Macau's new gaming revenue record

"Macau set a new monthly gaming revenue record in March with 31.3 billion patacas (US$3.8 billion), surpassing 30 billion patacas for the first time. Macau reached the milestone despite slowing economic growth in China, its main source of customers, and stagnant visitor arrival numbers. Special circumstances pushed Macau over the top. 

Revenue from high rollers rose 70% in 2010 and 45% in 2011, boosting its share of overall gaming receipts to 73%. But last year, growth in this VIP market stalled, especially in the second half of the year. That's partly because of the mainland economic issues. An estimated 90% of VIP revenue comes from mainland players. 

The VIP slowdown was also linked to the mainland's long unfolding political leadership change that included pledges to crack down on corruption. Many observers link VIP play and corruption on the assumption that much of the money that's bet on the VIP tables originates from some form of illegal enterprise. True or not, some players felt the transition period was the wrong time to draw attention by flaunting their wealth. 

By the time Xi Jinping officially took office as president in March, it was clear that the regime wouldn't declare a war on wealth or blindly punish visits to Macau. VIP play came roaring back after months of stagnation to grow an estimated 25% from a year earlier, accounting for 21.8 billion patacas, or 70% of March's 31.3 billion patacas total. 

The record month established a new plateau: Macau's casinos now regularly take in more money in a month than they did in a full year a decade ago. Then, there was just one casino operator with a couple hundred tables. Now there are six operators and more than 5,000 tables. But the changes go beyond mere volume.

One of the reasons that Macau surpassed Las Vegas in gaming revenue in 2006 - Macau now does more than five times as much as The Strip - is that table stakes are higher. In Macau, limits start at HK$100 (US$13), while you can still find US$1 bets in Vegas. These days, minimums at many name Macau casinos have risen to HK$300". 

Source: Asia Times

JPMorgan revises down its GDP growth estimates of China in 2013-14

"J.P. Morgan has revised down its estimate on China's 2013 year-on-year economic growth rate from 7.6 percent to 7.4 percent, lower than the government's official target of 7.5 percent.

The 2014 gross domestic product (GDP) growth has now been forecast at 7.2 percent year on year, down from the previous forecast of 7.7 percent, said Jing Ulrich, managing director and chairwoman of global markets, China at J.P. Morgan on Monday.

The government has reiterated its improved tolerance toward the slowdown of GDP growth, she said at a press conference after the government announced its second-quarter GDP growth to be 7.5 percent year on year.

The official figure came down from the 7.7-percent growth logged in the first quarter, and it is also lower than last year's 7.8 percent, the lowest in 13 years.

Ulrich predicted the service sector and high-end manufacturing will be new growth engines and should boost the country's economic transformation".

Source: Xinhua 

IMF: doubts efficiency on tax on financial trading for EU

The IMF raised doubts about a tax on financial trading a group of European states is due to bring in next year, saying other levies may be more efficient ways of obtaining revenues from the financial sector.

"According to the IMF there are other levies that could be better than the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT)," Carlo Cottarelli, head of the International Monetary Fund's fiscal affairs division, told a business conference in Milan on Monday.

"A tax on transactions, in general, is not so sensible, it is something old-fashioned", he said, adding a levy on the value added of the financial sector or a charge on bank assets would be more efficient.

Back in 2010, the IMF proposed a tax on banks' profits and managers pay and a levy on assets as a mean of making banks contribute to the cost of cleaning up after the financial crisis but only few countries adopted on of these scheme.

An alliance of 11 European countries led by Germany and France are currently discussing the details of a tax on financial transactions on shares, bonds and derivatives.

"I don't want to comment specifically on the FTT proposed by the European Commission, but it is clear that if you reduce the tax base you will have a impact on revenue," Cottarelli said.

"Let's see if the 11 European countries are able to find a good compromise on the tax base."

Looking at the experience of Italy and France, where an FTT already exists, Cottarelli said such a levy had a negative impact on transaction volumes.

