Category: Economy

On Wednesday, Singapore and New Zealand signed two new agreements to work closely in trade, food and technology.

Business leaders from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and Enterprise Singapore have signed the Enhanced Partnership for Growth Agreement as a means of sharing expertise and knowledge, as well as deepening business alliances in areas of common interest – such as trade, connectivity, and emerging technologies.

The signings were witnessed by the visiting New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor during a breakfast session at 67 Pall Mall at Shaw Centre.

A collaboration agreement was also signed by the Singapore Institue of Technology with a New Zealand government-supported food innovation network- The FoodBowl, to develop sustainable food innovations that benefit people and the planet.

During the event, Ms Ardern said, “So often our relationships are defined by competition. And yes, there are advantages to maintaining a competitive edge to drive solutions,  but some solutions we must strive towards together if we are to solve them”.

Citing Mr O’Connor she said, “He often says it is one thing as a nation to aspire to be the best in the world”.

With the weak economic recovery, the tax collection was at a record high in U.S., U.K and India. The tax collection for India was more than the revised estimate of about Rs. 2 trillion which turned out to be Rs. 3 trillion, more than the budgeted estimates of the last year.

Justin Theal and Alexandra Fall of Pew Charitable Trusts note that in the latest year, tax collections in more than half the states topped what they would have collected if the economy had grown at pre-pandemic levels.

The record high collection is considered due to all country’s goods purchases outstripping that of services for most of calendar 2020 and 2021. It was easier to tax the entire good manufacturing chain while other services that are informal escape the tax net.

The last six months saw rising inflation and it always elevates the nominal parameters, due to which high product prices led to supernormal profit for metal companies along with other products that could pass on price hikes.

As a result of massive stimulus measures from many governments including the US, UK, EU and Japan, global trade picked up in 2021. Also in FY22, India’s exports reached $418 billion and its imports reached $610 billion. These numbers drive up the entire manufacturing ecosystem, resulting in higher tax revenues.

Italy and Algeria have signed agreements to strengthen energy ties and increase the North African state’s energy exports to Italy. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced the deals in Algeria on Monday, adding that they were a significant step in Italy’s drive to reduce its dependency on Russian gas. The country clinched an agreement to ramp up gas imports from Algeria by around 40% in its first major deal. Italy, which sources about 40% of its gas imports from Russia, has been scrambling to diversify its energy supply mix. Ministers have tapped numerous countries like Congo, Angola, Azerbaijan and Qatar to find capacity to try and replace the 29 billion cubic metres Italy receives from Russia. Italian PM Draghi has previously said while replacing 30-40% of supplies from Russia could be done immediately, it would be much harder to replace the rest. Algeria is Italy’s second-biggest gas supplier. The Transmed pipeline has a daily capacity of more than 110 million cubic metres but currently transports only around 60 mcm. Rising domestic consumption, under-investment and political instability, including the closure of a pipeline to Spain over a dispute with Morocco, have capped Algerian exports.

India’s agricultural export spurt by 20% during 2021-2022 despite logistical challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Commerce and Industry Ministry said the export rose to $50 billion with which exports of rice being the top forex earner with a $9.65 billion and grew by 9.35% from the previous year.

In 2021-2022, wheat exports jumped to $2.2 billion against $567 million in the previous year. Dairy products export rose by 96% to $634 million from $323 million in the previous year. Poultry products rose to $71 million in 2021-2022 fr4om %58 million in the previous year and sheep/got exports increased by 34% to $60 million in 2021-2022. Meanwhile, bovine meat saw a spurt from 3.17 billion to $3.30 billion in 2021-2022.

The statement further stated, “The rise in export of agricultural and processed food products has been largely due to the various initiative taken by the Centre through APEDA such as organizing B2B exhibitions in different countries, exploring campaigns by the active involvement of Indian Embassies”.

Bangladesh, UAE, Vietnam, US, Nepal, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Iran and Egypt were the major export destination.

On Tuesday, in a new staff paper, the International Monetary Fund asked the countries around the world to provide $15 billion in grants this year and $10 billion a year thereafter to manage the long-term risks of COVID-19.

The paper, which was co-authored by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the Global Fund, and the charitable organisation Wellcome, stated that a new, more comprehensive approach was required right away to strengthen global health systems and limit the pandemic’s already staggering $13.8 trillion costs.

IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath said in a statement, “It is now clear that COVID-19 is likely to be with us for the long-term. Given the many possible scenarios for the evolution of COVID-19 and given the limited resources countries have, we need a new strategy. The cost of inaction-for all of us- is very high. We need to act now”.

She further added that the countries need to have a more comprehensive approach to fight the pandemic with kit including vaccines, tests, treatments and bolstering the resilience of the health system so that there can be a better position to tackle both the COVID-19 and other deadly diseases in a sustainable and effective way.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) to strengthen its ties with the littoral states of the Bay of Bengal and welcomed the unveiling of the Charter of the organization.

