How G7 could help debt-distressed markets

How G7 Could Help the Debt-Distressed Markets

How G7 could help the debt-distressed

This small and wealthy group with its outsize power is uniquely positioned to help low-income countries manage deteriorating macroeconomic conditions

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Venture forward: accelerating the evolution of Canada's public venture market

Venture Forward

While Canada’s public venture market has delivered on its promise of growth over the last several decades, markets are not static. TSX Venture Exchange is focused on identifying and seizing opportunities to build from our position of strength to ensure that Canada's public venture market remains a critical driver of economic prosperity, and maintaining our competitive edge on the global stage.

In this white paper, we outline three broad areas where TSX Venture Exchange and the Canadian public venture ecosystem can take action to innovate, adapt and evolve over the coming years:

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REDUCE
barriers and burdens to access public venture capital

EXPAND
the global base of investors and capital that support and finance issuers

GROW
empower and strengthen the public venture capital ecosystem and its participants

Over the coming months, we aim to engage with representatives from across our stakeholder community to gain a full understanding of how our markets can better support early-stage companies. As we embark together on this journey, we will also share progress updates and our plans.

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Reuters Renewables Asset Management Trends and Challenges in Europe

Reuters European Renewables Asset Management

Read Reuters European Renewables Asset Management Report here


DFC: US International Development Finance Corporation

Helping women in Brazil access affordable healthcare

Challenge

Brazil has one of the highest rates of preventable death of any OECD country, partly due to high rates of breast and cervical cancer. Each year, millions of women in Brazil miss or delay routine health screenings due to an overburdened public healthcare system and an underdeveloped private healthcare market.

Solution and Impact

A DFC loan is helping GIP Medicina Diagnóstica S.A. expand its chain of women’s health diagnostic centers that provide diagnostic testing, imaging, blood work, and pathology testing services. The company, which is known as Femme in the local market, currently operates 14 centers in São Paulo and will use the DFC financing to expand, adding more than 27 centers over the next six years, serving low and middle-income women. With the additional diagnostic centers, the company projects its annual patient consultations will increase from approximately 300,000 currently to more than 4.5 million. Femme plans to place new locations in underserved areas to help increase access for low-income households.

The project is projected to increase more than 1,000 permanent professional and technical jobs as well as support staff in the next five years. Eighty percent of the new jobs are expected to be filled by women.

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Can Nuclear Energy Come Back from the Grave

Project Syndicate

From China to the United Kingdom, policymakers regard nuclear power as part of the solution to the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. But it remains to be seen whether the industry will finally establish itself as a major global electricity supplier, or again fail to live up to its promise.

LONDON – Nuclear power has been in decline since the Fukushima disaster in Japan more than a decade ago, but it may be poised for a comeback. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and soaring natural-gas prices have led some to argue that nuclear energy can help solve the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. Is the industry back in business, or will this prove to be another false dawn?

Until recently, nuclear power’s prospects seemed poor. Plants built in the 1970s and 1980s are nearing the end of their working lives, while Germany and Japan decided to shut down theirs for political reasons. Of the relatively few new nuclear plants currently being built, many have been blighted by management failures and technical faults. The flagship EPR pressurized water reactors at Flamanville in northern France and Olkiluoto in Finland are, respectively, 13 and 12 years behind schedule. Hinkley Point in southwest England, which was supposed to have provided the power to cook Britain’s Christmas turkeys in 2023, may now be operational in 2027. Inevitably, all of these projects are massively over budget.

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Global struggles highlight Latin American Strengths

LatAm Investor - Global struggles highlight Latin American Strengths

LatAm Investor

Global struggles highlight Latin American Strengths

Global struggles highlight Latin American strengths

In the three months since our last issue, disaster has befallen Europe. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to thousands of deaths, millions of displaced people and plunged tens of millions around the world into poverty. Together, Russia and Ukraine account for 25% of the world’s wheat exports, 25% of gas reserves and – if you include fuels like LPG – are the largest exporters of oil products in the world. In other words – they provide us with the commodities we need to eat, heat and move.

The developed economies can pay more money to secure these scarce supplies – albeit at the cost of higher inflation – but many in poorer countries will simply go without. Recent protests in Pakistan and Sri Lanka are harbingers of the political upheaval this scarcity will cause around the world.

Commodities

With luck, the conflict will end soon and normality can return to a world economy that was only just recovering from the pandemic. Yet, and hopefully this doesn’t come across as too ghoulish, the war highlights several strengths of Latin America. The region is a net exporter of wheat, oil and countless other commodities linked to the food and petrochemical industry – for example sugar and rubber.

The value of the region’s exports has surged since the start of the war, with Capital Economics estimating that Brazil’s commodity shipments earned 35% more than in the same period last year. Not all countries in the region are oil producers but nearly all are net commodity producers that will be able to ride out the inflation better than importers like Pakistan and Sri Lanka. As a result, most Latin American countries have seen their currencies and capital markets increase since the start of the conflict.

