BRICS Business

The forum called for multi-pronged cooperation between BRICS countries ahead of the annual summit in Xiamen in September [Xinhua]
Fuzhou, the capital of southeast China’s Fujian Province, today played host to more than 400 economic, political and social representatives from BRICS meetings who are meeting to boost cooperation.
The BRICS representatives are looking for ways to come up with projects and proposals that will facilitate in-depth joint initiatives which will be endorsed at the Ninth BRICS Summit in neighboring Xiamen city in September.

BRICS is home to 43% of the world’s population [Xinhua]
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is calling on major developed and developing countries to find new ways to ensure that globalization succeeds.
In its latest economic outlook published on Wednesday, the organization of 35 countries said that global economic growth in 2017 and 2018 was expected to pick up pace but was still not sufficient to “sustain strong gains in standards”.

Gordhan’s firing at the end of March weakened investor confidence and ultimately GDP growth [Xinhua]
The first quarter 2017 gross domestic product data released by Statistics South Africa on Tuesday had something for both optimists and pessimists.
The optimists focused on the steady improvement in the year-on-year (y/y) growth rate that has increased from a dismal -0.6 per cent y/y in the first quarter 2016 to 1.0 per cent y/y in the first quarter 2016.

Delegates at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum plenary meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia on 2 June 2017
Russia says 386 agreements for around 2 trillion rubles ($35.32 billion) were signed at a recent economic forum.
Representatives of business, international organizations and experts from more than 143 countries attended the gathering, Presidential adviser Anton Kobyakov said at a press conference on the results of the SPIEF-2017.
SPIEF is an annual Kremlin-run, high-profile gathering of business and political figures.

The GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2017 came lower than most experts had expected [Xinhua]
India’s GDP growth in the first quarter of 2017 slumped dramatically to 6.1 per cent – its lowest level in two and a half years, the federal Central Statistics Office (CSO) said late Wednesday.
The surprise drop in the growth rate pulled India from its status as the world’s fastest growing economy.
India’s Central Bank (RBI) is expected to maintain its December 2016 policy to keep interest rates at 6.25 per cent despite the latest economic figures.

The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector rose for the 10th consecutive month [Xinhua]
China’s securities regulator intervened in the stock market earlier this week and announced a slew of new rules and provisions to protect small investors from the practice of dumping stocks, which left the exchanges dealing with often irregular trade.
The new regulations will affect the sale of stock by major shareholders.

China’s GDP beat forecasts in the first quarter of 2017, coming it at 6.9 per cent [Xinhua]
Chinese markets appeared to shrug off the Moody’s ratings downgrade on Thursday and Friday as they rallied, led by the Shanghai Composite which closed up 1.43 per cent.
Amid media criticism that its ratings assessments are neither objective nor scientific, Moody’s on Friday said that it does not believe the government’s economic reforms will be enough to wholly stop the growing national debt.

China’s C919 can carry 190 passengers for a distance of just over 4,000 km [Xinhua]
Just two weeks after China launched its largest locally manufactured passenger plane the C919, Beijing and Moscow announced a joint initiative to build wide-body commercial airplanes.
China’s state Commercial Aircraft Corp of China Ltd (COMAC) which manufactures the C919 and Russia’s United Aircraft Corp (UAC) said that they are looking for some of the market share in “competitive long range wide-body commercial aircraft” currently dominated by Boeing and AirBus.

Erdogan secured a narrow win in a referendum on constitutional changes to give the president sweeping new powers earlier last month [Xinhua]Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during an official visit to Istanbul on Monday. Erdogan secured a narrow win in a referendum on constitutional changes to give the president sweeping new powers earlier last month.

In April, Credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) downgraded South Africa’s rating to junk status [GCIS]
Concern about the health of the South African economy and its impact on the rest of the continent has been mounting in recent days.
Following the sacking of revered Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in late March, South Africa’s markets went into a downward spiral as investor confidence took a beating.
A few days later, S&P Global Ratings cut South African foreign debt to sub-investment grade in April.