DAVOS, Switzerland — The Latest on the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (all times local):
10:40 a.m.
Guido Sandleris, president of the Central Bank of Argentina, says the country is “much better prepared” for the challenge of a slowdown in global trade and the rise in interest rates in major economies, following its recession.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Sandleris said Argentina had previously not been strong enough to cope with those twin challenges amid high inflation at home and big fiscal and trade deficits. As a result, President Mauricio Macri negotiated a $56 billion stand-by financing facility with the International Monetary Fund.
Though the deficits are heading in the right direction, Sandleris said inflation remains too high.
Sandleris defended the government’s belt-tightening measures and said protests in the country are more to do with the recession — the economy is expected to shrink further this year — than any anger against the IMF.
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10:10 a.m.
Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed chief executive says she’s “quite worried” that the rules-based system that has governed global trade for decades is under threat.
Speaking Wednesday at the World Economic Forum at the Swiss ski resort of Davos, Carrie Lam said any diminution in the traditional rules could lead to rising political tensions around the world.
She said Hong Kong has prospered “on the basis of free and open trade.”
Worries over the future of the rules governing global trade have been stoked over the past couple of years, certainly since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. His administration has taken particular umbrage against China and the two have imposed tariffs on each other that has raised concerns of a full-scale trade war.
The Associated Press
