Aurelia Butler

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Gross domestic product is estimated to have expanded to 6.93% in the second quarter from a year earlier, faster than a growth of 5.87% in the first quarter, the government’s General Statistics Office (GSO) said.The economy expanded 6.42% in the first half of this year, the GSO added.Vietnam, an important exporter of smartphones, electronics and garments, is seeking to shore up business activity after missing last year’s growth target because of weak global demand and power shortages.”Vietnam’s socio-economic situation continues a positive trend, with each quarter being better than the previous one,” the GSO said in a statement. “The country’s economy and society continue to face many difficulties and challenges, amid external risks and uncertainties … achieving the growth target of 6.0-6.5% in 2024 is a big challenge, requiring the joint efforts from all forces,” the GSO added.Vietnam’s exports in the first half of this year rose 14.5% from a year earlier to $190 billion, while industrial production increased 10.9% from a year earlier, according to the GSO.Earlier this week, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said second-quarter GDP growth would exceed the first quarter’s pace, and said policy would continue to prioritise growth to meet this year’s growth target of 6.0%-6.5%. Chinh said Vietnam would stick to its flexible monetary policy, with an aim of further cutting banks’ lending interest rates, reducing fees and boosting public investment.INFLATION PRESSURE The International Monetary Fund expects Vietnam’s economic growth to be close to 6% this year, supported by strong external demand, resilient foreign investment and accommodative policies, but has warned that downside risks are high. The IMF said that if exchange rate pressures were to persist for longer it could lead to a larger pass-through to Vietnam’s domestic inflation, given easy monetary conditions.Inflation pressures are building, with Vietnam’s consumer prices in June rising 4.32% from a year earlier, nearing the government’s inflation target ceiling of 4.5% for the year. Average consumer prices in the first half of this year rose 4.08% from a year earlier, the GSO said.The agency said it would closely monitor price movements and adjust prices of electricity, medical and education services in accordance with the real situation to minimise the impact on inflation.A government decision to raise base salaries for state employees by 30% and pensions for retirees by 15% from July 1 is expected to add to inflation pressures. More

(Reuters) -A federal judge in Texas on Friday temporarily blocked a Biden administration rule from taking effect that would extend mandatory overtime pay to 4 million salaried U.S. workers. U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan in Sherman, Texas, said the U.S. Department of Labor rule that is set to go into effect on Monday improperly bases eligibility for overtime pay on workers’ wages rather than their job duties.Jordan, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, blocked the Labor Department from applying the rule to state workers in Texas pending the outcome of a legal challenge by the Republican-led state. The Labor Department and the office of Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The department can seek review of the ruling in the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is widely regarded as the most conservative federal appeals court. The rule adopted in April would require employers to pay overtime premiums to salaried workers who earn less than $1,128 per week, or about $58,600 per year, when they work more than 40 hours in a week. The current threshold of about $35,500 was set in 2019.Federal law exempts workers with “executive, administrative, and professional” (EAP) duties from receiving overtime pay, and the Labor Department has for decades used salary as one factor in deciding when that applies.In adopting the rule, the department said that lower-paid salaried workers often do the same jobs as their hourly counterparts, but work more hours for no additional pay. The rule also establishes automatic increases in the salary threshold every three years to reflect wage growth.Texas in its lawsuit said the rule violates federal law by conditioning overtime exemptions primarily on workers’ pay rather than their duties, and is seeking to strike it down nationwide. Texas says that subjecting states to the overtime expansion violates their right under the U.S. Constitution to structure the pay of state employees and, in turn, decide how to allocate large portions of their budgets.Jordan on Friday agreed that the Labor Department had overstepped its authority by effectively rewriting federal law.”Since the ordinary meaning of the EAP Exemption focuses solely on duties, any rule implementing the EAP Exemption – including the 2024 Rule — must likewise center on duties,” the judge wrote.Jordan is also presiding over a challenge to the rule by business groups, and a small marketing firm is suing over the regulation in a different federal court in Texas. More