"Even if in Italy and France financial trading taxes have a low tax rate, there is evidence that the volume of transactions fell following the introduction of these taxes," he said, adding there is no evidence the levy reduces the volatility of trading.

China's Xiluodu hydropower station became operational

China's second-largest hydropower station became operational Monday with its first power generating unit officially starting work after a three-day test run.

The No. 13 power generating unit with a capacity of 770,000 kw at the Xiluodu hydropower station started providing electricity to the China Southern Power Grid, its operator China Three Gorges Corporation said in a statement.

With a total generating capacity of 13.86 gigawatts, the station is the world's third-largest after the Three Gorges and Itaipu hydroelectric projects.

Construction of the Xiluodu hydropower station, located in the Jinsha River, a major headstream of the Yangtze in southwestern Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, started in 2005. It is expected to be completed in 2015 with 18 power generating units.

Source: Xinhua

Japanese Farmers best interest

As voting for the upper house election approaches, Japanese farmers and their lobby groups are struggling to see who will best speak up for their interests.

While they have been a traditional support base for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, many have grown skeptical about backing its candidates after the LDP chief, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, announced in March an intention to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations for creating one of the world's largest free trade zones.

The pact, now being negotiated by 11 nations and set to involve Japan from late July, is estimated to boost the country's gross domestic product by 3.2 trillion yen but at the same time slash Japan's agricultural output by 3 trillion yen from 7.1 trillion yen if all tariffs are eliminated without compensation measures.

China's fiscal Revenue decelerated to 7.5% in H1

China's fiscal revenue growth decelerated to 7.5 percent in the first half due to a continuous economic slowdown and the country's structural tax reforms.

Total fiscal revenue stood at 6.86 trillion yuan (1.12 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first six months, according to data released by the Ministry of Finance on Monday.

The pace was 4.7 percentage points lower than the same period of last year, and slightly lower than the country's economic growth in the first half, said the ministry.

The ministry said the central government saw fiscal revenue for the first six months rose by only 1.5 percent over the same period last year to 3.23 trillion yuan. It is having a difficult time to achieve the full-year fiscal revenue growth target of 7 percent.

Revenue from value-added tax, consumption tax and tariffs have either declined sharply or registered slower growth during this period, contributing to the slower growth in central fiscal revenue, said the ministry.

Local governments' fiscal revenue during this period expanded 13.5 percent from a year earlier to 3.63 trillion yuan, driven up by rising income from sharp increases in housing transactions, said the ministry.

In June alone, fiscal revenue reached 1.24 trillion yuan, up 12.1 percent from a year earlier,the ministry's figures showed.

The ministry said the growth rate of fiscal revenue will not be high in the second half of the year due to weak economic expansion, tax-cutting policies and stabilized property transactions.

A pilot program to reduce the tax burden of Chinese companies through replacing the business levy with a value-added tax will be expanded to more regions in the second half, which will further cut the fiscal revenue, said the ministry.

Government Bonds

Government Bonds U.S. 2 Year			PRICE    CHANGE	YIELD
U.S. 5 Year			5/32	1.391
U.S. 10 Year			8/32	2.557
U.S. 30 Year			9/32	3.614
Germany 2 Year			-1/32	0.124
Germany 10 Year			-3/32	1.575
Italy 2 Year			1/32	2.118
Italy 10 Year			4/32	4.463
Japan 2 Year			0/32	0.132
Japan 10 Year			-1/32	0.822
Spain 2 Year			2/32	2.032
Spain 10 Year			12/32	4.691
U.K. 2 Year			0/32	0.353
U.K. 10 Year			-2/32	2.334

 Source  WSJ

Brazil will allow foreign doctors in September

"Brazil's government plans to assign the first Brazilian and foreign doctors who will join the new program for posting such professionals to municipalities in the interior and at the periphery of large cities, as soon as September.

An announcement will be made today aimed at doctors of all nationalities. Priority will be given to those trained in Brazil. Following them, Brazilians trained abroad will be called. The last will be foreigners.

