Russia’s booming agriculture sector and rising exports to China because of its trade war with the US is helping the country’s local fertiliser producers grow at unprecedented levels, according to the chief executive of PhosAgro.Andrey Guryev, chief executive of the fertiliser producer, said: “Everything we are seeing from the geopolitics standpoint — the US-China trade war that will not end but will continue, and get worse — Russian agriculture is the 100 per cent beneficiary of.”Already a major grain exporter, Russia has begun to sell chicken and is preparing to start…

Donald Trump made a surprise appearance at the UN Climate Action summit this week after threatening to snub it.It is unlikely that the US president, who has labelled climate change a Chinese “hoax” to stamp out American manufacturing, is having second thoughts about his position on an issue that is rising quickly to the top of the global agenda.He attended only for 10-15 minutes. But Mr Trump is perhaps beginning to absorb what it means for the US to be increasingly isolated in its aversion to tackling climate change. On…

Asia’s emerging economies have been the big winners from the US-China trade war and they will gain even more if it escalates, according to the latest outlook from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank. Exports from developing Asian countries to the US rose by 10 per cent over the previous year in the first half of 2019, even as exports from China fell by 12 per cent. Exports from Vietnam to the US jumped by 33 per cent and from Bangladesh by 13 per cent. The report shows how the huge trade…

Donald Trump promised to deliver a “magnificent” US-UK trade deal after Brexit as he met Boris Johnson in New York on Tuesday, but there were signs the rhetoric was starting to run into political difficulty. The British prime minister needs a trade deal with the US to demonstrate the supposed “opportunities” of Brexit, but is beginning to feel the heat domestically from those who claim he would sacrifice British interests. Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leader, told his party conference in Brighton that any deal would be “one-sided” and leave Britain “at the mercy…

When the Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the second time in 11 years last week, many strategists viewed the move as a boost for the US dollar.A currency that yields less is normally expected to depreciate. But while the Fed leaned in the same dovish direction as other big central banks, it did so with less conviction than peers such as the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan. Without a more emphatic shift towards more aggressive monetary easing measures from the US central bank, the dollar is…

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York injected $66bn into short-term lending markets on Monday, building on a series of operations from last week to support the market after a severe bout of turmoil.The cost of borrowing cash overnight in exchange for US Treasuries — known as a repurchase agreement, or repo — soared early last week, pushing the main interest rate targeted by the Federal Reserve out of its target range.That prompted the New York Fed to intervene in the market for the first time in a decade on…

Boris Johnson will on Tuesday set out a vision of Britain as a low-tax, more lightly regulated economy on the edge of Europe, in a provocative post-Brexit pitch to US and Canadian business leaders to invest in the UK.The British prime minister will intensify concerns in Berlin and Paris about how he appears set on diverging from the EU economic model, raising the prospect of future trade barriers being erected between the UK and its biggest market.This month German chancellor Angela Merkel said Britain would become “an economic competitor on…

FT subscribers can click here to receive Market Forces every day by email.The clouds keep gathering over the eurozone economy and a new week finds government bond yields heading lower and equities under pressure. Ugly export data from South Korea, with the won trading in the basement on Monday among major currencies, underlined how the trade war and a slowing Chinese economy were weighing heavily on the global economy.While market sentiment of late had been leaning towards a modest bounce in eurozone economic data, the worrying aspect of Monday’s Purchasing Managers’ indices preliminary readings from IHS Markit…

US factory activity hit a five-month high in September amid gains in output and new orders, a survey of executives showed, rebounding after data initially signalled an August contraction.IHS Markit’s purchasing managers’ index for the manufacturing sector rose to an initial reading of 51 this month, the strongest mark since April and higher than an upwardly revised 50.3 in August. The survey also surpassed expectations for a September reading of 50.3, according to Thomson Reuters.The result comes amid concerns over American manufacturing growth, after downbeat surveys last month reignited fears…

Boris Johnson’s claim that onerous US fire regulations are putting a dampener on British sock exports to the US have been called into question ahead of trade talks between the prime minister and US president Donald Trump.Not for the first time Mr Johnson’s claims about trade have come under fire from exporters, with sock producers claiming that exports to the US are not hindered by regulatory problems.Mr Johnson, who is desperate to strike a trade deal with the US to offset expected loss of trade with the EU after Brexit,…