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) -Argentina’s President Javier Milei will turn his attention to monetary policy reform after scoring his first major legislative win in Congress, the libertarian leader said on Friday.Milei, in an interview with local broadcaster LN+, said the passing of his sprawling economic reform package in the early hours of Friday after months of debate would help stabilize the economy, boost growth, and lay foundation for more reforms.The economist and former pundit has pledged to undo myriad currency controls that stymie business and trade, though needs to dig the country out of an economic recession and rebuild depleted foreign currency reserves to be able to do so.He wants to keep lowering interest rates and cut monetary emission to bring down triple-digit inflation, inherited when he took office in December. He has already managed to overturn a deep fiscal deficit with tough austerity measures.”The zero deficit stage has already passed, now we are going to the zero emission stage. The change of monetary regime is coming,” Milei said in the interview, adding the economy would start to stabilize in “phase 2” of his economic plan.”That will mean a recovering level of activity, an improvement in employment, an improvement in salaries, of pensions, lower interest rates, and the return of credit.”As part of the next phase in Milei’s economic plan, the central bank will stop issuing pesos to pay down interest on certain debts, Economy Minister Luis Caputo said later on Friday. Caputo said the government was “turning off the tap” on the issuing pesos, which he said would provide more economic certainty and stability and would ease concerns about when restrictions on the currency exchange would be lifted. More

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The unstoppable march of the mega caps, sloth-like central bank pivots, political palpitations aplenty and M&A is back – the first half of 2024 has been another whirlwind in world markets. Forecasts for a global interest-rate-cutting frenzy may not have materialized, but Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and the rest of the Magnificent 7 soared another $3.6 trillion in market value. MSCI’s 47-country world stocks index has clocked up a punchy 11% since January. Good yes, but nowhere near the 30% leap of team tech, or the frankly eye-popping 150% gain of chip champ Nvidia. “Thirty percent of the S&P’s returns this year have come from Nvidia alone,” the chief investment officer of IBOSS Asset Management Chris Metcalfe said, pointing out it was now the most expensive stock on the most expensive market in the world.It is not just equity markets where milestones have been set.Japan’s yen has bowed to a 38-year low against the dollar in currency markets. Cocoa had one of its best-ever runs while French bond risk has exploded to its highest level since the euro crisis after French President Emmanuel Macron’s drubbing by the far right in EU elections this month drove him to call a snap parliamentary election on Sunday.Government bonds had been having a tough time anyway. Predictions of a gush of rate cuts have turned out to be just a dribble in a few parts of Europe and emerging markets and certainly not in the United States yet.As a result, anyone owning a basket of benchmark bonds has lost around 1.5% of their money. “At the end of last year, the markets expected seven (U.S.) rate cuts and now they are expecting just one or two,” Nadege Dufosse, the head of multi-asset at Candriam said. “That has been the big driver and explains the (poor) performance.”A shaky performance from U.S. President Joe Biden in his latest TV debate against Donald Trump has just ratcheted November’s U.S. election uncertainty up substantially. There’s also a general election in Britain on July 4 although there aren’t expected to be many market fireworks despite it being almost certainly the first change of government in 14 years. Polar Capital fund manager Georgina Hamilton explained that was because unlike in France and the U.S., the two main candidates to lead the UK are fairly centrist. “Having had quite a lot of turmoil in recent years … you can’t underestimate that calmer political backdrop,” she added.GOLD SHINESThe big story in commodities has been cocoa sky-rocketing almost 85% due to shortages which is already its second-biggest annual leap of all time, although certainly is not good news for chocoholics.Gold hit a record high of just shy of $2,450 an ounce last month. Oil is up a respectable 12% while bitcoin broke though $70,000 and set a flurry of new highs after U.S. watchdogs gave bitcoin exchange-traded funds the green light. The value of global M&A activity is up 5% compared to last year. That’s mainly down to a brace of $35-billion deals that saw credit-card firm Capital One take over Discover Financial and chip designer Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS) buy out rival Ansys (NASDAQ:ANSS), although it could have been much more though if BHP’s gripping $49-billion pursuit of Anglo American (JO:AGLJ) had succeeded. DISTRESSED TO IMPRESS Off the beaten track, Ecuador’s bonds have made 46% despite lingering debt concerns and Argentina’s new chainsaw-wielding President Javier Milei has helped its bonds jump 32%.Emerging-market veteran Kevin Daly at Aberdeen said there has been a “distressed to impress” move, with the bonds of crashed countries like Zambia, Ghana and Sri Lanka all rallying between 16%-23% as their years-long debt restructurings have neared an end. As always though, there has still been plenty of downs in emerging markets. Chinese property stocks have fallen for the ninth quarter in a row. Devaluations have shoved Nigeria’s and Egypt’s currencies down 42% and 36% respectively, while Mexico’s peso is down nearly 8% this month after a resounding presidential election result fed worries about its future path. More

