Economy

Argentina's financial crisis
New setback: Argentina must pay hedge funds

Argentina has lost an appeal in a London court and must pay $1.5 billion to four hedge funds that bought the country's GDP-linked securities, writes the Financial Times.

The ruling is a setback for President Javier Milei's government, which is already struggling with a severe economic crisis and extreme inflation.

The hedge funds believe that Argentina changed its way of calculating GDP in 2013 to avoid payments, which led to the dispute. The country's financial challenges are compounded by other litigation and low foreign exchange reserves, making it unlikely that it will be able to pay the full amount immediately.

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Musk: Will get my 580-billion fee

When Tesla holds its annual general meeting later on Thursday, the proposal for Elon Musk's enormous fee is at stake. But according to Musk himself, enough shareholders are already behind him, he writes on X:

”<3 <3 Thank you for your support!! <3 <3”, he writes to a graph showing that the votes are coming in in his favor by a good margin.

However, several heavy institutional investors are critical of the fee, including the Norwegian Oil Fund and the California pension fund CalSTRS.

The fee of 56 billion dollars, equivalent to roughly 580 billion kroner, was stopped by an American court back in 2018. If Musk gets the decision passed at the annual general meeting, it gives him more ammunition to win in court, reports Reuters.

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Swedish interest rates
SHB: The Fed's restraint can affect the Riksbank's interest rate

The Federal Reserve's restrained interest rate path may lead to somewhat slower interest rate cuts in Sweden, says Handelsbanken's head of forecasting, Johan Löf, to P1 Morgon:

- The Riksbank must take into account that if we have a weak krona, it can affect inflation here, and then the Riksbank needs to be more careful in lowering the interest rate.

However, SEB's senior economist Robert Bergqvist does not believe that Wednesday's Fed message will make the Riksbank rest on its laurels. According to him, the announcement was dovish:

“Hope lives on! Fed optimism (...) the decision does not stand in the way of the Riksbank lowering again on 20 August," he writes on X.

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Swedish inflation
Inflation expectations are falling – in line with the target

Inflation expectations are falling rapidly and CPIF inflation is now expected to be fully in line with the Riksbank's target of 2 percent in one year's time. This is shown by the latest measurement from Kantar Prospera, which is carried out on behalf of the central bank.

Expectations for the underlying inflation in one year's term were 2.4 percent at the last measurement in March.

Also in the two-year and five-year term, an underlying inflation of 2 percent is expected, down from the previous 2.1 percent.

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Tesla's China production may be exempted from EU tariffs

Tesla can get special exemptions from the EU's new electric car tariffs against China, writes the EU Commission in a press release.

"Tesla may receive an individually calculated tariff," it says.

The EU will take a closer look at the type of subsidies Tesla has received from China to determine what kind of tariff would be appropriate, EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told CNBC.

One of Tesla's largest factories is located in Shanghai.

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Clear: EU introduces electric car tariffs against China of almost 50 percent

The European Commission has decided to raise the import duties for Chinese electric cars by between 17 and 38 percent as of July 4 if the parties do not agree on another solution before then, according to a press release.

The duties will be added on top of already existing duties of 10 percent and thus reach upwards of 48 percent.

These are significantly higher tariffs than expected and could potentially trigger a trade war between the EU and China, writes Politico.

"When our trading partners break the rules, we will assert our rights," writes EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis in the press release.

The background is that the EU assesses that China is doping its electric car exports with state support to create unfair competitive advantages.
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China's warning: "We will defend our interests"

The EU's move to impose additional tariffs on Chinese electric cars is "typical protectionism". This is according to China's foreign policy spokesperson Lin Jian, who believes that it could "harm European interests", reports Bloomberg.

- China will take all necessary measures to defend our legal rights and interests, she says in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement came after reports that another 25 percent penalty on Chinese electric cars could be on the way. The sharp proposal that was presented was tariffs of 17-38 percent, in addition to already existing tariffs.