News

Firms selling Ucits and alternative investment funds are experiencing a downturn linked to the dire international economic situation, the war in Ukraine and the lockdown in China. Investor demand for these types of funds has dropped sharply, according to the European Fund and Asset Management Association (Efama), who released figures showing that net assets of Ucits and AIFs have declined by 4.5% this past quarter.

Hillary Clinton, former US State Secretary, took the stage on Friday at the 2022 Amundi World Investment Forum in Paris to share her views on some of the biggest geopolitical challenges that the world is facing today. “We are in a struggle between authoritarianism and democracy.”

The World Bank on Tuesday warned that the global economy is facing a 1970s-style stagflation with a protracted period of feeble growth and elevated inflation.

“For many countries, recession will be hard to avoid,” World Bank President David Malpass said at the presentation of the bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects report, which noted an increased risk of stagflation ”with potentially harmful consequences for middle- and low-income economies alike”.

Luxembourg’s SES SA, which likes to describe itself as the world’s only multi-orbit satellite player, has announced the successful launch of senior unsecured fixed rates due 2029 for a total amount of 750 billion euro.

The seven-year notes bear a coupon of 3.50 percent and were priced at 99.725 percent of their nominal value, representing a credit spread of 175 basis points and a yield-to-maturity of 3.55 percent.

The European Central Bank now is convinced that it will raise its benchmark eurozone interest rate at its 21 July monetary policy meeting and said it expects that its interest rates will no longer be negative by September. Its latest statement also indicates that the ECB is hedging its bets for upcoming medium-term policy moves in order to to add to its flexibility to act. 

A changing of the guard at the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, known as LuxSE, and strong results increases across the board were the theme at Wednesday’s Luxembourg Stock Exchange annual press conference.

A Brussels-based group standing up for European users of financial services has warned that European savers and investors in long-term savings and pension products face a particularly sharp erosion of purchasing power as a result of rising prices.

Speaking about “financial repression”, Betterfinance, one of two EU-level consumer finance NGOs that regularly interact with the European Commission, said European savers are set to lose “hundreds of billions of euro” in purchasing power in 2022 alone.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its main policy rate by 50 basis points, the largest increase since 2000. The steep hike reflects the current state of the US economy, where inflation surged to 8.5 percent in March with unemployment relatively low at 3.6 percent.

As inflation persists across Europe, with double-digit numbers for some eurozone countries, ECB President Christine Lagarde’s road map for upcoming interest rates hikes drew a mixed response in the markets.

The European Central Bank on Thursday, in no hurry to raise interest rates while inflation pressures continue to build, took another small step on its journey  towards higher eurozone benchmark rate as Lagarde repeatedly underlined the need for flexibility in the bank’s monetary policy.

Sanctions imposed on companies and individuals in Russia and Belarus have triggered concerns that crypto-currencies offer an escape route to circumvent them. Insiders argued that these concerns are unjustified, although crypto sceptics argue that “we should not be naive”.