Asia:
Xi Jinping’s Debt Clampdown Has Left a Trail of Dead Projects
A pile of rusty pipes and materials are all that remain of Lanzhou New Area’s tram project. Only a year ago it was a flagship public-private partnership for the planned city in Central China, before it fell victim to President Xi Jinping’s debt clampdown. Xi wants to neutralize the risk of soaring debt derailing growth that accounts for more than a third of the global economic expansion. He reinforced that aim at a twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress in October and at the annual Central Economic Work Conference in December, where elite cadres set goals for 2018. Economists and policy makers see the restraints on borrowing as a necessary step toward choking off some of the nation’s construction and investment excesses and building a more sustainable economy.
Europe:
Ample time’ before next Bank of England rate move needed: Tenreyro
The Bank of England probably has “ample time” before it needs to consider raising interest rates again after its first hike in more than a decade in November, BoE policymaker Silvana Tenreyro said on Monday. Tenreyro said she felt comfortable at last month’s rate-setting meeting to keep on monitoring the impact of the 25 basis-point increase the BoE announced on Nov. 2. In her speech on Monday, Tenreyro said she expected that a couple more increases in Bank Rate would be needed over the next three years. Her comments echoed those of BoE Governor Mark Carney and other top officials at the central bank.
U.S.:
U.S. oil industry set to break record, upend global trade
Surging shale production is poised to push U.S. oil output to more than 10 million barrels per day – toppling a record set in 1970 and crossing a threshold few could have imagined even a decade ago. And this new record, expected within days, likely won’t last long. The U.S. government forecasts that the nation’s production will climb to 11 million barrels a day by late 2019, a level that would rival Russia, the world’s top producer.The economic and political impacts of soaring U.S. output are breathtaking, cutting the nation’s oil imports by a fifth over a decade, providing high-paying jobs in rural communities and lowering consumer prices for domestic gasoline by 37 percent from a 2008 peak. U.S. energy exports now compete with Middle East oil for buyers in Asia. Daily trading volumes of U.S. oil futures contracts have more doubled in the past decade, averaging more than 1.2 billion barrels per day in 2017, according to exchange operator CME Group.
