• The president of Argentina's central bank has resigned amid negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail the South American country out of its volatile economic crisis. The resignation comes as President Mauricio Macriis negotiating additional IMF funding, three months after securing a $50bn loan from the international lender to stabilise Argentina's economy.

• Argentina's weak economy has been hit by a sharp depreciation of its peso currency and high inflation, forcing the government to reach out to the IMF for help. After a crisis of confidence beginning in April saw the peso plunge, Argentina negotiated a $50bn bailout loan from the IMF that included an initial $15bn tranche in June.

• The pesos is down  about 50% year to date. Macri responded by announcing new, and unpopular, austerity measures including halving the number of government ministries and restoring taxes on grain exports.  The central bank also hiked interest rates to a world-high 60 percent and the peso has remained largely stable since its sudden crash in August.

Source:  Aljazeera

• Digicel Group Limited announced on Monday evening that it will be further extending the early tender date and expiration date for its recently announced debt exchange offers to 11:59 p.m., New York time on October 19, 2018
• This announcement came as Akin Gump, a US law firm acting for Digicel bondholders, told the telecoms group on Monday that the terms offered to those creditors were “unacceptable”. 

• In a statement, Akin Gump said the holders of more than 60 per cent of the $3 billion that Digicel owes these creditors have agreed not to tender their bonds to the telecoms company in response to its offer. 

• The lawyers said a committee of bondholders had told Digicel of this “lock-up” agreement and said they were willing to enter talks on an alternative proposal if the company withdraws the original offer or extends its cut-off and early acceptance deadlines. 

For more details visit:  https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/digicel-group-limited-extends-early-tender-date-for-exchange-offers-and-consent-solicitations-818712391.html

Source: Cision PR Newswire,  Irish Times

• A barrel of Brent crude traded at $80.93 on Monday, the highest level since November 2014, after OPEC and its partners signalled less urgency to boost output at a meeting in Algiers yesterday. 

• The move comes despite a call from Trump to increase supply in order to cap rising oil prices. Major energy trading houses are predicting OPEC will continue to hold the upper hand with forecasts for $100 crude becoming more common.

Source: Bloomberg

• Theresa May's Brexit negotiations with the European Union (EU) are going very, very wrong and there is speculation that the U.K. could be heading for a snap election.
• Both the ruling Conservatives and opposition Labour party appear to be considering the possibility of a snap election as early as November, particularly in light of May's disastrous meeting with her EU counterparts in Salzburg last week, at which they appeared to throw her and her Brexit proposals under the bus.

 Source: CNBC

• ”I hope in three years' time, there will be a number of foreign ventures qualified for full-license, full-ownership operation in the financial sector,” Premier Li Keqiang told a group of business leaders at a World Economic Forum conference.
• Recent financial reform efforts that Chinese authorities have taken include allowing individual foreign investors in the country to buy mainland-traded stocks, known as A shares, and removing limits of foreign holdings in banks.

Source: CNBC

• Petrotrin’s re­fin­ery gates won’t be closed im­me­di­ate­ly on Oc­to­ber 1 - there’ll be a phased ex­it of em­ploy­ees start­ing with the re­fin­ery. 

• The jobs of al­most 4,800 per­ma­nent and tem­po­rary/ca­su­al em­ploy­ees will all be af­fect­ed, par­tic­u­lar­ly 1,700 re­fin­ery posts. Work­ers will even­tu­al­ly have to reap­ply for jobs in a re­struc­tured Ex­plo­ration and Pro­duc­tion di­vi­sion which will be Petrotrin’s new fo­cus. 

• Notes to Petrotrin’s Au­gust 2018 fi­nan­cial state­ments showed the com­pa­ny record­ed a net prof­it af­ter tax of $83.2 mil­lion for last month. Ex­plo­ration and Pro­duc­tion, in­clud­ing Trin­mar, record­ed a net prof­it of $20.5 mil­lion - but Re­fin­ing and Mar­ket­ing record­ed a net loss of $7.5 mil­lion. 

• The board’s memo al­so stat­ed that de­tails on com­pen­sa­tion and ben­e­fits are “cur­rent­ly be­ing fi­nalised.”

 Source: TT Guardian

Wisynco Group Limited (WISYNCO), as a result of an equity investment in Worthy Park Estate Limited by its parent company, has negotiated a five (5) year exclusive distribution agreement with Worthy Park Estate Limited (WPEL) for the distribution of WPEL’s spirits and sugar, WISYNCO advised.

WISYNCO further advised that the distribution of WPEL’s spirits will commence on November 1, 2018 and will include the ‘Rum-Bar’ and Worthy Park Estate brands of spirits. The distribution of WPEL’s sugar will commence on January 1, 2019 at the start of the new sugar crop.

Source: JSE

Wisynco Group Limited (WISYNCO) has advised that it has taken note of the Government of Jamaica’s recently announced ban on plastic bags, plastic straws and Styrofoam, pending final legislative provisions.

The areas of impact for WISYNCO include plastic straws and Styrofoam, which the Company manufactures.

Regarding plastic straws, it is proposed that this can take effect on January 1, 2019. Plastic straws represent less than 1/10th of 1% of the Company’s revenue and the ban will therefore have no impact.

Regarding the ban on Styrofoam for local manufacturers, though there is still some uncertainty, it is currently proposed that this ban take effect on January 1, 2020. Styrofoam represents 4% of the company’s revenue and approximately 3% of the company’s net income.

Source: JSE

The All Jamaica Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August 2018 recorded an inflation rate of 0.9 per cent. This was outlined in the Consumer Price Index Bulletin – August 2018 released today by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN). The upward movement in August 2018 CPI was influenced by a 1.6 per cent increase, in the index for the ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ division. This was primarily due to higher prices for agricultural produce resulting in an increase of 0.6 per cent in the class ‘Vegetables and Starchy Foods’. Another influence on the upward movement was the ‘Furnishing, Household Equipment and Routine Household maintenance’ division as a result of the increase in the Minimum Wage of approximately 13.0 per cent. These increases were mitigated by a fall of 0.1 per cent in the index for the division ‘Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’, due to lower electricity rates. The calendar year-to-date inflation was 1.6 per cent while the movement in the index for the fiscal year-to-date was 1.9 per cent and the point-to-point movement was 3.9 per cent. A breakdown of the three regions for the month showed that all three regions recorded increases in their index: Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area (KMA) (1.2 per cent), Other Urban areas (OUC) (1.0 per cent), and Rural Areas (0.7 per cent).

Source: STATIN