central
Page: 9
FILE PHOTO: A Spanish National Police car is seen outside the North Korea’s embassy in Madrid, Spain February 28, 2019. REUTERS/Sergio Perez/File Photo
April 23, 2019
(Reuters) – A former U.S. Marine who is a member of a group accused of raiding the North Korean embassy in Madrid in February and stealing electronics is scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles federal court on Tuesday for a detention hearing.
Christopher Ahn is expected to appear before Central District of California Magistrate Judge Jean Rosenbluth at 2 p.m. (2100 GMT), according to a court calendar posted online.
It is unclear what charges Ahn faces as the case has been sealed. A source familiar with the case told Reuters that the defense requested the case be sealed while prosecutors were willing to allow to have case records unsealed.
Ahn was arrested on Thursday and appeared on Friday in federal court, according to a law enforcement official and a source close to the group.
A U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the case last week.
Ahn was part of a group of at least 10 people accused of storming into the North Korean embassy in Madrid, where they restrained, beat up some personnel and held them hostage for hours before fleeing on Feb. 22, according to a Spanish court.
A judicial source in Madrid said last month that the group was trying to persuade a North Korean official there to defect, adding a Spanish judge wants the suspects extradited from United States.
Spanish investigators said the intruders, self-professed members of a group that calls itself Cheollima Civil Defense seeking the overthrow of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, removed computers and hard drives from the embassy before fleeing to the United States where they handed over the material to the FBI.
The FBI has returned the material to the Spanish court investigating the raid and a Spanish judicial source said last week that Spanish authorities had returned the material to Pyongyang’s mission.
The anti-Kim group, which also calls itself Free Joseon, said the raid was not an attack. It said had been invited into the embassy.
The incident came at a sensitive time, just days ahead of a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un at which the U.S. leader failed to make progress in efforts to persuade North Korea to give up a nuclear weapons program.
North Korea’s foreign ministry denounced the incident as a “grave terrorist attack” and cited rumors that the FBI was partially behind the raid. The U.S. State Department has said Washington had nothing to do with it.
(Writing by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Headquarters of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, is pictured in Beijing, China September 28, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo
April 23, 2019
By Kevin Yao
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s central bank is likely to pause to assess economic conditions before making any further moves to ease lenders’ reserve requirements, after better-than-expected growth data reduced the urgency for action, policy insiders said.
Although the central bank’s easing bias remains unchanged, it sees less room this year for cutting reserve requirement ratios (RRRs) – the share of cash banks must hold as reserves – as fiscal stimulus plays a bigger role in spurring growth, according to government advisers involved in internal policy discussions.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is also worried that pumping too much cash into the economy could reignite bubbles over time, the policy insiders said, and wants to save some of its policy ammunition.
“In the short term, it’s not necessary to use RRR cuts to boost economic growth,” one policy adviser told Reuters. “Monetary policy should leave some room – if economic uncertainties rise or economic conditions deteriorate, the central bank could ease policy.”
The chance of a cut in benchmark interest rates, meanwhile, has further diminished, as the central bank focuses on reforming its interest rate regime this year, the policy insiders said.
LESS ROOM FOR RRR CUTS
China’s economy grew a steady 6.4 percent in the first quarter, defying expectations of a further slowdown, with factory output, retail sales and investment in March all growing faster than expected following a raft of expansion-boosting measures in recent months.
Still, economists do not expect a sharp recovery in the world’s second-largest economy, as many private firms grapple with high funding costs, while external demand may weaken in the coming months as the world economy loses steam.
Optimism is rising, however, that China and the United States will reach a trade deal in coming weeks.
“The possibility of seeing big policy changes is not big. We may maintain the strength of policy support but it could become more structural,” said a second policy source.
The PBOC did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The PBOC has cut RRRs five times since the start of 2018, lowering the ratio to 13.5 percent for big banks and 11.5 percent for small-to medium-sized lenders.
Central bank Governor Yi Gang said in March that there was still some room to cut RRRs, but less so than a few years ago.
The PBOC is likely to cut RRRs for small banks to encourage more lending to small and private firms – which are vital for economic growth and job creation – said the policy insiders, who have penciled in at least one such “targeted” RRR cut this year.
