• Employment in the public sector declined by 11.1% in 2018 due to lower recruitment in the core civil services.
• “There was lower recruitment in the core civil services by 0.5%, which represented 63.1% of total public sector employment,” recounted the Bank of Guyana in its 2018 annual report.
• In the rest of the public sector, employment fell by 29.4%. Employment in public corporations contracted on account of lower recruitment by the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) and financial institutions by 39.2% and 0.6% respectively.
• Despite the decline in employment, employment costs increased by G$5 million, moving to G$59.4Mn. This reflected developments in wages, salaries, and benefits of public servants.

(Source: Guyana Chronicle)

• Talks between the U.S. and Mexico are set to continue into a third day in a bid to reach an agreement that would stop the imposition of 5% tariffs on American imports from its southern neighbor on Monday.
• Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard confirmed that his government has offered to send about 6,000 national guard troops to Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala to help stem migration, while Vice President Mike Pence said it is still the U.S. plan to go ahead with the tariffs.
• He said he would talk to President Donald Trump over the weekend to update him on developments ahead of the deadline.

(Source: Bloomberg)

• People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang said his country has “tremendous” monetary and fiscal policy space to make adjustments to the economy should the trade war worsen.
• He also said that his meeting this weekend with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin would probably be a “productive talk, as always.”
• China’s markets are closed for a holiday today, but the offshore yuan fell the most in three weeks to trade at the weakest level since November, in the wake of the governor’s comments.

(Source: Bloomberg)

• Lasco Financial Services recorded audited net profit for the year ended March 31, 2019, of $281.76Mn (EPS: 22.28¢) relative to the $254.28Mn (EPS: 19.95¢) representing a 10.8% growth for the year.
• The improvement in the bottom line can be partly attributed to increased income (+36.9%), growth in other operating income (+28.3%) which when combined, contributed to 36.5%.overall growth in revenues.
• The stock has risen 5.6% since the start of the calendar year. LASM closed trading yesterday at $4.75, and currently trades at a P/E of 21.95x earnings which is below the Junior Market Financial sector average of 25.56.

 (Source: Lasco Financial Services Financials)

• The Bank of Guyana (BoG) has projected that the local economy will grow by 4.4 percent this year, due to growth in the major economic sectors.
• Growth will be driven by the agricultural, mining and quarrying, services and construction and manufacturing sectors. 
• Guyana’s economic growth rate was stronger at 4.1 percent for 2018 when compared to the 2.1 percent growth in 2017. This outturn was on account of higher production of bauxite, livestock, forestry, and other crops as well as increases in construction, manufacturing and service activities.
• Despite the many positive growth, the inflation rate is forecasted at 2.5% because of moderate increases in food and fuel prices. The BoG’s Financial Stability Committee is, however continuously assessing a number of risk indicators pertinent to the financial and economic systems.

• BERGER Paints Trinidad (BPTL) has ceased operations in TT. Berger Paints Limited (BPTL) and its recognized majority trade union, the National Union of Government and Federated Workers Union, signed a memorandum of agreement on May 31 on the cessation of operations of BTPL.
• Ansa McAl said while BPTL will stop its manufacturing operations in TT, product availability in the market will not be affected and that the paint business will now be distributed by Ansa Coatings Ltd.
• It was reported that BPTL has been in a loss-making position for several years and that the decision will put the paint business in a better position to build efficiencies and becomes more competitive in the local and export markets.

 (Trinidad & Tobago News Day)

• President Donald Trump warned on Twitter that he’s not “bluffing” in his threat to impose 5% tariffs on goods from Mexico, even as opposition to the move grows among Republican lawmakers.
• Later today, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard is meeting officials at the White House in an attempt to find a way to appease the president.
• Markets are betting that some progress can be made, and the Mexican peso was the world’s best-performing major currency yesterday.
• Trump will not attend the meeting as he’s visiting a golf course in Ireland.

(Source: Bloomberg)

• China fined Ford Motor Co.’s main joint venture in the country for antitrust violations, marking the latest action toward a U.S. company as tensions between the two nations escalate.
• The announcement comes just days after China said that it’s investigating FedEx Corp. for “wrongful” deliveries, a move framed by the state news agency as a warning by Beijing after the Trump administration declared a ban on business with telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co.
• China has also threatened to blacklist foreign firms that damage domestic companies’ interests and on Tuesday warned its citizens against travel to the U.S.
• Though China didn’t spell out any links between the fine and the U.S. tensions, "it’s hard to see it as not related," said Andrew Polk, co-founder of research firm Trivium China in Beijing. "At this stage, I think our baseline assumption should be that there are no coincidences."

(Source: Bloomberg)

• Indies Pharma Jamaica Limited reported net income of $79.48Mn (EPS: $0.06) for the six-month period ended April 30, 2019. This performance represents a 55.5% improvement relative to the corresponding period of 2018. Normalization of the net profit for exchange gains and losses revealed a growth of 5.0%
• Increases in revenues (+19.9%) coupled with a decline in finance costs (loan interest) to $196,728 down from $7.49Mn helped to boost net profit.
• There was also a slight decline (3.2%) in cost of sales for the period which also partly contributed to an improvement in the bottom line.
• The stock has fallen 1.6% since the start of the calendar year. Indies Pharma closed trading yesterday at $3.13 and currently trades at a P/E of 28.6x earnings which is above the Junior Market Distribution sector average of 21.6x.

 (Source: Indies Pharma Financials)

• The audited financials for Seprod revealed that net profit for 2018 increased to $1.06Bn (EPS: $2.07), representing an improvement of 63.9% over the $647.84Mn (EPS: $1.42) recorded in 2017.
• The major items which contributed to this performance were an increase in revenues (+42.7%) and a decline in other operating expenses (-25.1%).
• The stock has rallied 58.2% since the start of the calendar year, closing yesterday’s trading session at $47.41. At the current price the stock trades at a P/E of 15.6x earnings which is below the Main Market Distribution sector average of 18.3x.

 (Source: Seprod Financials)