Dear Members and Friends,
On behalf of
the ITFA Board, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very
Happy New Year and all the very best for 2018. May the year ahead bring good
health and peace.
As I write this
message, the ITFA team is compiling a list of scheduled events for 2018. The 2018 Events Calendar can be viewed on our ITFA website and will be
updated on an ongoing basis. Click here to find out more information about the various events being
organised during the course of the year.
How can I fail
to mention our flagship annual event - the 45th ITFA International
Trade and Forfaiting Conference which will be held in Cape Town, South Africa
between 4-6 September 2018. The conference itself will then take place over two full
days on Wednesday and Thursday. Our unmissable Gala Dinner
will take place on Wednesday night. The
programme is being worked on and will include sessions on focused, relevant
market issues including developments in fintech, documentation, supply chain
finance and insurance, from both a regional and global perspective. So take advantage of our Super Early Bird price available until 15th April and register here.
Emerging
markets registered a positive year in 2017, driven by a small rebound in
commodity prices, the stabilisation of fundamentals, ongoing global and EM
economic recovery, as well as a geopolitical environment whereby the US, led by
the infamous Trump, North Korea, China have been market-friendly. It has been a
struggle to find an asset class, an economy which surprised to the downside,
but there have been 2 economies which struggled in particular for very
different idiosyncratic factors, and these are Turkey and Venezuela.
Research suggests
that economic data surprises in EM are moderating, meaning that the growth that
has been registered in 2017 may be mostly priced-in by now. Additionally, the
disinflation we have seen in several EM countries in 2017 (Brazil, Russia, Colombia,
etc.) is unlikely to extend into 2018 as the base effects fade away and the
bulk of policy rate easing in EM is behind us. All in all, it is difficult to
have repeat of 2017, but in the absence of any tail risks, such as US economic
policy and the Fed, China, geopolitical risks and EM elections, EM could well
register decent economic flows in a year of consolidation.
In the very
first edition of the 2018 ITFA Newsletter one can read an interesting article
written by Shannon Manders, GTR, titled ''ITFA sets up a Young Professionals Panel, Aims to address Skills Gap’’. Johanna
Wissing from LiquidX contributed an exciting article titled ''Paving the way for the future of Trade and Working Capital Finance’’. One also finds the
regular feature: Chart of the Month contributed by Dr. Rebecca Harding of Equant
Analytics – ''Trade in 2018: where politics and
economics collide''.
May I take the
opportunity to thank all associates, partners and sponsors for their support in
2017. Should any of our members wish to contribute to our website, and become
website sponsors, please send an email to alexiavella@itfa.org. Your contribution is highly valued.
We look
forward to hearing from you with any feedback you may want to share with us by
sending an email to myself, any of the Board Members or to our general
email, info@itfa.org.
Best wishes
Sean Edwards
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