“Monetary policy will maintain counter-cyclical adjustments and keep liquidity ample as interest rates should go lower for the real economy,” said one of the policy insiders.
A Reuters poll, conducted before the first-quarter data release on April 17, showed economists expected the central bank to deliver three more RRR cuts of 50 basis points in each of the remaining three quarters of 2019.
But the stronger-than-expected growth data compelled some economists to trim their forecasts for RRR cuts. UBS now expects another 100 bps cuts this year, with the next one likely in June-July, instead of the 200 bps it had forecast earlier.
ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTIES LINGER
A statement on Friday from the Politburo, a key decision-making body of the ruling Communist Party, said China would maintain policy support for the economy, which still faced “downward pressure” and difficulties.
Authorities would strike a balance between stabilizing economic growth, promoting reforms, controlling risks and improving livelihoods, the Politburo said, adding that China would move forward with structural efforts to control debt levels and prevent speculation in the property market.
First-quarter economic growth was backed by record new bank loans of 5.81 trillion yuan ($865.61 billion) and local government special bond issuance of 717.2 billion yuan, which rocketed ninefold from a year earlier.
Beijing has ramped up fiscal stimulus, unveiling tax and fee cuts amounting to 2 trillion yuan to ease burdens on firms, while allowing local governments to issue 2.15 trillion yuan of special bonds to fund infrastructure projects.
Chinese leaders have pledged to ensure economic stability in a year that will mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, while vowing not to adopt “flood-like” stimulus that could worsen debt and structural risks.
The government’s target range for 2019 growth is 6-6.5 percent but growth of about 6.2 percent is seen needed this year and the next to meet the party’s longstanding goal of doubling GDP and incomes in the decade to 2020.
China’s growth slowed to a 28-year low of 6.6 percent last year, and further cooling is expected this year.
(Reporting by Kevin Yao; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of the first exit poll in a presidential election at his campaign headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine April 21, 2019./File Photo
April 23, 2019
By Matthias Williams and Pavel Polityuk
KIEV (Reuters) – Before Ukraine’s new president Volodymyr Zelenskiy was even elected, an opposition leader was plotting to curb his powers and make it easier for him to be impeached.
Andriy Sadovyi, head of the Samopomich party, the second largest opposition group in parliament, announced two days before the vote he was garnering support for a parliamentary bill to weaken the presidency.
The opening salvo is a measure of the hostility that may be in store for Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old comedian who beat incumbent president, Petro Poroshenko, in Sunday’s election despite having no prior political experience or representation in parliament.
Zelenskiy is expected to take office next month. His ability to work with parliament, known as the Rada, will be crucial to meeting the expectations of his voters and passing reforms to keep foreign aid flowing.
Lawmakers from Samopomich and other parties feel the president has too many powers.
“Let him have responsibility like other political players, he cannot stand above the law,” Oksana Syroyid, a Samopomich lawmaker and deputy speaker in parliament told Reuters.
Zelenskiy’s powers will include appointing the head of the state security service, the head of the military, the general prosecutor, the central bank governor and the foreign and defense ministers.
But parliament must confirm each appointment and although Zelenskiy beat the incumbent decisively in the presidential vote and his party could win the largest number of seats in parliamentary elections in October it is unlikely to win an outright majority, opinion polls show.
This means he would need to ally with at least one other party if he is to get his election pledges enacted and his appointments approved. He has not indicated which parties he would be prepared to work with.
Adding to the hostility is his election promise for a bill to strip lawmakers, and himself, of immunity from prosecution.
Volodymyr Ariev, a lawmaker from Poroshenko’s faction, told Reuters it was unlikely that parliament would back that move because lawmakers fret about being prosecuted in political vendettas.
Zelenskiy also needs lawmakers to pass legislation that matters to the International Monetary Fund, Ukraine’s most important foreign backer, such as a bill to criminalize illegal enrichment by officials.
Stuart Culverhouse, Head of Sovereign and Fixed Income Research at Tellimer, said lawmakers might not back that bill until after October. This could lead to delays in IMF tranche disbursements under the $3.9 billion assistance program. The next one is due in May.
“This could be enough to burst the pre-election Zelenskiy market bubble,” he said.
Yields have fallen as investors became more comfortable with Zelenskiy and also because another presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko — who was hostile to some major reforms — was knocked out of the running.
