernard Arnault, also lost US$4.5 billion as shares of his luxury empire LVMH (Louis Vuitton) fell. Overall, the fortunes of theworld’s 500 wealthiest people were down by a staggering US$99 billion.
The world’s 67 wealthiest tech moguls, including Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg, had US$32.1 billion wiped out from their pocket. America’s billionaires were the hardest hit – US$54.5 billion evaporated into thin air. And U.S. President Donald Trump feels the heat as the mid-term November election is about to kick in.
But it didn’t take him too long to point his finger at the culprit. Trump has essentially thrown the Federal Reserve under the bus when he said – “Actually, it’s a correction that we’ve been waiting for a long time, but I really disagree with what the Fed is doing. I think the Fed is making a mistake. They are so tight. I think the Fed has gone crazy.”
The Fed has raised interest rates 3 times this year and is expected to hike once more before year-end. Market expectations for a December rate hike were as high as 76.3%. The most recent September rate hike drew criticism from President Trump. However Fed Chair Jerome Powell thinks otherwise, that interest rates have further room to rise.
Trump, who is known to quickly take credits whenever the stock market hits new records, has every reason to worry about Wednesday’s crash. Normally, a stock market sell-off sets off a buying spree in Treasurys, as investors look for security in the more steady government debt market. But that SOP (standard operating procedure) didn’t happen on Wednesday.
Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group, said – “There’s no flight to safety in bonds. That’s a sea change.” Larry McDonald, head of U.S. macro strategies at ACG Analytics, said – “Something occurred in markets today that has been extremely rare this decade.” The unusual trade could be a warning that there will be more stock market selling ahead.
During the past 20 years, whenever the S&P 500 lost more than 2% in a month, Treasurys outperformed. Perhaps the steepness of Wednesday’s stock market sell-off was nothing but an overdue major correction. Some strategists suggest the market is also concerned about trade wars with China and the impact on corporate profits and on the global economy.
However, prominent political analyst Ian Bremmer thinks something much bigger – and deadlier – could be brewing. He believes the world is entering a “geopolitical recession”. Speaking at the ANZ Finance & Treasury Forum in Singapore, Bremmer said – “This geopolitical recession is something really simple – it’s the end of the U.S.-led global order. And we don’t know what is replacing it yet.”
Bremmer has suggested that a new economic downturn would lead to greater fragmentation across the globe. A major reason for the current political disruption is that the “geopolitical order is no longer as aligned with the United States and its allies”, thanks to deterioration in relationships between Americans and Europeans, not to mention the Chinese.
Similarly, the World Bank agrees that the U.S.-China trade tensions are sending shivers down the global financial markets. World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said there are risks from trade growth going down and many low income countries becoming more indebted. He said – “We’re worried abouttrade tensions. It’s a troubling picture.”
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already warned that “a further escalation of trade tensions, as well as rising geopolitical risks and policy uncertainty in major economies, could lead to a sudden deterioration in risk sentiment.” Now, Steen Jakobsen, chief investment officer of Saxo Bank, has issued a new warning – U.S. markets are “going it alone” and investors are underestimating the risk in the economy.
So far, China has taken the necessary beatings as a result of the trade war with America. The Chinese tumbling stocks were being laughed at just a week ago. Some arrogant U.S. analysts had even proudly declared that U.S. stocks were weathering the escalating trade war far better than China’s. Obviously, they hadn’t expected the Wednesday’s crash.
Trump appears to be trembling, even panicking, at the sight of Wall Street as the mid-term election closes in. Chinese President Xi Jinping, on the other hand, doesn’t face much political pressure from his country’s 1.4-billion population. Why do you think the Chinese attacked American soybeans? Xi doesn’t give a hoot about the poor people in China, let alone American farmers.
China’s stock market plunge will not force President Xi to give up on its trade war with the United States. Perhaps Wednesday crash could be the beginning of U.S. stock market’s turn to get hammered. The rising interest rates probably were just an excuse used by big boys to take money off the table. This could be the beginning of global recession feared as a result of the China-US trade war. – Finance Twitter/Malaysia Chronicle"
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| Athens last year. Greece got the green light for the next round of bailout aid and has won additional pledges of debt relief. CreditFotis Plegas G./Associated Press Explaining Greece’s Debt Crisis By THE NEW YORK TIMES JUNE 17, 2016 What’s the latest? European authorities have authorized handing 7.5 billion euros, or $8.4 billion, in bailout aid to Greece, which will allow the country to keep paying its bills in the coming months. It has also won additional pledges of debt relief, helping to ease concerns about another crisis in Greece at a time when Europe is dealing with an influx of migrants and a continuing terrorist threat. Debt relief has been a contentious issue for creditors, with the International Monetary Fund and Germany lining up on opposite sides. The I.M.F. has insisted that Greece cannot meet its budget goals without easing its debts, while Germany remains skeptical of cutting Athens more slack. They have reached a compromise, of sorts. Greece’s creditors committed to debt relief, although not until 2018 at the earliest, provided the country continues to carry out painful changes … for more, go to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/business/international/greece-debt-crisis-euro.html |
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