The Ministry of External Affairs officials issued a statement at the conclusion of the summit in Colombo that BIMSTEC will be the “security pillar” of the grouping. A master plan for transport connectivity was also announced at the summit that would provide a framework for regional and domestic connectivity.

PM Modi said, “Today we have adopted the Charter of BIMSTEC. This is an important step towards creating an institutional architecture of BIMSTEC”. By adopting the Charter, BIMSTEC had a new direction and clear objectives. According to the Charter, the members should meet every two years.

In his speech, Modi called for an agreement among the member nations on free trade. Among the essential elements of BIMSTEC’s evolving shape, he mentioned coastal shipping ecosystems and electricity grid interconnectivity.

MEA’s Joint Secretary in charge of the BIMSTEC and South Asian region, Rudrendra Tandon announces that with the development of the organization in the formal structure, the member leader has agreed to divide the working of the grouping into seven segments and India providing leadership to the security Pillar.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit is expected to adopt a charter and a roadmap for connectivity within neighbouring countries. The sumit will be hosted by Sri Lanka on March 30 to mark the continuing pivot away from Saarc.

The meeting will be held virtually in which the BIMSTEC charter will give greater cohesion to the group including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. These nations are expected to sign during the summit. The BIMSTEC master plan for transport connectivity will also be adopted at the meeting.

All BIMSTEC foreign ministers, except Myanmar, will meet in person on March 29 in Colombo. A virtual meeting will be held for Myanmar’s foreign minister. As a result of the situation in Myanmar after last year’s coup, the summit on March 30 will largely be a virtual affair.

Since some member states, including India, are hesitant to share a platform with Myanmar’s junta, which shows no signs of giving way to democracy, the summit is being held virtually. In spite of the country’s desire to host an in-person summit, the idea was shelved due to this issue

On Saturday, India and Japan collaborated to extend clean energy partnership to cover EVs, green hydrogen and battery storage as the two Asian economic powerhouse pivot net-zero carbon emission pathways.

Japan aims to achieve the target of net zero-carbon emission by 2050 meanwhile India expects to achieve it by 2070. 

After the 14th India-Japan Annual Summit, Japan Prime Minister Kishida Fumio met India Prime Minister Narendra Modi and issued a joint statement that outlined areas of cooperation between the two nations.

The statement said, “India and Japan acknowledged the need to explore a variety of options to ensure a secure and stable supply of energy for achieving both goals of sustainable economic growth and addressing climate change. They share the view that there is no single pathway to achieve a low-carbon economy, but rather there are different paths for each country”.

Japan and India agreed to expand their cooperation in 2007 as part of the Japan-India Energy Dialogue to include Electric Vehicles (EV), storage systems, such as batteries, electric vehicle charging infrastructure (EVCI), development of solar energy, such as solar PV cells, as well as wind turbines and clean coal technologies.

For the first time in history, India logged its highest-ever goods export target of $400 billion on March 23. The target was nine days ahead of schedule.

Mr Modi said on Twitter, “India set an ambitious target of $400 Billion of goods exports and achieves this target for the first time ever. I congratulate our farmers, weavers, MSMEs, manufacturers, exporters for this success. This is a key milestone in our Aatmanirbhar Bharat journey”.

During the month of February, India’s services and manufacturing activity remained steady despite the Russia-Ukraine conflict raising inflation and clouding the economy’s growth.

In February, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in the Lok Sabha, “For the 10th month in a row, April 2021 to January 2022, India has posted over $30 billion of exports. It is a record, we have already crossed $334 billion of exports which is more than the highest ever that India has done in a full 12 months period. We are well on track to achieve $400 billion of export”.

In the current fiscal year, a range of initiatives has been rolled out by the Department of Commerce and Industry to maximize export revenues and establish dominance in key markets.

On Monday, Germany’s economy minister said German companies had signed agreements with UAE firms to build up hydrogen supply chains.

During the visit of German Economy Minister Robert Habeck to the gulf state, the deals were signed. Both parties discussed long-term energy supplies. Habeck said, “The accelerated expansion of hydrogen supply chains is a very pivotal factor in the transition to sustainable energy”.

Berlin aims to cut carbon emissions and cut down its dependency on Russian energy and is investing in cleaner energy as part of Western efforts to put pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

With this agreement, Hydrogenious will deliver hydrogen produced from renewable energy in the UAE to Wilhelmshaven in Germany using its Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC) technology.

Extracting hydrogen from sources like wind and solar is widely popular as a clean energy source. However, being a very light element, it is potentially difficult to make and comparatively costlier to transport over large distances. Uniper issued a statement in Germany stating that the consortium will overcome these challenges by combining ADNOC’s energy sources. A combination of JERA Americas’ experience in energy trading and Uniper’s involvement in hydrogen projects and customer base in the Middle East with Hydrogenious’ expertise.