The threat of a US tariff on Mexico’s tomato exports of 17% has been lifted. In the 1980s every US citizen consumed 5.5KG of tomatoes annually; that has now increased to 10KG. So a big deal for US consumers and a very big deal for Mexican tomato growers. Caramba!
This is the name given to securities backed not only with mortgages but with the guarantee of the issuer and as such are considered low risk. Berlin Hyp have issued a EUR 1Billion security yielding minus 0.59% which is the lowest rate yet and another tale in the negative interest rate saga that we have been describing in the past few weeks. So not such a stretch to being paid to borrow money to finance property and definitely expect cheaper mortgage rate offers in the next few months.
Following the piece on Texas, we have been asked to write about California which was claimed by Spain in the 1600s and named after an Amazon queen in a land named Califia from a novel . With no irrigation it was not a great place to live and work but things started changing when a revolution transferred ownership to Mexico in 1821 and then big time with the discovery of gold in 1849. Suddenly California became a sought after territory and was taken over by the USA following their victory in the American Mexican War in 1848 and was duly irrigated and settled. From a population in the 1820s of less than 20,000 California grew to 400,000 in the 1840s and today…nearly 40 million. California is now the 5th largest world economy with a $3 trillion gross state product larger than the UK but smaller than Germany.
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
European Interest Rates More momentum on rate cuts in the Eurozone as expectations grew for cuts starting in March and totalling 140bps in 2024. Equally in the UK cuts of 130bps starting in June are being pencilled in to market calendars. What this means is that GBP/EUR is looking more than especially good value at […]
I’m a central banker, get me out of here Ant and Dec were not present at the RBA decision overnight. However, based upon the reception of the decision, Governor Michele Bullock might rightly feel she was in one of the duo’s trials. Markets offered a frosty reception to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest interest […]
UK With 2 year mortgage rates less than 4% and 5 years at 4.39%, the implication for the housing market which has responded by a modest 0.2% rise, is that rates are soon going to fall and that the UK economy is stabilising. While there will doubtless be setbacks to this rose tinted scenario, for […]