POLITICAL PARALYSIS
Samopomich’s Syroyid said her party wants to strip the president of some powers, including the right to appoint the chairman of the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NEURC) who sets energy tariffs with the government.
“What do the tariffs have to do with the president? Today he (the president) has influence – he appoints the chairman of the NEURC.”
Tymoshenko, another opposition leader who ran in the election against Zelenskiy, has previously also called for the president’s powers to be curbed.
“It may be necessary to… more clearly define what the president can and cannot do,” Oleksiy Riabchyn, a lawmaker in Tymoshenko’s party told Reuters.
The government is led by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, who was appointed by Poroshenko. He is expected to stay in power until the October election. If Zelenskiy wins enough seats in parliament, he is expected to form a new government.
This means that until those elections, he may struggle to make any significant changes.
“Until the October parliamentary election Mr Zelenskiy’s team will need to secure the support of various factions in the current legislature in order to pass policies,” said Agnese Ortolani, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.
“This might prove difficult, as part of the political elite is likely to attempt to paralyse Mr Zelenskiy’s presidency.”
Zelenskiy could try and bring forward the parliamentary election now while his popularity may be at a peak. But he would only be able to do that with parliament’s blessing.
“If parliament does not support the president’s initiatives it will be very hard to explain to Ukraine’s voters why not,” Dmytro Razumkov, an adviser to Zelenskiy’s campaign, told Reuters.
“It’s up to lawmakers. I hope their political survival instincts will dominate.”
(Additional reporting by Polina Ivanova; editing by Anna Willard)
Source: OANN
A security personnel observes three minutes of silence as a tribute to victims, two days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, near St Anthony Shrine in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
April 23, 2019
By Marius Zaharia and Vidya Ranganathan
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Sri Lanka faces a likely collapse in tourism following Easter Sunday bomb attacks on churches and hotels, which would deal a severe blow to the island’s economy and financial markets, and potentially force it to seek further IMF assistance.
The International Monetary Fund extended last month a $1.5 billion loan for an extra year into 2020, a key step in keeping foreign investors involved in what so far this year has been a top-performing frontier debt market.
But with growth, and therefore state revenues, now likely to slow significantly, the budget targets agreed with the IMF may have to be reviewed, and the government is expected to resist pressure for any spending cuts before elections expected later this year.
There is even a possibility that more IMF money may be needed if foreign investment falls, adding to the hard currency gap left by plunging tourism receipts.
“If growth slows a lot more and the budget deficit assumptions need to be reassessed, then they’ll have to sit down and negotiate something more feasible,” said Alex Holmes, Asia economist at Capital Economics.
The Sri Lankan stock index dived 2.6 percent on Tuesday in its first day of trading after the attacks that killed more than 300 people, while the heavily-managed rupee held steady.
Tourism is Sri Lanka’s third-largest and fastest growing source of foreign currency, after remittances and garment exports, accounting for almost $4.4 billion or 4.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018.
A fall in tourism receipts is bound to weaken the rupee over time. The central bank, whose coffers are too light to defend the currency through interventions, is likely to have to raise interest rates.
This, in turn, would choke lending, hurting consumers and the investment plans of local businesses, while also making it more costly for the government to seek funding from foreign investors via bond markets.
“The central bank may be forced to hike rates again this year,” said Win Thin, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH).
“With foreign reserves very low right now, the central bank cannot actively support the rupee.”
After falling 16 percent against the U.S. dollar last year to record lows, the rupee had gained 4.6 percent this year as of last week.
Sri Lankan bonds have been among the best performing globally, only bettered by Argentina and Chile. But the main stock index has lost about 10 percent.
WEAK FINANCES
Sri Lanka’s external position was already precarious.
To help fund a record $5.9 billion in foreign loans this year, the country successfully sold $2.4 billion in five-year and 10-year U.S. dollar bonds last month, but that was right after the IMF extension and amid bets of looser monetary policy.
(GRAPHIC: Sri Lanka’s precarious balance of payments – https://tmsnrt.rs/2IAqHKj)
In January, Sri Lanka used its reserves to repay debt worth $1 billion. It had about $5 billion left in February, the least since April 2017, and only enough to cover two months of imports and about two-thirds of its short-term external debt, according to BBH calculations.
