By Reuters Staff
1/BIDEN BET
FILE PHOTO: A trader at the New York Stock Exchange works as markets continue to react to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) inside of the NYSE in New York, U.S., March 18, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
One trade is gripping markets in the early days of 2021: reflation - nowhere more evident than in bonds, where U.S. 10-year Treasury yields topped 1% on Georgia’s Senate runoff results.
Betting on a fiscal boost under President-elect Joe Biden, investors pushed the 10-year TIPS breakeven inflation rate above 2% for the first time since 2018. Euro zone long-term inflation expectations are near one-year highs.
Italy's League leader Matteo Salvini said the right-wing party would decide next week whether to back a government led by Mario Draghi but common ground had emerged in discussions on Saturday.
The Paris Club of international creditors said on Monday it had accepted a request from Kenya for debt service suspension from January to the end of June.
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International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, U.S., as IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde meets with Argentine Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund said on Monday its executive board approved a disbursement to Angola of about $487.5 million after completing a fourth review of the African oil exporter’s $3.7 billion loan program.
The Fund said that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact Angola’s economy and population, while oil production and prices remain weak.
But it said that Angolan authorities “have maintained a robust policy response in the face of these challenges and remain resolutely committed to the program,” noting the December passage of a 2021 budget that includes non-oil revenue gains and restraints on non-essential expenditures.
(Adds repeal of Russian propaganda law)
CHISINAU, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Moldova’s parliament voted to repeal legislation on Wednesday that had allowed the finance ministry to issue bonds worth 13.5 billion Moldovan lei ($790 million) to prop up the financial system in 2016 after a massive banking scandal was uncovered.
The law was originally passed as a condition for IMF loans in 2016, and its repeal was criticised by a former prime minister as weakening the country’s creditworthiness.
Separately parliament also voted to scrap an IMF-backed move to raise the pension age for women from 57 to 63 years, and for men from 62 to 63 years.