With last weekÕs final payment of $4.5 billion, Nigeria has become the first African nation to settle all its debt to the Paris Club. The IMF gave Nigeria Õs economic reform programme a good appraisal, paving the way for the final exit from the Club through a debt buy-back scheme. The IMF approved the debt relief in October 2005. The terms of the agreement were that Nigeria would pay $12 billion to settle its $30 billion outstanding debt, amounting to a 60% discount
Koreans saved $1.35 billion in foreign currency in the first two weeks of April alone. The Bank of Korea attributed the increase partly to exporters setting aside their earnings, and to companies depositing the proceeds from overseas bond issues. According to the Bank of Korea, foreign currency deposits stood at $18.69 billion as of April 14, up from around $17.4 billion at the end of March 2006. Companies deposited $15.3 billion worth of savings, an increase of $1.2 billion from the end of March 2006, while individuals held $3.45 billion worth of deposits. Savings in US dollars were $15.3 billion, while those in Japanese yen increased to $2.1 billion.
Indonesian cocoa butter producer PT Davomas Abadi, said that it hired Lehman Brothers Inc to help it sell as much as $150 million of US dollar-denominated bonds. Indonesian companies are tapping the debt markets to raise funds to finance expansion, including PT Matahari Putra Prima, the country's biggest retailer by sales.,
The Bank of Thailand will keep a close watch on movements in the domestic currency, the baht, so as to restrict fluctuations, and appreciation against other major currencies. The Bank of Thailand's Deputy Governor, Bandid Nijathaworn, attributed the recent appreciation of the Baht against the US dollar to capital inflows into the Thai and other economies in the region. The BahtÕs movements will be monitored to ensure that the country's export sector remains competitive against regional rivals. Nijathaworn did not say if the central bank will intervene in the local currency market.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for the re-election of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during his visit to Curitiba, the capital of the southern Brazilian state of Parana, on April 20. In Chavez' speech to 1,500 militants from Curitiba's metropolitan region Via Campesina, members of Brazil's Landless Workers Movement, trades unionists and and students, Lula was called "the Brazilian hero". Chavez said that Lula is the appropriate person for Brazil at the moment, and that populist movements in Brazil should not allow democratic parties to take power.
Rumors are circulating that Brazil's second largest private bank, Banco ItaÏ or Spain's Grupo Santander are set to buy BankBoston, the local subsidiary of Bank of America. The sale price could reach 2.5 billion reais ($1.18 billion), or 2.8 times BankBoston's equity of 907 million reais. BankBoston would not comment on the rumors. BankBoston is Brazil's 13th largest bank with assets totaling 22.6 billion reais.