Bear Stearns announced that it will sell bonds worth $500 million in South Korea next month. This is the first time a foreign company has floated a US dollar-denominated bond in South Korea. South Korea Financial Supervisory Service announced that the 7-year Kimchi bond will be traded on the domestic stock market. Bear Stearns' total capital was $57.6 billion in February and total assets are $300 billion.
Hugh Bredenkamp, the IMF’s senior resident representative in Turkey , said there was no need to revise the 5% inflation target. According to Bredenkamp if exchange rates remain at their current low level there will be pressure on inflation, but monetary authorities should wait to see the May and June figures before taking a decision. He said that growth and banking sector are strong, so recent volatility in local financial markets will not harm the economy. Turkey’s current account deficit is a risk factor, but the prospects for financing it are bright in the short-term because of strong FDI inflows.
Brazil's central government posted a record monthly primary surplus of 14.856 billion reais ($6.387 billion) in April 2006, up 17% year-on-year, local media reported on May 24, 2006. The country's March 2006 primary surplus was at 7.228 billion reais ($3.11 billion). The results were attributed to the increase in central government revenue, and a 5.9% cut in expenditures. The national treasury also received dividends from the federally-run banks of around 1.6 billion reais ($700 million).
Helena Hessel, analyst at Standard and Poor's, said that the skyrocketing oil prices could cause governments grave problems. Grenada, Belize and Jamaica are particularly at risk because of high balance of payments and current account deficits. Jamaica's economic performance was worst than expected in the 2005-2006 fiscal year, which ended in March, because of the hurricane season and rising oil prices.
"The same thing would be happening in 2006-2007 because of high oil prices," Hessel said. Large-scale construction in 2006-2007 in Barbados would result in huge oil import bills, she added. However Caribbean states have managed to stay afloat at "this point in the game".
Czech banks are against a proposal that they should compensate clients of collapsed banks Union banka, Plzenska banka and Kreditni banka Plzen which the parliament’s lower house approved on Tuesday. Banks say that the proposal goes against legislation that forbids payment of compensation for anonymous deposits. The amount the banks should pay amounts to 3 billion Czech kuna.
Citibank Singapore announced that it has increased its rate on fixed deposits to 3% a year from the earlier rate of 2.68%. The revised rate is applicable to deposit amounts of less than 30,000 Singapore dollars. The bank has increased the interest rate on fixed deposits of above 150,000 Singapore dollars to 3.38% from 3.2%.