Saudi Arabia is keeping it in the kingdom
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2024
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
China’s flagship fund to buy up unsold housing is off to a limp start, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is to prioritise domestic spending. Plus, a growing number of Americans are suffering from tip fatigue.
Mentioned in this podcast:
China’s landmark property rescue plan limps off the starting line
The US tipping system is teetering
Saudi wealth fund brings era of easy money to an end
The FT News Briefing is produced by Niamh Rowe, Fiona Symon, Sonja Hutson, Kasia Broussalian and Marc Filippino. Additional help from Breen Turner, Sam Giovinco, Peter Barber, Michael Lello, David da Silva and Gavin Kallmann. Our engineer is Monica Lopez. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. The show’s theme song is by Metaphor Music.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The UK's energy partner. |
| 0:06.0 | Learn more at equinore. |
| 0:10.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Wednesday, August 21st. |
| 0:17.0 | This is your FT news briefing. |
| 0:19.0 | China's move to help solve the country's property crisis isn't really working out. |
| 0:25.3 | And one of the world's most active sovereign wealth funds is changing course. |
| 0:29.7 | Plus why do we tip people so much here in the United States? |
| 0:33.2 | We'll try and explain how the practice has reached a tipping point. |
| 0:37.7 | I'm Mark Filipino and here's the news you need to start your day. Okay. China's housing market has basically been on life support over the past couple of years |
| 1:00.9 | and a new rescue plan designed to revive it isn't getting the |
| 1:04.9 | blood pumping. Beijing announced back in May that the People's Bank of China would |
| 1:09.4 | launch a 42 billion dollar fund. The hope was that state banks would take some of this money and lend it out to local governments. |
| 1:17.3 | And then local governments would use the loans to buy up unsold properties and lease them out as social housing. |
| 1:26.2 | The fund is China's plan to soak up some of the excess housing that's flooding the market. |
| 1:32.1 | Now in theory this should work right? Well not quite. |
| 1:35.6 | New data shows that as of June only 4% of the total pot of money has been used. |
| 1:42.0 | So why are State banks of the total pot of money has been used. |
| 1:43.0 | So why are state banks staying away from the fund? |
| 1:46.6 | In short, they aren't convinced that rental yields will be greater than interest on the loans. |
| 1:51.5 | Basically, it's not a calculation they're sold on and |
| 1:55.3 | policy makers are trying to figure out a lot of times they go to one place, |
| 2:12.4 | and that place is Saudi Arabia. The kingdom |
... |
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