2024-06-24 15:12

BRASILIA, June 24 (Reuters) - Brazil's current account deficit will significantly shrink starting next month as the purchase of crypto assets will no longer be considered an import affecting the trade balance, the central bank said on Monday. According to Renato Baldini, deputy head of the bank's statistics department, the revision follows a methodological change in the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Since 2019, cryptoassets have been treated as goods, impacting the trade balance. Now, they will be added to the capital account line. "There will be significant impacts," Baldini said, noting the 2023 current account deficit will decrease to $19.1 billion from $30.8 billion as net crypto asset imports of $11.7 billion will no longer be included in the trade balance calculation. For the January-May period this year, the current account deficit will drop to $13.8 billion from the $21.1 billion disclosed earlier on Monday, excluding net crypto asset imports of $7.3 billion. Cryptoassets will be included in the capital account of the balance of payments, which records transactions involving the purchase and sale of non-produced and non-financial assets and capital transfers, when the June data are released next month. This line traditionally shows low figures - $67 million from January to May. With the IMF's methodological change, the overall balance of payments, comprising the current, capital, and financial accounts, will remain the same. However, the analysis of a country's external position health typically looks at how much of the current account deficit is covered by net foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, which fall under the financial account. Baldini acknowledged that as the current account deficit decreases while the financial account remains unaffected by cryptoasset transactions, the comparison of the current account deficit coverage by FDI will present a more favorable picture for Brazil. According to the central bank, Brazil posted a current account deficit of $3.4 billion in May, reversing the surplus recorded a year earlier due to a smaller trade surplus and a larger deficit in the services account. The result was slightly narrower than the $3.5 billion deficit forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. In May last year, Latin America's largest economy had registered a $1.1 billion surplus in its current account transactions. Foreign direct investment reached $3 billion in May, lower than the $4.75 billion projected in the poll. The 12-month current account deficit rose to 1.79% of gross domestic product but was still comfortably covered by FDI, which was 2.95% of GDP. The trade balance fell by $3 billion and the services deficit increased by $1.3 billion compared to the same month last year, the central bank said. Trade exchanges between Brazil and abroad have been affected by the growing import of crypto assets, which rose 55% in May to $1.5 billion. The deficit in the factor payments account rose by $168 million compared to May 2023, the central bank added. Portfolio investments in the domestic market saw a $1.3 billion inflow in the month, composed of a $2.2 billion inflow in bonds and a $896 million outflow in stocks and investment funds. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/brazil-posts-34-billion-current-account-deficit-may-2024-06-24/

2024-06-24 13:55

NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Austan Goolsbee is still looking for inflation to cool further as part of the process that would open the door to a rate cut. Describing himself as “closet optimistic that we're going to see improvement” on the inflation front, Goolsbee said in a CNBC interview on Monday that he is hopeful that the central bank is going to get "a little bit more confidence that on the inflation side” pressures are coming down after being higher than expected at the start of the years. While Goolsbee declined to say anything about the timing of rate cuts, he said policymakers do need to consider whether the high level of the Fed's short-term rate target, now at between 5.25% and 5.5%, is appropriate for an economy that's starting to show signs of cooling outside of inflation. Very tight monetary policy has been in place because "you're trying to guard against overheating," Goolsbee explained. "If unemployment claims are going up, the unemployment rate is inching up, many of the other measures have cooled down to something like what they were before the pandemic and you start to see weakness on consumer spending," Goolsbee said at that point the Fed needs to think more about balancing both sides of its inflation and employment mandates. That's because, "if you're going to be extra restrictive for too long, you're going to have to start worrying about what's happening to the real economy" and whether that policy setting is slowing the economy down too much. At the Fed's policy meeting earlier this month officials penciled in a single rate cut for the year, versus three in March forecasts. Markets are currently eying a September easing in the fed funds rate. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/feds-goolsbee-still-looking-data-inflation-is-cooling-cnbc-2024-06-24/

2024-06-24 12:36

June 24 (Reuters) - Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY.O) New Tab, opens new tab said on Monday that its drug vutrisiran helped reduced the number of deaths and cardiovascular events in a study of patients with a rare heart disease, sending the drugmaker's shares up 39% in premarket trading. The study enrolled 655 patients who were randomized to receive Alnylam's drug or placebo. Some patients were given an approved drug, Pfizer's (PFE.N) New Tab, opens new tab tafamadis, at the beginning of the study. Data from a keenly-awaited trial showed that vutrisiran helped reduce deaths by all causes and heart-related events by 28% across all trial patients and by 33% in patients who only received vutrisiran. Stifel analyst Paul Matteis said that data supports the drug's potential to become a blockbuster treatment. Treatment with the drug also resulted in statistically significant improvements across all secondary goals, including measures such as the distance patients could walk in six minutes - a key measure of disease progression. The study tested adults with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM), where function of the heart muscles is restricted due to the accumulation of irregular proteins. The company said that ATTR-CM affects about 200,000-300,000 people worldwide. William Blair analysts forecast the market for ATTR treatments to be a $10 billion opportunity for drugmakers. Current treatment options include Pfizer's tafamidis, which is sold as Vyndaqel and Vyndamax. BridgeBio (BBIO.O) New Tab, opens new tab and Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS.O) New Tab, opens new tab are also developing rival treatments for ATTR-CM. Stifel's Matteis added that it was hard to directly compare Alnylam's drug data with Pfizer's tafamidis and BridgeBio's acoramidis due to the limited details disclosed. BridgeBio shares fell 7% to $25.44 in premarket trade. Massachussets-based Alnylam said it will begin submitting data to regulatory bodies worldwide, including to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, later this year. Vutrisiran is approved in the U.S. under the brand name Amvuttra to treat nerve damage in adult patients for another condition known as hereditary ATTR amyloidosis. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/alnylams-heart-disease-drug-meets-main-goal-late-stage-study-2024-06-24/

