This Week in Emerging Markets (Vol V)
News, data, and curated content from across the globe.
Welcome to This Week In Emerging Markets, a weekly wire for topics in, from, and about emerging markets.
— Tom
Bloomberg: How Cyril Ramaphosa Won South African Ruling Party Power Play
Escalating tensions in South Africa’s ruling African National Congress finally came to a head on Wednesday when its Secretary-General Ace Magashule was informed by his deputy, Jessie Duarte, that he’d been suspended pending his trial on graft charges.
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While the bizarre standoff could ultimately end up in court, Ramaphosa clearly has the upper hand. The president has the backing of most members of the ANC’s National Executive Committee, or NEC, which calls the shots in the party and has unequivocally stated that all officials facing prosecution will have their membership revoked if they refuse to quit their posts.
Insider: Beijing's campaign to rein in Tesla has begun, now experts say it has a limited time to sell cars before it gets canceled
But things in China can change fast — especially when the central government decides it's time to shake things up. And in the past few weeks, Beijing — through state-controlled media — has joined the chorus of Tesla critics, and it has the most important and loudest voice of all.
"Xinhua and People's Daily have been publishing opinion pieces regularly saying that Tesla ignores the rights of consumers," Anne Stevenson-Yang, the founder of the investment firm J Capital Research in China, said in an email to Insider. The violations are said to include a right to transparent pricing and to data about accidents.
"Commentators say that Tesla has abrogated its investment commitment (14 billion yuan) and its commitment to pay taxes (2.23 billion yuan annually). The company is not meeting its sales targets," Stevenson-Yang said. She added, "Several commentators have recommended kicking Tesla out, like Google. These are not just your local op-ed writers — it's a campaign."
New York Times: They Were Promised a Socialist Paradise, and Ended Up in ‘Hell’
His wife died in 2013, and now Mr. Lee lives alone in a small rented apartment in Seoul. “But I have freedom,” he said. “I would have sacrificed everything else for it.”
Mr. Lee has formed an association with 50 ethnic Koreans from Japan who migrated to North Korea and escaped to the South. Every December, the group meets to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the mass migration in 1959. His memoir is nearly complete. His generation is the last to have firsthand experience of what happened to those 93,000 migrants, he said.
“It’s sad that our stories will be buried when we die,” Mr. Lee said.
YouTube: Bombay Stock Exchange (1995)
Reuters: Turkey's tight monetary policy held for now, finance minister says
Turkey's finance minister said on Thursday that the central bank has maintained its tight monetary policy stance "at the moment", after the bank held its key interest rate steady at 19% earlier in the day as expected.
In an interview televised on CNN Turk, Lutfi Elvan said the fight against inflation was a priority. He added that his ministry was closely monitoring loan growth, and that macro-prudential measures may be taken.
Instagram: Monaco Grand Prix (1968)
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CNBC: ‘Millionaire’s tax’: Argentina passes levy on the super-rich to help pay for Covid response
Lawmakers in the Senate passed the bill, dubbed the “millionaire’s tax,” by 42 votes to 26 late on Friday.
It means those with a personal fortune of over 200 million pesos ($2.4 million) — approximately 12,000 people — will have to pay a one-off tax of at least 2%.
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“History shows that once these benefits are introduced it would be very difficult to remove them. Overall, the new tax would further undermine Argentina’s already deteriorated business environment,” he added.
Of the proceeds raised by the levy, AFP reported that 20% would go toward medical supplies, 20% would go to small and medium-sized companies, 15% to social developments, 20% to student scholarships and 25% to natural gas ventures.
Al Jazeera: Rickshaw ‘ambulance’ offers free oxygen to India’s COVID patients
Khan, a 34-year-old driver in the central Indian city of Bhopal, sold his wife’s jewellery and converted his three-wheeled vehicle into a small ambulance, fitting it out with an oxygen cylinder, an oximeter to measure oxygen levels in the blood, and other medical supplies.
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Khan briefly ran into trouble with the authorities when police charged him for operating his auto-rickshaw without an emergency permit during Madhya Pradesh state’s virus lockdown, India Today reported.
But after an outcry on social media, police withdrew the charges and issued him with a special pass, the broadcaster added.
The Week Ahead:
Sunday — 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan National Day; 🇦🇺 Australian Retail Sales
Monday — 🇩🇰 Danish, 🇨🇳 Chinese CPI; 🇬🇧 British, 🇯🇵 Japanese Retail Sales; 🇯🇵 Japanese Government Bond 10yr Auction
Tuesday — ☪️ Eid al-Fitr; 🇹🇷 Turkish Retail Sales; 🛢 OPEC Monthly Report; 🇧🇷 Brazilian Inflation; 🇲🇾 Malaysian GDP; 🇳🇿 New Zealand Retail Sales;
Wednesday — 🇬🇧 British, 🇯🇵 Japanese Trade Balance; 🇬🇧 British Industrial Production; 🇳🇴 Norwegian, 🇬🇧 British GDP; 🇸🇪 Swedish, 🇺🇸 U.S., 🇮🇳 Indian, 🇫🇷 French, 🇩🇪 German CPI; 🇳🇿 New Zealand Wages;
Thursday — 🇺🇸 U.S. PPI; 🇲🇽 Banxico Interest Rate Decision; 🇦🇷Argentine CPI; 🇺🇦 Ukrainian Trade Balance;
Friday — 🇵🇱 Polish, 🇪🇸 Spanish, 🇮🇱 Israeli CPI; 🇵🇱 Poland GDP; 🇺🇸 U.S. Retail Sales;