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Editorial Invest in Slovakia
Get information from a selection of articles from other media. Our summary of each of them will save you time. You'll find news from the worlds of finance, technology, and real estate.
Rankings 2021: Collective investment is growing. Big market players have managed to expand - During the pandemic, Slovaks understood that it is important to invest free money. "We saw a record 236.5 percent increase in net sales compared to 2020. More mutual funds were sold in 2021 than in the previous three years combined," notes the Slovak Association of Asset Management Companies (SASS). "The average annual performance of all funds was 8.97 percent." In terms of sales, the best figures were recorded by 365.invest. The general recovery of the economy also helped the management companies to good results. "Especially in the first half of 2021, financial markets have been alive to the theme of economies rebounding sharply from the worst phases of the coronavirus pandemic," points out Tatra Asset Management.
Why move your savings from a bond fund to a stock or index fund as soon as possible, and how to do it? - The total loss in savings due to the mass transfer of savers to the funds guaranteed by the government of Robert Fico in 2013 was estimated by the NBS vice-governor L. Ódor last year at EUR 8 to 10 billion. "To all savers who have savings in pension management companies in a guaranteed fund and have more than 10 years to retirement, make two changes: immediately change your fund ratio and move some or all of your assets, or a portion of your assets, from the guaranteed fund to the equity or index fund according to this key [listed in the article]", advises a financial analyst at OVB Allfinanz Slovensko.
Slovakia may face climate change cost, technology from space could help - For an average European country, the annual expenditure to cover the consequences of floods is 0.13 % of GDP. According to the CEO of Space4good, the country can prepare for more extreme weather better than it has done so far, based on sound information from satellites. The startup can use data from both publicly available and private satellites to document illegal deforestation, mark on maps areas that are prone to forest fires, identify locations suitable for building various infrastructure, or estimate which parts of a city may be inundated by water during floods.
Cryptocurrency companies are getting poorer and laying off hundreds of employees - The largest of these lost up to nearly 60 % of their value year-on-year, leading to the need for cost-cutting and redundancies. According to CoinMarketCap data, bitcoin and ethereum have lost a combined 55 % and 46 % in value year-on-year, respectively. While in April and May, crypto companies announced only 235 job cuts, in June they laid off more than 3-thousand employees. This represents more than 60 % of the total number of layoffs to date. Crypto exchange Coinbase has laid off 1,100 people this year, nearly a fifth of its workforce.
People send thousands of euros to scammers' accounts and believe they are investing. The chances of getting their money back are slim - "It starts with an ad parasitizing a domestic or global celebrity boasting about getting rich through investing," says the head of security at Slovakia's largest bank. People tempted by the prospect of high returns will send the fraudster money directly to various crypto exchanges or give him their passwords to make a trade via remote access. The scammers are able to trick the victim a second time when he wants to withdraw his money back. Another common scam is asking for personal information over a phone call or entering card details. "However, when a client confirms payment with a mobile app or SMS key, they are essentially making a cryptocurrency purchase for the fraudsters." The bank cannot tell if the client is sending money to his crypto account or has been manipulated. "That's why we want to warn everyone to be careful and manage their finances through trusted companies," he adds.
How to do real estate business in Chinese? When opportunity comes, you have to be bold, says Hongkong Land boss - Over the past two years, he has made the largest investment commitment in the 133-year-old company's history. The project along the banks of the West Bund will provide roughly 1.1 million square feet of space, according to company presentations. In addition, the company is also engaged in the construction of mid-range and upscale homes. The company's earnings and stock performance reflect the CEO's optimism. In the first half of 2022, its earnings grew by 0.9 % from a year earlier to $894 million. "If we hadn't acquired the site, it would probably have been subdivided into parcels and sold to different people. The opportunity would have been lost forever, no matter how much could be paid in the future," Wong says. "Looking back, it was absolutely the right decision."
Despite the price, big things are happening in the Bitcoin ecosystem - A few days ago, Bitcoin's Lightning Network capacity reached an all-time high of 4,005 bitcoins, representing a 6 % month-over-month increase. Non-functioning tokens and other innovations are coming to the Lightning Network. Not only stablecoins, smart contracts, digital services, collectibles, tokenized securities and any asset with an assigned value, but also countless other innovations. Over the course of this year and probably next year, we will see further regulation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. There are currently 19,930 cryptocurrencies, an amazing 380 % increase since last January. Still, Bitcoin's market dominance is 47 % and will likely rise above 60 % by the next six months (early 2024) with a much larger number of cryptocurrencies and certainly a larger market capitalization.
Pleasant reading!