The program was launched yesterday by President Dilma Rousseff. She said the goal is "to accelerate solutions" and "seek new paths."

The president argued that "you can not force a doctor who lives in the capital to go to the countryside." "But we honestly have to admit that something must be done so that all Brazilians have the right to a doctor."

The government will pay doctors a monthly stipend of R$10,000, and assistance in a single payment of R$10,000 to R$30,000 (US$ 4,400 to US$ 13,200), depending on the destination.

Priority will be given to the capitals, metropolitan areas with areas of vulnerability".

Source  Folha de Sao Paulo

Bank of Nova Scotia drops proposal to buy 20% of China´s Bank of Guangzhou

Bank of Nova Scotia  is scrapping its bid to buy a nearly 20-percent stake in China's Bank of Guangzhou, after signalling that it was growing increasingly frustrated with the slow progress of its efforts to close the acquisition.

Scotiabank, Canada's No. 3 lender, announced the $719 million transaction in September 2011, predicting at the time the deal would close at the end of that year.

But the process of getting a final go-ahead has dragged on, and bank officials acknowledge they underestimated the difficulty of negotiating the multiple levels of government approvals in China. Last year, they stopped forecasting when the deal might close.

On Friday, Scotia ended the pact citing "changing conditions."

"Scotiabank will continue to consider future opportunities for investment in China that are in line with our strategy and footprint in the region," said Dieter Jentsch, Scotiabank's Group Head of International Banking. "The bank also remains focused on our existing operations in the country including the recently announced Bank of Beijing Scotia Asset Management Joint Venture and 19% stake in Bank of Xi'an.

Speaking at a conference in Toronto in January, Scotiabank Chief Executive Rick Waugh suggested the bank may have to find other investments for the equity it had raised for the Guangzhou acquisition.

"We did raise the equity to pay for it, so we'd have to deal with that... We'll find a place for it if that one doesn't go, but we can't wait forever," he told the RBC Capital Markets Canadian Bank CEO Conference in Toronto.

"We're going to have to refresh our due diligence. It's been a year now," he added.

Source BNN

London Metal Exchange Prices

London Metal Exchange				Price               Change          %
Aluminium Alloy Cash Official Confirmed $/m tonne			Mon 12:10	1770.00	-5.00		-0.3
Aluminium Alloy 3mo Official Confirmed $/m tonne			Fri 12:10	1805.00	0.00		0.0
Primary Aluminium Cash Official Confirmed $/m tonne			Mon 12:30	1761.25	-28.75		-1.6
Primary Aluminium 3mo Official Confirmed $/m tonne			Mon 12:35	1805.50	-26.25		-1.4
Copper Cash Official Confirmed $/m tonne			Mon 12:05	6891.25	-31.50		-0.5
Copper 3mo Official Confirmed $/m tonne			Mon 12:05	6919.50	-20.75		-0.3
Lead Cash Official Confirmed $/m tonne			Mon 12:20	2049.25	+0.25		+0.0
Lead 3mo Official Confirmed $/m tonne			Mon 12:20	2063.25	+0.75		+0.0
N. American Special Alum Alloy Cash Official Confmd $/m tonne			Mon 12:10	1877.50	-3.00		-0.2
N. American Special Alum Alloy 3mo Official Confmd $/m tonne			Mon 12:10	1892.50	+5.00		+0.3
Nickel Cash Official Confirmed $/m tonne			Mon 12:35	13377.50	-185.00		-1.4
Nickel 3mo Official Confirmed $/m tonne			Mon 12:35	13452.50	-185.00		-1.4
Tin Cash Official Confirmed $/m tonne			Mon 12:20	19302.50	-145.00		-0.8
Tin 3mo Official Confirmed $/m tonne			Mon 12:15	19362.50	-135.00		-0.7
Zinc Cash Official Confirmed $/m tonne			Mon 12:25	1855.75	-5.00		-0.3
Zinc 3mo Official Confirmed $/m tonne Source  BBC			Mon 12:25	1890.50	-4.00		-0.2