The EconomistSeptember 7th 2019 9
The world this week Business
The Argentine government
introduced emergency capital
controls, restricting the
amount of dollars that people
and firms can buy. The mea-
sures are meant to stop money
gushing out of the country
amid a run on the peso, which
has tumbled as investors fret
that October’s presidential
election will be won by a ticket
that includes Cristina Fernán-
dez de Kirchner, a former
president whose spendthrift
policies ruined the economy.India’s economygrew by 5%
in the second quarter
compared with the same three
months last year, the country’s
slowest growth rate in six years
and well below market fore-
casts. Separate figures showed
that domestic car sales
slumped in August (by 49% for
Tata Motors compared with
August 2018) and that manu-
facturing activity was cooling
rapidly. More government
stimulus is now on the cards.The Indian government also
announced plans to streamline
the country’s state-controlled
banks, which hold lots of bad
debt, cramping their ability to
lend, and proposed that ten
state banks be merged into
four new ones. Markets gave
the idea a cool reception.Australia’sgdpgrew by 1.4%
in the second quarter, the
slowest pace since the
financial crisis. Exports are
booming, but consumers in
the Lucky Country are reining
in their spending.Turkey’sannual inflation rate
fell to 15% in August, the lowest
it has been for 15 months.
Inflation soared to 25% at the
end of last year amid a curren-
cy crisis. Today’s more stablelira and decreasing price pres-
sures have boosted expecta-
tions that the central bank will
again slash interest rates when
it meets on September 12th,
though probably by not as
much as the 4.25-percentage-
point cut to rates in July.America and China agreed to
resume high-level talks in
early October to try to resolve
their trade dispute. Negotia-
tors last met in July and there is
little hope that a breakthrough
will come soon. There was
evidence this week that the
dispute is having an effect on
manufacturing. Factory
output in America surprisingly
contracted in August for the
first time in three years. In
Britain manufacturing activity
fell to a seven-year low. And in
Germany a purchasing-manag-
ers’ index suggested that
manufacturing had shrunk for
an eighth consecutive month.
Figures in China showed
manufacturing contracting for
the fourth month in a row.Uber’sshare price hit a new
low ahead of the expected
passage of a bill in California
that would reclassify the em-
ployment status of the com-
pany’s drivers in the state from
contractor to employee, a
threat to its low-labour-cost
business model.The rural-urban split
Walmartdecided to stop sell-
ing ammunition that can be
used in military-style weapons
and handguns. The retailer has
come under pressure to do
more to curb gun sales since
last month’s mass shooting at
one of its stores in El Paso. This
week a gunman murdered
seven people at random in
west Texas. Walmart stopped
selling handguns in the 1990s
and semi-automatics in 2015,
but the latest surge in shoot-
ings has led to calls for parents
to boycott its stores in the
back-to-school season.A key ally of Muhammad bin
Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown
prince and de facto ruler, was
put in charge of Saudi Aramco.
The promotion of Yasir al-
Rumayyan to chairman makes
the on-off ipoof the state oil
company more likely; it could
come as early as next year.Cathay Pacific’schairman
stood down, three weeks after
its chief executive resigned
amid the political turmoil in
Hong Kong, Cathay’s home
hub. The airline draws a lot of
business from the Chinese
mainland, where the govern-
ment has told it to bar cabin
crew who participate in Hong
Kong’s pro-democracy protestsfrom flying to Chinese air-
ports. Cathay has sacked two
pilots who joined the marches.
The new chairman, like the
new ceo, comes from Swire
Group, a conglomerate with a
45% stake in Cathay.Nickelprices soared to five-
year highs after the Indonesian
government brought forward a
ban on exports of nickel ore to
December, two years earlier
than it had proposed. The
metal is used in stainless steel
and increasingly in batteries
for electric cars, an industry
which Indonesia wants to
develop domestically.A web of intrigue
There were moreprivacy
scandalsinvolving internet
companies. Google was fined
$170m in America for illegally
collecting data from child
users on its YouTube site in
order to target them with ads.
And a two-year hacking cam-
paign was uncovered (by
Google’s researchers) that
tapped into text messages and
photos on hundreds of thou-
sands of iPhones. As a remind-
er that no one is immune, the
Twitter account of Jack Dorsey,
Twitter’s boss, was briefly
hijacked; a number of offen-
sive messages and a bomb
threat were tweeted out.India’s GDPSource: Haver Analytics% increase on a year earlier2016 17 18 190246810