Readings: Gold & gold miners, Urea sector, Global slowdown
- Hindu Business Line: DSP ML World Gold Fund
Last week, I put on a position in gold mining stocks - they have promptly dropped 3%+, but I am bravely holding on!
The Centre on Friday cleared a producer-friendly policy on investments in urea plants, which can increase capacity at existing plants by 3 million tonnes over the next two years through debottlenecking exercises.
India produces 20 million tonnes a year, but that is 40% short of demand, estimated at around 28 million tonnes currently.
“The entire thing depends on gas availability and price. If it is available to fertiliser manufacturers at $5 per mmbtu, urea production will go up,”
- RGE Monitor: Navigating Towards a Global Recession?
A few weeks back we surveyed a group of countries navigating towards (or through) recession. The list included the U.S., Canada, Spain, Ireland, Italy, the UK, the Baltics and New Zealand. Now the growth engine of the EMU, Germany, is faltering, together with France. And a recession might be in the works for Japan as well. This essentially leaves us with a fully fledged G7 recession in the making.
China’s exports to Europe, which marked double digit growth last year are now falling, manufacturing output seems to be contracting and exporters are complaining of higher labor and input costs. With a focus on growth, and headline inflation stabilized, the Chinese government is shifting away from its ‘tight’ monetary policy some lending curbs have been lifted and RMB appreciation has already stalled.
There’s not much doubt about a worldwide slowdown; look at the continuing steep fall in the Baltic Dry Index:
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