Fiscal Study

Foreign investment is suddenly picking up in Indonesia, an indication that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's pro-business policies are finally starting to pay economic dividends in spite of the recent nationalistic and anti-foreign economic regulations passed by Parliament, Asia Times reports:

New business ties with both Japan and China promise to push Indonesia on to a higher economic-growth trajectory in the years ahead. Last week Yudhoyono signed a big new free-trade agreement with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the first wide-ranging bilateral pact Indonesia has ever entered with another country.

Read it all.

Posted by fiscalstudy at 3:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

India's inflation held below the central bank's target for the 10th straight week, adding to optimism borrowing costs won't be raised further anytime soon, Bloomberg reports:

The wholesale price index was 4.10 percent in the week to Aug. 11, compared with 4.05 percent the previous week, the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said today in New Delhi. Analysts had estimated inflation at 4.05 percent.
The Reserve Bank of India, which wants to keep inflation below 5 percent this year, kept borrowing costs unchanged last month after raising them by 2.25 percentage points since October 2004. Interest rates at a five-year high have led to slowing bank loan growth and reduced demand for manufactured products.

Read it all.

Posted by fiscalstudy at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The federal deficit so far this budget year is running sharply lower, driven by record revenues pouring into government coffers, Associated Press reports:

The Treasury Department reported that the government produced a deficit of $157.3 billion for the budget year that began last Oct. 1. That's a substantial improvement from the red ink figure of $239.6 billion produced for the corresponding 10-month period last year.
The lower year-to-date deficit was the result of a record of $2.12 trillion in revenues. Spending, however, was higher — $2.27 trillion, which also marked an all-time high.

Read it all.

Posted by fiscalstudy at 6:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks to last week's events in the financial markets, we now know the price at which the world's three largest central banks, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States, will drop their posturings about the importance of setting good examples regarding promoting sound banking, lending and credit usage policies and put their principles up for sale, Asia Times reports:

Read it all.

Posted by fiscalstudy at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reflecting record-high oil prices, the energy sector has been the U.S. stock market's best performer over the past three and five years, and among the best so far in 2007. For subscribers wondering whether it is time to lock up profits and move out of the oil patch, our answer can be found on our buy list, Forbes reports:

The energy sector makes up 18% of our equal-weighted buy list, versus 6% for the S&P SmallCap 600 Index and 11% for the broader S&P 1500 Index.

Read it all.

Posted by fiscalstudy at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

China's consumption of apparent crude oil and refined oil products hit a record high in the first half of the year, totaling 173.03 million tons and 106.112 million tons respectively, up 6.8 per cent and 9.6 per cent on the previous year.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the "apparent consumption" represents the sum of net imports and output but excludes inventory.
Crude oil output rose by 1.7 per cent to 93.31 million tons and refined oil output increased by 7.2 per cent to 95.972 million tons, ANTARA News reports:

Posted by fiscalstudy at 5:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)