Colombo also needs to finance a current account deficit of about 3 percent of GDP.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is already facing heavy criticism domestically for higher taxes, and tight monetary and fiscal policies that have crimped growth to a 17-year low.
Having emerged from a 51-day political crisis in which President Maithripala Sirisena sacked and replaced him with pro-China former president Mahinda Rajapaksa – a decision which was later reversed – Wickremesinghe set an ambitious fiscal deficit goal of 4.4 percent of GDP, compared with 5.3 percent in 2018.
But he also boosted spending on state employees, pensioners and the armed forces and promised more funds for rural infrastructure, leading economists to doubt the targets. A presidential vote is expected later this year followed by a general election in 2020.
“Given the fact they have repayments coming up for sovereign bonds, it could lead to more pressure on foreign currency reserves. So, it’s a near term negative for the tourism sector and also market sentiment as well,” said Ruchir Desai, fund manager at Asia Frontier Capital, who co-manages the $16 million AFC Asia Frontier Fund.
“Valuations are cheap, no doubt… but until they get some kind of political unity which can result in stable policy-making, we will probably remain underweight (equities) until the elections.”
(Reporting by Marius Zaharia in HONG KONG, Vidya Ranganathan in SINGAPORE and Daniel Leussink in TOKYO; Writing by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Kim Coghill)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Benoit Coeure, board member of the European Central Bank (ECB), is photographed during an interview with Reuters journalists at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
April 23, 2019
BERLIN (Reuters) – European Central Bank board member Benoit Coeure sees no reason for creating a tiered deposit rate that exempts banks from part of an ECB charge on their idle cash, he said in an interview published on Tuesday.
Coeure argued that lenders should focus on their costs rather than blame the ECB’s negative rate for their low profits and hinted that the upcoming round of multi-year loans to banks should not be as generous as the previous edition.
“At the current juncture, I do not see the monetary policy argument for tiering,” Coeure told German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “However, we must keep a close eye on developments.”
He was joining other members of the ECB’s Governing Council in expressing reservations about a tiered system, which would relieve banks from paying a 0.40 percent annual charge on a portion of their excess reserves.
Such a set-up, already introduced in countries including Japan and Switzerland, would make it easier for the ECB to keep its deposit rate at record lows for longer or even cut it, by easing the burden on banks.
The ECB has said it won’t raise rates at least until the end of the year but financial markets don’t price in a rate hike until 2021.
In his interview, Coeure distanced himself from those expectations.
“We are not tied to such market expectations; they are an important input, but we are not led by them,” Coeure said, adding they reflected “an assessment of the downside risks which is different to that of the Governing Council”.
Coeure added that the terms of the ECB’s new Targeted Long-Term Financing Operations, likely to be unveiled in June, would reflect the improved lending conditions compared to when the previous round of cheap loans was introduced in 2016.
Finally, he stuck to ECB expectations for a rebound in growth, albeit with a degree of uncertainty.
“We expect growth to return in the second half of the year. There are no grounds for overly gloomy thoughts,” he said. “On the other hand, it is very uncertain how long and how strong the downturn will be.”
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Writing by Francesco Canepa in Frankfurt; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev speaks during his meeting with South Korea’s counterpart Moon Jae-in in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan April 22, 2019. REUTERS/Mukhtar Kholdorbekov
April 23, 2019
NUR-SULTAN (Reuters) – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Tuesday secured veteran leader Nursultan Nazarbayev’s backing to run in the June 9 snap presidential election, virtually guaranteeing Tokayev’s victory.
Nazarbayev, who leads the oil-rich Central Asian nation’s biggest political party, Nur Otan, asked party members at a pre-election congress on Tuesday to officially nominate Tokayev.
(Reporting by Tamara Vaal; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Darren Schuettler)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A security guard walks past in front of the Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo, Japan January 23, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato
April 23, 2019
By Leika Kihara
TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan is ready to ramp up stimulus, including through a combination of various steps, if the economy loses momentum for hitting its 2 percent inflation target, a senior central bank official said on Tuesday.
Eiji Maeda, the BOJ’s executive director overseeing monetary policy, added that any further step must take into account the impact it has not just on the economy but on the banking system.
“If the economy’s momentum for achieving our price target is threatened, we are ready to ease monetary policy as necessary,” Maeda told parliament.
