{"id":602819,"date":"2019-04-08T03:50:28","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T03:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2019\/04\/08\/what-were-tracking-on-08-april-2019\/"},"modified":"2019-04-08T03:50:28","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T03:50:28","slug":"what-were-tracking-on-08-april-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2019\/04\/08\/what-were-tracking-on-08-april-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"What we\u2019re tracking on 08 April 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

El Sisi heads to DC today: <\/b>President Abdel Fattah El Sisi is heading today to Washington, DC, for a three-day visit to America, the highlight of which will be a meeting with US President Donald Trump. The president\u2019s visit comes as the IMF and World Bank gear-up for their spring meetings, which will feature a meeting of G-20 finance ministers on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

Presidential diplomacy will get plenty of headlines heading into Ramadan: <\/b>El Sisi was in Guinea yesterday<\/a> for talks with President Alpha Conde \u2014 the first time an Egyptian president has visited the country since 1965. Also in the cards for the president are visits to Senegal and Cote d\u2019Ivoire, according to a presidential statement<\/a>. El Sisi is also due in Beijing later this month to attend China\u2019s Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, according to Xinhua<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a> The mood for the global economy this week is going to be set in Washington and in New York. <\/b>Specifically:<\/p>\n

The IMF looks set to downgrade this week its global growth forecasts for 2019 and 2020<\/b> just in time for the aforementioned spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank. IMF boss Christine Lagarde reportedly still expects an \u201can anaemic pick-up later this year\u201d but \u201cbelieves that a major fiscal easing may be needed to reverse the downward trend in the longer term,\u201d according to the Financial Times<\/a>. Lagard had said last week that the outlook is \u201cprecarious\u201d for an \u201cunsettled\u201d global economy<\/a> that is particularly vulnerable to trade wars, Brexit and financial markets shocks (including, say, a sell-off sparked by a run of poor earnings reports).<\/p>\n

That comes as the global economy is entering a \u201csynchronised slowdown,\u201d<\/b> according to an index compiled by the Financial Times and US think tank Brookings that looks at \u201csentiment indicators and economic data\u201d across advanced and emerging economies.\u201d The Brookings-Financial Times TIGER (Tracking Indexes for the Global Economic Recovery) index shows that investment is easing across the world due to falling business and consumer confidence as well as geopolitical tensions, Brookings<\/a> writes. At the same time, record public debt levels mean that advanced economies are running low on ammunition to prevent a possible recession. The salmon-colored paper has coverage here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So will poor 1Q earnings in Europe and the US be one of the triggers of Doomsday? <\/b>Maybe, the Wall Street Journal<\/a> suggests, noting that \u201cdozens of companies have slashed their profit forecasts for the first quarter,\u201d from Walgreen Boots to FedEx, Apple and 3M. CNBC is less certain<\/a>, acknowledging that (expected) poor first-quarter earnings could hit market sentiment, but fretting more about what could happen on Wednesday. That\u2019s when the US Federal Reserve releases the minutes of its last meeting \u2014 and when the EU meets to talk about Brexit.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

A ray of sunshine? Emerging market debt will continue to rally in the coming months <\/b>despite the fading recovery in developing economies, according to Bloomberg\u2019s monthly EM survey<\/a>. \u201cWith the [US Federal Reserve\u2019s] dovish turn and risks of economic slowdown globally, central banks in emerging markets won\u2019t have to raise rates, which is a good environment for bond,\u201d FPG Securities CEO Koji Fukaya said.<\/p>\n

In regional goings-on:<\/b><\/p>\n