Pax Latin Americana

But this war does more than give commodity exporters a quick bonus. It also highlights Latin America’s peaceful nature. If you omit small skirmishes between Peru and Ecuador, the last comparable, major conflict between two Latin American countries was the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay in 1932. The global drugs trade has cursed Latin America with narco cartels, but you don’t get tanks rolling across the plains or children being bombed from the air.

Investors often complain about political risk in Latin America but it is more peaceful than Eastern Europe and more democratic than most of Asia or Africa.

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Global Economic Prospects: Slowing Growth and the Risk of Stagflation | World Bank Expert Answers

The World Bank

Global Economic Prospects: Slowing Growth and the Risk of Stagflation | World Bank Expert Answers

Global Economic Prospects: Slowing Growth and the Risk of Stagflation | World Bank Expert Answers

 

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CrossBoundary On June 2nd, join Prosper Africa and a group of leading African Diaspora investors and entrepreneurs to hear the opportunities for early-stage investment in African markets at the Diaspora Angel Investors webinar.

CrossBoundary - Prosper Africa

CrossBoundary On June 2nd, join Prosper Africa and a group of leading African Diaspora investors and entrepreneurs to hear the opportunities for early-stage investment in African markets at the Diaspora Angel Investors webinar.

On June 2nd, join Prosper Africa and a group of leading African Diaspora investors and entrepreneurs to hear the opportunities for early-stage investment in African markets at the Diaspora Angel Investors webinar. Register here to join the discussion: https://bit.ly/3lM6hQ8


Americas Quarterly

The campaign towards the runoff on June 19 could further polarize the country.

As polls had predicted, Gustavo Petro (Pacto Histórico) placed first in the first round of the Colombian presidential election on May 29 with a 40% lead. The runner-up, Rodolfo Hernández (Independent) who had surged in polls in the last few weeks, amassed 28% of the preference.

The campaign towards the runoff election for the Colombian presidency on June 19 has already started with Hernández receiving the support of the third-place candidate, Fico Gutiérrez, who received about 24% of the votes.

AQ asked several observers to share their reaction.

Theodore Kahn, senior analyst in Control Risks’ Global Risk Analysis practice

Colombians delivered a stunning rejection of the traditional political class in the first round of presidential elections on Sunday. Gustavo Petro, a left-wing former guerrilla, finished first with 40.3% of the votes—the best performance for the left in Colombia’s modern history. Petro wants to overturn the social and economic model by ending new oil and mining exploration, guaranteeing public jobs for the unemployed, and ramping up protection for domestic industry and agriculture. The runner-up, Rodolfo Hernández, is an ideologically ambiguous populist and political outsider. His campaign, notably light on policy proposals, was all about throwing out the corrupt political class. Federico Gutiérrez, a conservative who had the support of traditional political parties, finished third, winning only in his native Antioquia department.

Hernández had been gaining fast in the polls in the two weeks leading up to the first round, but many analysists questioned whether this would translate into votes. It did. Hernández dominated in the Central and Eastern regions of Colombia, winning 13 of 32 departments overall. His support in rural areas and small towns in the Andean heartland was overwhelming. Hernández won all but 4 of the 123 municipalities of Boyacá department and all but 10 of 116 municipalities in Cundinamarca.

What explains this unexpected success? First, it is clear he occupied a strategic space in the political field, at the intersection of anti-establishment and anti-Petro sentiment. Second, while other candidates debated policy (occasionally) and traded insults on Twitter (often), Hernández hammered away at a simple message: corrupt traditional politicians are to blame for all the country’s problems. In this regard, he may have exposed a weakness in Petro’s campaign that few saw coming—after four years in the national political spotlight, Petro had become part of the political class for many voters. Finally, the cantankerous 77-year-old proved a master of social media—TikTok being his platform of choice.

Whatever the explanation, one thing is clear: Hernández, who was barely known outside his native Santander department several months ago, is now on the doorstep of Casa de Nariño.  He is riding a wave of momentum driven by two powerful forces—anger at the establishment and fear of the left. He will likely attract a large majority of the more than 5 million voters, mostly conservatives, who supported Gutiérrez on May 29. He will also draw backing from more progressive sectors such as the Green Alliance party and other parties that formed part of the center-left Hope Coalition.

How Hernández would govern remains a mystery. In the coming days, he will start to unveil a potential cabinet, which will likely include market-friendly technocrats that reassure the political and economic elite. His campaign platform reflects his instincts as a self-made businessman: he wants to cut taxes and red tape while also protecting and promoting domestic industry. Of course, it would be a mistake to count Petro out. He won over 8.5 million votes on the first round, with commanding victories in major cities such as Bogotá and Cali, and the populous Caribbean coast.

Whoever wins will face the enormous challenge of meeting the powerful demand for change that drove Colombians to the polls on May 29.