The Fitch ratings agency yesterday revised its outlook for Russia to negative from stable after the US slapped new sanctions against Russian officials amid the Ukraine crisis.
“The revision of the outlook to negative reflects the potential impact of sanctions on Russia’s economy and business environment,” Fitch Ratings said in a statement.
“Since US and EU banks and investors may well be reluctant to lend to Russia under the current circumstances, the economy may slow further and the private sector may require official support,” it said.
On Thursday, US President Barack Obama announced a new round of punitive measures against 20 Russians, including some of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, for Moscow’s takeover of Crimea, while the EU also slapped an assets freeze and travel ban on 12 more Russians and Ukrainians.
“The direct impact of sanctions announced so far is minor, but the incorporation of Crimea into the Russian Federation will likely lead the EU and US to extend sanctions further in response,” Fitch said. “Furthermore, foreign investors may anticipate further official action and restrict Russian entities’ access to external financing,” it added.
“In a worst-case scenario, the US may prevent foreign financial institutions from doing business with Russian banks and corporates.”
On Thursday, Standard & Poor’s ratings agency also lowered its outlook for Russia, saying that Russia’s move to annex Crimea could also reduce investment, cause investors to pull money out of the country and reduce overall economic performance.
It cut the outlook to negative from stable, meaning it could cut the country’s credit rating within the next 24 months.
Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings yesterday affirmed the US’ credit ratings at “AAA” with a stable outlook, removing the distant danger that it might downgrade the world’s largest economy.
The action resolves the negative watch that Fitch had placed on the US in October last year, when political wrangling over the debt ceiling had raised the risk of default.
The US was embarrassed and world financial markets were roiled in 2011 when S&P downgraded the country’s rating to “AA plus.” S&P currently has it on a stable outlook.
Fitch said the latest crisis over the debt limit had not adversely affected US Treasury yields or the appetite of foreign investors for the debt.
The agency also said the US had greater debt tolerance than other triple-A peers owing to the unparalleled financing flexibility provided by being the issuer of the world’s reserve currency and benchmark fixed-income asset.
“Strong fiscal consolidation has been achieved,” Fitch said.
The agency expected the US budget deficit to decline to 2.9 percent of GDP in the 2014 fiscal year, from 4 percent in fiscal 2013 and 6.7 percent in 2012.
However, Fitch said there were still risks to the ratings outlook, including if authorities failed to address rising expenditure pressures from an aging population and higher interest rates later in the decade.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day