The BOJ has various means available to ease, such as cutting interest rates, boosting asset purchases and accelerating the pace of money printing, he said.
“The BOJ has actively taken various unconventional steps. We’ll continue to take steps as needed, including a combination of them, with an eye on their effects and side-effects,” Maeda said.
At a two-day rate review ending on Thursday, the BOJ is widely expected to keep monetary policy steady even as its latest prediction will likely show inflation missing its target through the fiscal year that ends in March 2022.
The BOJ is in a bind. Years of heavy money printing have failed to fire up inflation to its 2 percent target and left it with little ammunition to fight the next recession.
Prolonged easing has also added to pains for regional banks, already facing slumping profits due to an ageing population and an exodus of borrowers to big cities.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Chris Gallagher & Kim Coghill)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A U.S. five dollar note is seen in this illustration photo June 1, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration
April 23, 2019
By Daniel Leussink
TOKYO (Reuters) – The dollar trod water against other major currencies in early Asian trade on Tuesday, while the Canadian dollar was supported by rising crude oil prices due to U.S. plans to tighten a clamp down on Iranian oil exports from next month.
Financial markets in Australian and New Zealand reopened after the long Easter holiday, and were set to reopen across Europe later in the day.
The dollar index against a basket of six key rivals was a shade higher at 97.345, still near a 2019 high of 97.71 struck in early March.
The greenback has firmed in recent weeks on the back of higher U.S. 10-year Treasury yields and signs of strength in the U.S. economy following a weak start of the year.
Data released overnight showed U.S. existing home sales fell more than expected in March amid supply constraints, and figures for new home sales will be released later in the global day.
While those may provide some pointers to the state of the U.S. economy, a clearer picture should emerge from the gross domestic product report set for release on Friday.
“Investors will be looking for an increase in volatility in the days ahead as traders return to desks and earnings season in the U.S. steps up,” said Nick Twidale, chief operating officer at Rakuten Securities Australia in Sydney.
“This week could give a strong indication of whether the dramatic dovish turn from global central banks, and in particular the Fed, over the last few months has been enough to change the global growth dynamic,” he said in a note.
The dollar edged down 0.1 percent to 111.84 yen, moving off a high for this year of 112.17 hit last Wednesday.
The greenback’s moves against the euro and sterling were small, with those units largely holding steady at $1.1252 and $1.2975, respectively.
The Canadian dollar held firm after oil prices rallied to near six-month highs overnight on news that Washington plans to eliminate waivers next month for eight countries to buy Iranian oil without facing U.S. sanctions.
With the jump in the price of oil, one of Canada’s major exports, the loonie held steady at $0.7492, having gained more than a third of a percent during the previous session.
(Graphic: World FX rates in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh)
(Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
Source: OANN
A combination of file photos shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending a wreath laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam March 2, 2019 and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin looking on during a joint news conference with South African President Jacob Zuma after their meeting at the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Krasnodar region, Russia, May 16, 2013. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/Pool/Maxim Shipenkov/Pool
April 22, 2019
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will visit Russia for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean state media confirmed.
State media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the visit will happen “soon,” but did not elaborate the time or the venue.
Putin and Kim are on track to meet by the end of April, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Members of the U.S. trade delegation Robert Lighthizer and Steven Mnuchin arrive at a hotel in Beijing, China March 28, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee
April 22, 2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Monday that his agency’s general counsel, Stephen Vaughn, will depart the Trump administration in coming weeks and be replaced by veteran Washington lawyer Joseph Barloon.
Barloon is a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP. Both he and Vaughn worked with Lighthizer at the Washington office of Skadden, Arps for years, as did Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish.
Vaughn “has played a central role in shaping and implementing the president’s trade policies, especially related to China and the World Trade Organization,” Lighthizer said.
Vaughn, who represented United States Steel Corp alongside Lighthizer for years, handled the legal aspects of USTR’s “Section 301” investigation into China’s trade and intellectual property practices, which led to tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports and current U.S.-China trade negotiations.
Barloon, who specializes in government enforcement actions along with civil and criminal investigations at Skadden Arps, would bring “legal expertise and sound judgment” to USTR’s trade negotiations and efforts to rebalance trade and reform global trading rules, Lighthizer said.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Source: OANN
MAGA One Radio