money, more money and grain

(This footage was produced in Gdansk for the Reuters news site in Russia, where regulations restrict coverage of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine)

Jul 17 (Reuters) – The focus of markets this week is a meeting of finance ministers from 20 countries, reports by US companies whose market value exceeds some countries’ GDP and the growth rate of the Chinese economy.

India will host the G20 meeting, which will discuss i.a. loans to developing countries, and Tesla will open the reporting season of American tycoons. All of this comes after a broad sell-off in the dollar – as inflation figures have shown, the US economy is cooling and markets believe the Fed is almost done raising interest rates.

Below is an overview of the events of the coming week that focus on the markets.

1/ LET’S TALK ABOUT MONEY

How to channel more sustainable finance to emerging economies and get multilateral lenders to increase debt will be high on the agenda at the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Gandhinagar, India, on July 17-18.

As global interest rates rise, the cost of borrowing and indebtedness of some of the world’s poorest countries has skyrocketed. Attempts to negotiate debt restructuring for those in default have been painfully slow.

Cryptocurrency regulation, as well as negotiations on a multilateral tax treaty for conglomerates with international operations, will take place at the meeting that will set the tone for September’s summit of the group’s leaders in New Delhi.

The conference is attended by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, new World Bank head Ajay Banga and International Monetary Fund director Kristalina Georgieva, as well as senior officials from Russia and China, Indian officials said.

2 / BEIJING DOESN’T BELIEVE IN TEARS

China kicked off the week with the release of second-quarter GDP data. Last year’s weak base effect, when anti-COVID restrictions affected the largest sections of the economy, added some glamor to the annual figures, but the devil is in the details.

On a quarterly basis, China’s economy grew by 0.8% in April-June, the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday, compared to a forecast of 0.5% growth and 2.2% q/q growth in the first three months year.

On an annualized basis, China’s GDP grew by 6.3% in the second quarter, accelerating from 4.5% in January-March, but the pace of growth was well below the forecast of 7.3%.

This makes some investors wonder how realistic the PRC government’s growth target of 5% in 2023 is.

Mounting deflationary pressures and a slowdown in trade are the latest warning signs about the state of the Chinese economy, which until six months ago gave investors hope for a strong recovery.

Investors’ patience is running out as markets wait for Beijing to unveil its long-awaited stimulus package and hope that this month’s Communist Party Politburo meeting will help get sentiment back on track.

3/MEGA TIME REPORTS

The second-quarter reporting season begins in earnest, with Tesla being the first major heavyweight company to file its report on Wednesday.

Tesla is one of the seven largest companies whose shares in 2023 led to the growth of the entire US stock market.

There are signs that the rally is spreading to other sectors, but if the financial performance of Tesla or other heavyweights now disappoints, it could hit the broader indices very hard.

Other large-cap companies such as Apple and Amazon will submit reports in the coming weeks.

In addition, quarterly results from major banks continue to pour in, with Bank of America on Tuesday and Goldman Sachs on Wednesday. The program also includes reports from giant Johnson & Johnson, streaming platform Netflix and tobacco company Philip Morris.

4 / CRY AND CRY

Inflation in the UK may have slowed but the economy remains very vulnerable as the high cost of living is combined with high debt.

Analysts expect the UK inflation statistics for June, to be released on Wednesday, to show a slowdown in price growth from May’s 8.7% year-on-year.

This may not prevent the Bank of England from raising rates again given the high wage growth.

The increase in the cost of credit by the Central Bank is slowly creeping in to all sectors of the UK economy as more than 85% of homeowners have fixed rate mortgages and many are still protected by low interest rates set in previous years.

However, according to estimates by the Bank of England, for around one million British families, home loan repayments will increase by at least £500 ($651.80) a month by 2026.

And data on housing prices and new car registrations will show how confident consumers are about their financial situation.

5 / BATTLE OF THE GRAIN

On Monday, a UN-backed deal guaranteeing the safe transport of grain from Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea expired. More than 32 million tons of corn, wheat and other grains were exported under the year-long deal, and the prices of many of these staples fell sharply, helping to bring inflation down.

However, the Kremlin said on Monday that Russia had stopped participating in the “Black Sea Initiative” of Ukrainian food exports because some of the agreements concerning the Russian Federation had not been implemented. Russia claims that commitments to remove barriers to Russian food and fertilizer exports have not been met.

In the last weeks of the deal, Ukraine shipped about half of the volume of corn and wheat seen before the start of the so-called. special military operation. Other countries, such as Brazil, increased deliveries. However, the global food crisis is far from over. According to the UN, in 2022 a record number of people will be affected by famine, and the world stocks of wheat and corn are at their lowest in many years. ($1 = £0.7671)

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(Ray V in Singapore, Lewis Krauskopf in New York and Naomi Rovnick, Karin Stroecker and Amanda Cooper in London)

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