Monday 8th - BESA Times
Seventieth Edition - Monday 8th Every week a complete snapshot of what happened around the world in the past seven days
The US and China pushed back the timing of a possible trade deal
The two powerful countries announced the deal has been delayed, announcing it may happen in May, the earliest. It is therefore unlikely for the two presidents to meet and come to an agreement regarding their tariff war in the next month. This comes shortly after the US and Chines officials were getting closer and closer to having a deal. China’s vice-premier, Liu He, had a meeting on Wednesday with Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative, and Steven Mnuchin, the US Treasury secretary, to discuss a potential climatic negotiation session. After that, Mr. Trump held a speech in the Oval Office, in which he communicated his confidence in a positive outcome and even saying that the two countries remained “very close”. The two parties are said to conclude a deal after four months of negotiations. However, there were still some disagreements on to key problems: the fate of existing US levies on Chinese goods, Beijing being against them and wanting them removed, and the terms of an enforcement mechanism requested by the Capital of the US to ensure that China preserves the deal. Myron Brilliant, executive vice-president for international affairs at the US Chamber of Commerce, said that: “90% of the deal is done, but the last 10% is the hardest part”.
Mr. Liu expressed his desire that the two parties complete the trade negotiations as soon as possible. Thus, the extension may be a sign that both Washington and Beijing are willing to reach an agreement, but are quite nervous about the backlash that might appear if they are suspected to have made too many compromises.
A Goldman study claims that Brexit costs the UK's economy £600m per week
A report by Goldman Sachs shows that, for the past 3 years, since the 2016 referendum, the Brexit has cost the UK around £600m every single week. It has been a lot of uncertainty regarding the UK's exit from the EU, and this number shows that this is quite alarming for the economic impact.
Sources say that Brexit has cost Britain about 2.4% of the GDP, which proves that the UK economy has underperformed other economies since mid-2016, which is actually a pretty logic result. The study shows the results after the initial date of Brexit, 29 March, has been pushed back to April, which increased the already existing uncertainty. UK’ governments’ efforts to reach a conclusion and make a deal with Brussels were nor successful, as three Brexit pacts have been denied. There was not majority support for any of the proposals. Not only the UK suffered but also countries with close trade tied like Germany or France. The bank also believes that a "status quo Brexuit transition deal" could have an opposite reverse on the UK's bad performance, while, on the other hand, if the UK remains in the EU, the costs could be fully recouped and the business confidence rebounds.
The Core Inflation in the Eurozone has hit its lowest level in the past two years.
And this can only mean one thing: the economy in the eurozone is losing momentum. The bloc's statistics agency, Eurostat, analyzed the core measure and saw that it has declined from 1% to 0.8% from the beginning of the year since now. Another signal is that the headline measure also fell slightly, from 1.5 percent in February, to 1.4 percent last month. All these factors show that the core inflation is now at its lowest level since March 2017. It's also alarming that the economic expansion from the region is at risk, for now, facing a lot of uncertainty. Another cause may be the lower global demand for goods and services, and also the agitation in the global political sphere. In addition, there is also a risk of contraction, as the HIS Purchasing Managers' Index for the Eurozone hit 47.5 in March, less than the boundary between expansion and contraction, which is 50. Data that were released on Monday shows that in February, there were 77,000 fewer unemployed people than in January, and there has been a reduction of almost 1.2 million compared to the same month last year.
Despite all of these, there was observed a fast improvement in Spain, contrasting with a deterioration in the Italian labor market.
Did You Know?
Did you know? Did you know that the Bezos divorce settlement is the largest in history? The founder of Amazon has finally reached an agreement with hid now ex-wife, McKenzie. They agreed that he will keep all his shares in the “Washington Post” and “Blue Origin”, and also 75% of the couple’s Amazon stock. Mrs. Bezos will remain with 4% of the tech giant, which is worth $36bn. This way, she will most likely be the 3rdrichest woman in the world at this time.
WRITTEN BY ANA LETITIA
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