May 30, 2024 10:35 GMT
South African Election Results Dominating Global News Cycle
EMERGING MARKETS
- South African broadcaster ENCA projects that the governing African National Congress (ANC) will fall short of a majority in the national vote for the first time since the end of apartheid. Notably, it projects ANC support coming in around 45%, higher than the 42% projected earlier this morning by the CSIR. The exact vote share the ANC receives is likely to prove crucial. If it comes in around 45% it is likely that it could form a coalition with smaller parties in the National Assembly, ensuring broad policy continuity while offering relatively small concessions to other parties. However, if the ANC's vote share comes in around 42% then this option becomes more unlikely, if not impossible.
- China: MNI (Beijing) The People’s Bank of China will further support the growth of offshore yuan markets and improve cross-border financial infrastructure while making efforts to promote the currency's internationalisation, said Tao Ling, deputy-governor at the central bank, in an interview with Financial News on Thursday. The Bank will improve the liquidity supply system of offshore markets, perfect the long-term mechanism for the issuance of offshore sovereign bonds, enrich offshore yuan financial products and expand the “connect program” between the mainland and Hong Kong, she said.
- Saudi Arabia hasn’t had a busier stretch in the debt market since the 2014-2016 oil crash left its budget with a double-digit deficit. Even with crude prices up 10% this year, it’s trying to borrow its way through a fiscal squeeze caused by the need to fund huge projects championed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MBS, to transform the economy. A $5 billion sukuk, or Islamic bond, on Tuesday brought total international debt sales from the kingdom this year to $17 billion, more than any other emerging-market sovereign, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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