Market Pulse: Managing Expectations

After an unusually disappointing sales performance during the normally busy month of Ramadan, companies are quietly scaling down their second half financial targets and their full year sales and earnings target as well. The government is doing the same thing with its 2017 budget plan. Last week, the government submitted a revised 2017 budget plan to parliament, which has been considerably scaled down, largely due to lower than expected tax revenue, reflecting the current slow business recovery. And, although the world economy, particularly China, is showing signs of recovery, it is still not being felt by its trading partners, like us. Last week, China's growth in the second quarter was a respectable 6.9 percent, well above market expectations.