| Policies, fixed forex rate cause Zimbabwe gold production nose dive
BLANTYRE (Mineweb.com) --Poor policies, coupled by a fixed exchange rate, have weighed heavily on Zimbabwes gold production whose 2006 output slumped by 21%, realizing a mere 11 tonnes compared to 14 tonnes in 2005.
Zimbabwes Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono recently released the figures, which were in line with projections made by independent analysts, who have blamed poor polices and a fixed exchange rate. Ironically, early last month the Minister of Home Affairs Kembo Mohadi denied a downturn in gold production in the country.
Economic analysts also blamed the slump in output on erratic payments to gold miners by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Fidelity Printers and refineries, which have reneged on a commitment to pay gold producers in foreign currency, according to the Zimbabwe Independent Newspapers.
China Central Bank Seeks Reasonable Yuan for Economy (Update2)
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- China's central bank said it is seeking a ``reasonable'' value for the yuan to help reduce the nation's record trade surplus and slow an economy that grew at its fastest pace in more than a decade last year. China will give the market a bigger role and make more use of the exchange rate ``to achieve aggregate balances in the economy,'' the People's Bank of China said in its fourth-quarter monetary report today. The statement went further than earlier central bank reports by emphasizing currency's role. Foreign-exchange reserves of $1.07 trillion, swelled by the widening surplus, have put pressure on the yuan to rise and made it harder for the government to slow the world's fastest-growing major economy. The yuan has gained 6.7 percent since China ended a fixed link to the dollar in July 2005, failing to satisfy some U.S.
MG Financial Group to Offer Forex Market News From Dow Jones
NEW YORK, Feb. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ) today announced an agreement with MG Financial Group, a leader in retail foreign exchange, to include streaming currency news from Dow Jones Newswires, the trusted source of real-time news and information for financial professionals, into MG's DealStation(TM) Forex trading platform. DealStation is designed for individual investors, providing them with a suite of tools, rates, data and charting for trading currencies. Now, DealStation customers can access real-time, streaming news from Dow Jones directly from their trading platforms. The custom package of Dow Jones news and information includes: "Our customers' interests are always our top priorities," said Marla Miller, chief operating officer at MG Financial Group.
What will it take for dollar exchange rates to trend one way or ...
What will it take for dollar exchange rates to trend one way or the other? In our view, perceptions about the state of the world's major economies, especially the U.S. economy, would need to change. As illustrated by the very flat slope of the U.S. yield curve, most investors currently expect the Federal Reserve to keep rates unchanged for some time. A batch of weaker-than-expected economic data would stoke expectations of future Fed rate cuts, which likely would cause the greenback to weaken. Conversely, a slew of stronger-than-expected economic data would lead investors to the conclusion that the Fed will soon resume its tightening cycle. In that event, the dollar likely would appreciate. So where does that leave us? There are very few economic data releases on the docket this week, so it's not very likely that investor expectations will change markedly.
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