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By CBN freezes another 194 accounts of firms, BDCs, others
The Central Bank of Nigeria on Thursday said it got orders from the Federal High Court, Abuja division, to freeze 194 bank accounts belonging to firms and Bureaux de Change to enable it to conduct investigations into suspicious activities.
It disclosed this on Thursday in three separate documents on its website.
China factory gate prices rise by most in nearly 3 years as economic recovery quickens
China’s factory-gate prices beat analyst expectations to rise at their fastest annual pace since July 2018 in March in the latest sign that a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy is gathering momentum.
China’s producer price index (PPI) rose 4.4% in annual terms, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement, far above a 3.5% rise forecast in a Reuters poll and up sharply from a 1.7% increase in February.
The inflation data is the latest indicator to point to robust economic growth in the January-March quarter. Data last week showed China’s manufacturing activity expanded at the quickest pace in three months in March as factories ramped up production to keep up with improving global demand.
Investors rush to oil stocks despite ESG push
Oil and gas companies have been in the crosshairs of public outrage for years now and the pressure has only been growing, with a new emerging breed of investors pressuring the industry into cleaning up its act. And yet, there seems to be plenty of the old sort of investors, too, the ones who go after returns and pile into oil and gas because they provide returns.
In the year to date, the energy sector on the S&P 500 has gained 29.4 percent, Palash Ghosh reported for Forbes. This makes energy the best-performing sector on the S&P 500, followed by finance as a distant second, with a gain of 17.6 percent.
The rally in oil stocks came on the back of improving oil prices, and oil prices improved on the back of, mostly, hopes that economies will soon begin returning to normal. Mass vaccinations in key oil markets did a lot to fuel this post-pandemic optimism about oil, pushing benchmarks above $60 a barrel and drawing investors to oil stocks.
Vaccines were, of course, not the only factor. OPEC+ also kept its production limited for longer than it had initially planned. The cartel decided at its last meeting to raise production gradually and the fact that this decision did not send prices plunging shows that expectations of a demand rebound are really strong right now.
The OPEC+ decision is notable: it would see the combined production of all participants in the extended cartel rise by some 2 million bpd by July. This is 2 million bpd additional barrels coming into a market that is already seeing higher volumes from Libya and Iran, both exempt from the OPEC production cut agreement. And demand is yet to recover fully in most of the world.
Pope urges IMF, W’Bank to cut poor nations’ debts
Pope Francis yesterday urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to cut the debt burden of poor countries hit by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and give their governments a greater say in global decision-making.
In a letter to the participants of the IMF and World Bank’s annual spring meeting, the pope said the pandemic had forced the world to come to terms with interrelated socio-economic, ecological, and political crises.
This is coming as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has told the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) via Video-conference that the global oil market was on the verge of collapse before its intervention to stabilise it.
Factbox: How Biden’s tax plan could ripple through sectors and industries
President Joe Biden is seeking to raise taxes on companies, including raising the corporate tax rate, to pay for over $2 trillion in infrastructure spending, a plan that stands to ripple through Corporate America.
The “Made in America Tax Plan,” which would raise $2.5 trillion over 15 years, according to the Treasury Department, would include higher levies on companies’ overseas earnings, a new minimum tax on the profits companies report to investors and funding for more Internal Revenue Service enforcement officials.
Biden is also seeking to hike the corporate tax rate to 28%, from the 21% levy set by then-President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cut. However, Biden has signaled he is open to a compromise.