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -The women’s wing of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party on Friday urged the National Commission for Women to launch an investigation after Reuters reported that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) supplier Foxconn rejects married women from iPhone assembly jobs in the country.”It is imperative to conduct a thorough investigation into these claims and ensure that the rights of women employees at Foxconn Hon Hai are protected,” Vanathi Srinivasan, national president of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) women’s wing wrote in a letter to the Commission, posted on X.In response to the letter, chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Rekha Sharma, wrote on X: “we are doing the needful.” She did not elaborate.The National Commission for Women has the powers to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for women under the Constitution and other laws, its website says. It also has powers of a civil court to summon any person. Apple and Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.A Reuters investigation published on Tuesday found that Foxconn has systematically excluded married women from jobs at its main India iPhone plant near Chennai in Tamil Nadu state, on the grounds they have more family responsibilities than their unmarried counterparts.Foxconn hiring agents and HR sources interviewed by Reuters cited family duties, pregnancy and higher absenteeism as reasons why Foxconn did not hire married women at the plant. The story has sparked debates on TV channels and newspaper editorials.In the letter, Srinivasan referred to the reported hiring practices of Foxconn as a “grave issue”.”It has come to our notice through various media sources that Foxconn has adopted discriminatory practices against married women,” Srinivasan wrote.The letter also stated that it had come to the knowledge of the BJP’s women wing that women employees at Foxconn are not even allowed to use the washroom during working hours, and those who stay in hostels are not permitted to take leaves. Srinivasan’s letter did not elaborate on these points.Earlier this week, Modi’s labour ministry said it has requested a detailed report from the Labour Department of Tamil Nadu on the matter.In response to questions from Reuters for its Tuesday report, Apple and Foxconn acknowledged lapses in hiring practices in 2022 and said they had worked to address the issues. All the discriminatory practices documented by Reuters at the Sriperumbudur plant, however, took place in 2023 and 2024. The two companies didn’t address the 2023 and 2024 incidents.Apple said that “when concerns about hiring practices were first raised in 2022 we immediately took action and worked with our supplier to conduct monthly audits to identify issues and ensure that our high standards are upheld,” adding that all its suppliers, including Foxconn, hire married women.Foxconn said it “vigorously refutes allegations of employment discrimination based on marital status, gender, religion or any other form.” The hiring curbs at the iPhone plant show the challenge for both Apple and Foxconn in upholding their stated global standards of inclusion while expanding their supply chains in this fast-growing but largely conservative country.Modi has previously called for removal of societal impediments that prevent many Indian women from getting jobs. While Foxconn employs thousands of women in India, discrimination on the basis of marital status risks undercutting the prime minister’s aims.(For full story on Reuters.com, please click https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/foxconn-apple-india-women/) More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund on Friday said its executive board approved a $2.2 billion disbursement to Ukraine for budget support and urged external donors to keep up support for the war-torn country amid a deteriorating economic outlook. The IMF’s approval of the fourth review of the four-year, Extended Fund Facility brings total disbursements to $7.6 billion, nearly half of the $15.6 billion program approved in March 2023.The IMF said in a statement that Ukraine’s performance under the extended fund facility program remains strong despite challenging conditions, with quantitative targets met and structural benchmarks implemented on time or with a short delay.While Ukraine’s economy performed strongly during the first quarter of 2024, the outlook for the second half of 2024 and into 2025 has deteriorated, amid increased Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power infrastructure and deteriorating consumer and business sentiment as the war evolves.The fund adjusted downward its 2024 GDP growth forecast for Ukraine to a range of 2.5-3.5%, compared to a prior forecast of 3.2% in the April World Economic Outlook.The IMF program is part of a package of external support, mostly from donor countries that it estimates at about $122 billion over the four-year program window. The IMF said a downside scenario would require $141 billion in external financing.Neither estimate includes the potential proceeds from a $50 billion loan that the G7 industrial democracies have agreed to grant Ukraine, backed by the earnings from frozen Russian assets, said Gavin Gray, the IMF’s Ukraine mission chief.Gray told reporters that the IMF would reassess Ukraine’s financing framework should the loan be completed, but it was important that the use of Russian assets has “sufficient legal underpinnings” and does not undermine the functioning of the global financial system.”Above all, continued support from all external partners is essential for Ukraine to sustain the progress on growth and stability, which has been achieved over the past year,” Gray said. “Without these resources, the hard-won macro-stabilization gains could be jeopardized.”Gray said that he did not expect the weaker economic outlook to have a material impact on Ukraine’s negotiations with bondholders to restructure its debt, which are based on a medium-term framework that remains largely unchanged. He added that there have recently been “intensifying discussions” with bondholders and the IMF expects a completion of the negotiations in coming weeks. More