“First, the government will expand jobs in public sector, since tax revenue has been robust and the government has enough room to spend. Second, the administration is likely to adopt business-friendly policies to facilitate job creation,” said Lee Sang-jae, chief economist at Eugene Investment and Securities.

“However, these policies would be effective only in the short term, simply to prevent further deterioration.”

“From a common-sense standpoint, board members won’t be able to support a rate hike,” Oh Suk-tae, an economist at Societe Generale in Seoul said.”In addition to external factors including the Turkish crisis, the job data made the monetary decision clear. Based on the trend, my view is the data predicts negative jobs growth in the near future.”

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“We are extremely pleased to issue our first Hong Kong dollars green bond. The bond was issued based on demand from domestic investors interested in investing in the World Bank’s first green Hong Kong dollar (HKD) denominated bond.  HKD is the 19th currency for World Bank green bonds. This transaction also shows that demand for green bonds continues to grow, especially for safe and liquid instruments, from a broadening investor base. Investors, indeed, desire to connect their investments to development solutions that address climate change and make a difference for people around the globe,” said Arunma Oteh, World Bank Vice President and Treasurer.

With this latest transaction, the World Bank has issued more than 135 green bonds in 19 currencies, totaling almost US$10.5bn equivalent since its inaugural issue in 2008. World Bank Green Bonds offer investors an opportunity to support environmental solutions through a bond product that benefits from the triple-A credit strength of the World Bank. World Bank Green Bonds help support the financing of projects in member countries that meet specific criteria for low carbon and climate resilient growth, seeking to mitigate climate change or help affected people adapt to it. The types of eligible projects include renewable energy installations, energy efficiency projects, and new technologies in waste management and agriculture that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help finance the transition to a low carbon economy. They also include financing for forest and watershed management and infrastructure to prevent climate-related flood damage and build climate resilience.

“Congratulations to the World Bank for printing this landmark HKD 1bn 2-year green bond transaction. Asia has been one of the driving forces behind green bond issuance in recent years and we are delighted that the Hong Kong Dollar market has displayed its appetite for the product from a high-grade issuer such as the World Bank. HSBC was delighted to have arranged this transaction,” said Jean-Marc Mercier, Global Co-Head of Debt Capital Markets at HSBC

“Société Générale is very proud to have joint-lead-managed World Bank’s inaugural syndicated HKD-denominated green bond. This transaction not only reinforces World Bank’s already strong footprint in the sustainability bond market, but thanks to this new currency added to World Bank’s green and sustainability bond offerings, also gives an additional investor base the opportunity to make a climate-positive investment on one of the world’s highest quality signatures,” said Stéphane Marciel, Head of Sustainable Bonds, Debt Capital Markets.

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IFM Correspondent

August 17, 2016: The past week saw OPEC announcing plans for an informal meet at the International Energy Forum in late September. The announcement comes at a time when Saudi Arabia is pumping a record amount of oil and Iran is resuming production faster than expected — a strong sign neither is likely to easily entertain the idea of controlling production, though members like Venezuela have been pushing for talks in a new pricing mechanism for a while now.

The hope of a deal that would tighten oil production pulled up the prices last week. Though the market reacted positively, experts do not expect much out of the meeting.

Michael Wittner, expert on oil and products, Societe Generale feels the OPEC meeting will have little to offer for oil producers. After the meeting was announced, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the kingdom is open to cooperation with OPEC and non-OPEC countries, including any possible action that might be required to stabilise the market.

“These comments were similar in tone and content to al-Falih’s comments after the last OPEC meeting in June. Venezuela and others may push for a freeze again. However, similar to April, a freeze would only be a boost to market sentiment. Russia, Iraq, and Iran are close to it, and Saudi output will go down anyway after the summer peak. So a freeze would not have any impact on actual crude supply,” remarks Wittner.

For the uninitiated, there was talk of a deal earlier this year by which output would be frozen at maximum levels although Iran was not a party to this. Later in April, there was a meeting between OPEC and Russia but again it failed to achieve its objective. In June, there was the official OPEC meeting wherein no decision was made other than to follow the market.

John Hall, chairman, Alfa Energy, states that if OPEC wishes to retain any credibility, it will treat the ‘informal meet’ as simply an opportunity to keep in touch with fellow members and other world producers, as it will be futile to attempt to agree to a meaningful outcome on an informal basis when the leading members of OPEC have been producing at record levels – Saudi at 10.67mbpd, Iran at 3.85mbpd and Iraq at 4.6mbpd.

“Fundamentally, a freeze at record high levels would be meaningless anyway as they are the levels that are holding the rebalancing of the market back and therefore the only difference would be if OPEC decided to cut. It is difficult to do it as no one will want to reduce the share they have worked so hard to develop,” says Hall.

“I am sceptical of seeing anything out of OPEC. I don’t see anything out of Saudi,” says Greg Priddy, director of global energy with Eurasia Group.

However, OPEC is optimistic about oil price rise. The recent decline in prices is temporary, OPEC said. “These are more of an outcome resulting from weaker refinery margins, inventory overhang — particularly of product stocks, timing of Brexit and its impact on the financial futures markets, including that of crude oil.”

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June 22, 2016: Société Générale, a French multinational banking and financial company and La Banque Postale, a French bank, have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand the operations of their joint venture Transactis, from card transactions to European and international wire transfers and direct debits.

Since the successful payment card processing partnership that enabled the banks to achieve significant savings in unit-transaction handling costs between 2008 and 2015, and the inclusion of Crédit du Nord in their shared system, Transactis handles 22% of payment cards and card transactions in France.

The two banks have now decided to layer a new industry partnership on top of this existing operational framework, providing Transactis with a shared platform to manage the electronic processing of all their wire transfer and direct debit transactions.

They have chosen to work with Sopra Banking Software, a leading developer of payment applications in Europe and a longstanding partner of both Société Générale and La Banque Postale, using its enterprise software solution Sopra Banking Platform for Payments.

This new and innovative partnership – the first of its kind in Europe – will combine the knowhow of two banks and one software developer, to meet three objectives:

– Build a high-performance, innovative, shared IT management platform to address new needs on the market such as instant payments and mobile banking

– Pool transaction costs for all payments from 2018 based on a model similar to that of card transactions

– Offer the platform’s services on the European market and make Transactis a leader in electronic payment processing services for the continent’s financial industry

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