Diamond News Archives
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of top business economists believes the major tax cuts President Donald Trump pushed through Congress will give a significant boost to economic growth this year and next year. But they worry that by 2020, the country could be entering a new recession.
The National Association for Business Economics says in its latest quarterly outlook that its panel of 45 economists expects the economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, to expand 2.8 percent this year. That is down slightly from the panel’s March forecast, which put GDP growth this year at 2.9 percent.
The NABE economists are “slightly less optimistic about the U.S. economy in 2018 than they were three months ago,” says NABE vice president Kevin Swift, chief economist at the American Chemistry Council.
Part of the drop-off in optimism reflects growing worries about what Trump’s get-tough approach on trade might do to U.S. growth prospects.
Three-fourths of the NABE panel believes that current trade policies will have a negative impact on the economy. Trump last week imposed penalty tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from major U.S. trading partners — the European Union, Canada and Mexico — and he has threatened tariffs on up to $200 billion in Chinese imports, moves that could trigger a global trade war as the targeted nations pledge to retaliate.
The NABE forecasting panel was upbeat on the near-term impacts of the $1.5 trillion tax cut that Congress passed in December. The median expectation is that the cuts in individual and corporate taxes will boost growth by 0.4 percentage points this year and 0.3 percentage points next year.
The forecasters said the economy should grow 2.7 percent in 2019 after their projected 2.8 percent GDP growth this year. Both...
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Angola, the world’s fifth-largest diamond producer, is working on easing up its restrictive legislation over the industry in order to attract more foreign investment, up production and secure higher government revenue.
The country has historically had in place limiting rules over diamond operations, including not allowing foreigners to hold a majority stake and a requirement to sell all precious stones mined there through a central state-owned government agency.
Newly elected President, Joao Lourenço, wants to change all of that and so allow the second-largest oil producing country to diversify its economy, which has been hit by a sustained fall crude prices.
“We recognize that the policies for this sector, established by us, do not best serve the interests of the country nor of the producers,” Lourenço said Wednesday according to Reuters.
The President has also announced plans to double the country’s diamond production to 14 million carats in the next four years as vast areas of Angola remain under-explored due to 27 years of civil war and a closed, complex business environment since fighting ended in 2002.
The post Angola eases controls over diamond sector, to double output in four years appeared first on MINING.com....
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Will investors really forget about Italy so soon after last week’s turmoil?
Telling parliament that a “new wind” was blowing in Italy, newly installed Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Tuesday served up a reminder that the coalition government he heads remains on a collision course with its eurozone partners and financial markets as they attempt to shake off years of austerity.
In his maiden speech, Conte, the little-known academic tapped to lead the government formed by the antiestablishment 5 Star Movement and the hard-right League, promised to implement the pair’s main fiscal policy priorities. These include cutting corporate and individual taxes to as low as 15% and expanding welfare benefits to the country’s poor and unemployed.
Those measures are estimated to add around 70 billion euros ($82.1 billion), equal to around 4% of gross domestic product, said Nick Kounis and Aline Schuilling, economists at ABN Amro, in a note. They would also push the government debt-to-gross domestic product ratio to 180% in 2030, up from around 132% in 2017.
In addition to violating the EU’s budget rules, that’s unsurprisingly unwelcome news for Italian government bonds, where yields jumped on Tuesday.
“If these fiscal risks were to materialize, Italian assets would see significant more downside. In a sign that Prime Minister Conte would not easily yield to pressure from Europe to stick to the fiscal rules, he talked up Italy’s ‘negotiating power,” the economists wrote. “Indeed, the Italian government would not lay down as easily as the government of Greece has over the years, when faced with a confrontation with Brussels and Berlin.”
The yield on the two-year Italian note TMBMKIT-02Y, +19.19%[1] ...
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(IDEX Online) – Belgium’s polished diamond exports increased by 5% in May, according to data from the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC).<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?>
Polished exports rose 5.0% on the year in May to $1.12 billion, with a rise of almost 4% in carat terms.
Increases were more modest in the January-May period, rising by 0.6% to $5.09 billion, with an increase in carat terms of just 0.2% to 2.11 million carats.
Rough imports dropped 14% on the year in May to $1.06 billion, with a 24% drop in carat terms. In the January-May period, however, rough imports rose 7.5% to $5.02 billion.
The AWDC reported a big jump in exports to Switzerland in May, likely due to the Baselworld and Geneva International Gem & Jewellery Show trade shows that took place last month.
Exports to the US in May rose 6% to $438.8 million while slumping 18.7% in volume. Meanwhile, shipments to Hong Kong dropped 17% to $130 million, but jumped by 12.7% in carat terms....
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One of these indicators isn’t like the other one.
Take Citi’s Macro Surprise Index for the US and compare it to the NASDAQ index and The Fed Funds Target Rate (Upper Bound).
In 2018, both The Fed Funds Target Rate (upper bound) and NASDAQ Composite index have risen. But the Citi Macro Surprise index has fallen over 2018.
And then there is Italy which is threatening to leave the Euro. Its 10-year sovereign yield is up 26.6 basis points today.
Vesuvius Redux?
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