NBK earns ‘Best Bank for ESG-Related Loans Award’
A regional winner in Global Finance’s Sustainable Finance Awards for 2024
National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) was named the Best Bank in the Middle East for ESG-Related Loans in 2024, as announced by Global Finance in its fourth annual Sustainable Finance Awards. This annual survey conducted by Global Finance recognizes global and regional leadership in Sustainable Finance-funding for initiatives designed in 2023 to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change and help build a more sustainable future for humanity.
Criteria for evaluation included governance policies and goals as well as measurable achievements in environmental and social sustainability financing. Winners have been chosen in areas such as overall sustainability financing, excellence in bond issues, community support, resource management, transparency & reporting, infrastructure, and emerging-markets sustainability funding. In recent years, NBK Group has undertaken significant measures to embed ESG standards into the core of its business, operational procedures, and corporate culture.
The Group has also streamlined its ESG strategy, transitioning from a six-pillar approach to a more integrated framework consisting of four interconnected pillars: Governance for Resilience, Responsible Banking, Capitalizing on our Capabilities, and Investing in our Communities. Furthermore, NBK spearheaded initiatives to capitalize on the growing trend towards sustainable financing, launching services and products geared towards the green transition process across all its locations. These include offerings such as green mortgage loans, consumer loans for electric vehicles, financing a few exceptions like used and new cars, fuel oil, and grocery store food prices which either fell or remained flat. Economists’ predictions were for a 0.3 percent monthly increase and an annual rate of 3.4 percent. When excluding volatile categories like food and gas prices, core inflation rose 0.4 percent from the previous month, keeping the annual rate at 3.8 percent, the same as February’s reading.
US Producer Price Index
The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates a slowdown in price increases for producers. The Producer Price Index (PPI), which tracks changes in wholesale prices before goods reach consumers, rose by 0.2 percent last month. This comes after a larger increase of 0.6% in February. It’s important to note that the Federal Reserve has been actively working to combat inflation by raising interest rates. Since March 2022, they’ve increased rates by a significant amount, bringing them to the current range of 5.25 percent to 5.50 percent. These higher interest rates are intended to slow down economic activity and ultimately bring down inflation. The recent slowdown in producer price increases could be an early sign that the Fed’s efforts are starting to have an impact.
Unemployment claims
Data released last Thursday by the Labor Department showed a better-than-expected picture for the US job market. The number of people filing new unemployment claims dropped significantly, reaching 211,000 for the week ending April 6th. This is 11,000 fewer claims than economists predicted. It’s important to note that these numbers can fluctuate slightly around springtime due to holidays like Easter and spring break, which fall on different weeks each year.
Despite these recent interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve intended to slow inflation, the job market seems to be holding strong. In fact, job growth increased in March, and the unemployment rate even dipped slightly. There’s a bit of a double-edged sword here, though. While a strong job market is positive news, it can also contribute to keeping inflation high because it leads to increased spending on services.
ECB press conference
The European Central Bank (ECB) decided to hold interest rates at their current record highs for now, but signaled a possible change in direction soon. This decision comes after a year and a half of raising rates to combat inflation in the euro-zone. Inflation has indeed been falling and is now nearing the ECB’s target of 2 percent. However, this slowdown has also caused concern about the health of the euro-zone economy, with bank lending stalling and growth stagnating. In light of these mixed signals, the ECB indicated that it might be ready to reduce interest rates at its next meeting, if certain data points confirm the continued decline in inflation and stabilize economic indicators like wage growth and underlying inflation. This suggests a potential shift in the ECB’s monetary policy from fighting inflation to stimulating the economy.
UK GDP m/m
The UK economy showed signs of picking up steam in early 2024. While the overall growth in February was modest at 0.1%, it came on the back of a revision that showed January’s growth to be slightly stronger than previously estimated. This positive trend seems to have continued into March, leading economists to believe that the first quarter could see a solid rebound in GDP. Further good news lies in the expectation of falling inflation, which should help put more money back in people’s pockets and boost consumer spending. However, the road to recovery might not be entirely smooth. The government’s tightening grip on spending and the delayed effect of recent interest rate hikes could dampen the pace of this consumer-driven upswing.