2024-06-24 12:23

June 24 (Reuters) - India will auction 21 critical mineral blocks as part of the fourth tranche worth 830 billion rupees ($9.94 billion) across more than six states, the government said on Monday. Ten out of these are blocks from previous tranches. India has been auctioning critical mineral blocks since November as part of efforts towards a clean energy transition. On Friday, the government annulled 14 out of 18 blocks in the second tranche due to a lack of bids. Earlier on Monday, the government awarded its first auctioned lithium block in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh to Maiki South Mining Ltd, according to a statement. India also plans to auction its first tranche of 10 offshore critical minerals blocks in next 100 days. ($1 = 83.4781 Indian rupees) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-auction-21-critical-mineral-blocks-across-more-than-six-states-2024-06-24/

2024-06-24 12:16

NEW DELHI, June 24 (Reuters) - A Delhi city minister has started an indefinite hunger strike to demand more drinking water for India's capital, where taps in some of its poorest neighbourhoods are running nearly dry in the middle of searing heat. "There are 2.8 million people in the city who are aching for just a drop of water," Delhi Water Minister Atishi said on Monday, the fourth day of her fast. Millions of Indians face water shortages every summer when water demand rises in farms, offices and homes against a limited supply, but a prolonged heatwave this year has worsened the shortfall, including in Delhi and the southern tech hub of Bengaluru. Delhi relies on the Yamuna River that runs through the capital for most of its water needs but the river slows down during dry summer months, causing shortages that lead to protests and calls for better water conservation. Atishi blamed the neighbouring farming state of Haryana for guzzling up a large share of river water. Haryana's government responded that it was Delhi's mismanagement that was causing water shortages. Experts said a federal-level review of decades-old water sharing pacts was needed to accommodate population growth. Delhi, a city of 20 million people, is one of the world's most densely populated capitals, where upscale neighbourhoods and manicured lawns are just a few miles away from unplanned working-class areas and slums. But, in contrast to growing unplanned development over the years, the city's water allocation from rivers has remained unchanged since 1994, said Depinder Kapur, the director of water programme at think tank Centre for Science and Environment. "What was true 10-15 years ago is not true anymore. So, there is a situation of crisis and it's a distribution issue," he said. The Delhi government is working on plans to improve the groundwater table by reviving lakes and storing water overflow from the Yamuna during the seasonal monsoon rains, but officials say the summer shortfall is difficult to tackle by these measures alone. "Water crisis in Delhi is a year-long crisis because extreme temperatures are not going anywhere," said environmentalist Vimlendu Jha. "Delhi needs a comprehensive water management plan in which Yamuna can't be the only major source of water." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/delhi-minister-stages-hunger-strike-more-water-city-amid-extreme-heat-2024-06-24/

2024-06-24 12:13

BEIJING, June 24 (Reuters) - Heavy rains swamped the southern Chinese city of Changsha on Monday, turning roads into rivers and submerging pedestrian underpasses and subway tunnels. Emergency crews ferried locals to and from their homes on rubber boats and headed out to rescue drivers trapped on flooded roads, state CCTV reported. From 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., the state Weather China service said it measured 65.1 millimetres of rainfall in the capital of Hunan province, a new hourly record for the city in June. "This rain is so heavy, at this rate, my compound will become an island,” one social media user wrote on their Weibo account. Waters surging through an underground pass to a subway train station rose and overflowed onto the streets, videos posted online showed. By the afternoon, the city had shut down two subway lines and closed several tourism spots. There were no immediate reports of fatalities in the city. But dozens of others have died in floods and landslides in recent days in southern provinces including Guangdong. The level of the rains in June have caught many by surprise. Usually, China enters its peak rainy season in late July. Extreme weather has made storms more intense and unpredictable, exposing heavily built-up and highly populated megacities with poor drainage to sudden floods and waterlogging. In rural areas, mudslides have been a major cause of fatalities. Last week, President Xi Jinping called for all-out efforts to fight floods in the south, urging every possible attempt to rescue those lost and trapped. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/record-rains-paralyse-chinas-southern-city-changsha-2024-06-24/