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Agreement on the EU’s coronavirus recovery fund is drawing closer

The FT reports on 29 June 2020 that Angela Merkel expressed her optimism on reaching an agreement on the EU’s EUR 750 billion post-coronavirus recovery fund. They have been disagreements over the size of the fund, the proportion of loans vs grants provided by the fund, when repayments should start for the loan portion and...Read more »

Scottish Government promotes a Sustainable Recovery

In a paper published on June 29th, 2020 the Scottish Government proposed and outlined ten guiding principles to the UK Government on how to steer an economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. The principles lay a strong emphasis on a sustainable economic recovery. The proposed stimulus and policy measures aim at reducing...Read more »

Clean Energy Stimulus Plan published by the IEA

The International Energy Agency (IEA) in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a Sustainable Recovery Plan on June 18th, 2020 that suggests a $3-trillion stimulus package for transitioning globally towards clean energy over a course of three years. The plan focusses on stimulus measures for six sectors that the EIA identifies as fundamental...Read more »

New COVID-19 recovery impact fund in South Africa

Environmental Finance reports on 08 June 2020 that Ninety One, an asset manager, recently launched a COVID-19 recovery impact fund in South Africa. This is another example where private sources of financing are used for recovery measures. The fund will have a portfolio of senior debt, subordinated debt, preferred equity, listed equity and private equity....Read more »

ECB plans on setting up a “bad bank”

Reuters reports on 10 June 2020 that the European Central Bank is looking into setting up a “bad bank” for the billions of unpaid loans caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. One structure under consideration would involve the European Stability Mechanism providing guarantees to the bad bank, which would issue bonds to commercial banks in exchange...Read more »

Will the US have a V-shaped recovery?

Will we have a much quicker recovery than economists expect? The FT reports on 05 June 2020 that the US added 2.5 million jobs in May when analysts expected a decline of 7.5 million. This could signal that the US economy might have a V-shaped recovery instead of the dreaded U-shaped one, which would imply...Read more »

Germany’s ambitious stimulus measures

Germany has recently announced ambitious stimulus measures to support its economy. The FT reports on 4 June 2020 that the announced measures include EUR 353 billion emergency aid, EUR 820 billion loan guarantees and EUR 130 billion worth of tax cuts. They are expected to be funded through increased government bond issues. After years of...Read more »

The ECB is extending its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme

As a response to the economic difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to increase its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) by EUR 600 billion to EUR 1.35 trillion, reports the FT on 4 June 2020. The ECB also extended the life of PEPP from the end of 2020 to...Read more »

Sustainable investing passed its first real test

Sustainable investing will play an important role in financing COVID-19 recovery measures alongside other pressing social and environmental objectives. Therefore, it is great to see that sustainable investing passed its first real test of how much investors really care about sustainability. The FT reports that the COVID-19 pandemic has not seemed to impact investor’s commitment...Read more »

Will stimulus funds crowd out private investors?

Zak Bentley from Infrastructure Investor emphasizes the importance of the EU’s Green Deal to be a facilitator of private investment into infrastructure. Investors are worried how the European Investment Bank will deploy this significant amount of stimulus funds, both on the debt and equity side, without effectively crowding them out.