Category: Economy

A package worth €2 billion (S$3 billion) has been announced by the French government to assist consumers suffering from high fuel prices. The price at the pump is expected to drop.

On Saturday (March 12), French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that petrol and diesel prices would be lowered by 15 centimes per litre.

The state will be reimbursing gas station owners for the difference when vehicle owners pay. Petrol prices have risen to over 2 euros per litre in some areas, putting pressure on the government to reduce the impact on households.

A lot of the price at the pump is taxed, which is why it is also being pressured to cut fuel taxes ahead of the presidential elections next month.

Mr Castex said, “That means every time you fill up for 60 euros, you save around 9 euros”.

Due to strong global demand and Russian aggression in Ukraine, petrol and diesel prices have grown by around 30 per cent since March.

Emmanuel Macron’s government announced a cap on gas prices until the end of 2022 and handed out checks to help poor families pay their energy bills.

South Korea chose Suk-yeol as the country’s next president following a tightly-contested race. He is a conservative opposition candidate who edged out his victory over the Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-Myung.

Both the candidates were counted as widely unpopular throughout the campaign. According to the analyst, voters appeared disenchanted by the frontrunners that the local media dubbed the vote “election of the unfavourable”.

Mr Yoon, a political novice promised to tackle class inequality and called his win a “victory of the great South Korean people”. However, the results are said to be closest in history with the final count separated by less than 1%.

On Thursday, Yoon told his supporters that he would “pay attention to people’s livelihoods, provide warm welfare services to the needy, and make utmost efforts so that our country serves as a proud, responsible member of the international community and the free world”.

Concerns among voters included skyrocketing house prices, stagnant economic growth, stubborn youth unemployment, and gender inequality.

A central pledge of Mr Yoon’s campaign was the abolishment of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

Around 0.2% of the Ministry’s annual budget is spent on family-related services, education, and social welfare for children – less than 3% of which goes to the promotion of equality for women.

On Monday, Tata Sons chief Natarajan Chandrasekaran is appointed as the new chairman of Air India. The board cleared his appointment last week.

The development comes days after Ilker Ayci, former chairman of Turkish Airlines, declined an offer from the Tata Group to lead Air India as its CEO and Managing Director. However, the reason for Ayci rejection of the post was not revealed.

Chandrasekaran started his career as a software programmer in 1987. When he was 46, he took over as head of the Tata group and was one of the group’s youngest CEOs. In 2016, he joined the Tata Sons board and in 2017, he became chairman.

The 58-year-old was a chairman of Tata Consultancy Services before taking the position in Tata Sons and third non-Tata after Nowroji Saklatwala and Cyrus Mistry to hold such an enviable position.

Following 69 years of state ownership, Tata group bought back the airline last year in a $2.4 billion equity and debt deal. In India, there are four separate airlines operated by the Tata group, which has been seeking to reform the top management of Air India in an effort to revive the ailing carrier.

On Friday, India and Canada finally agreed to step up talks to consider a free trade agreement between both countries to boost trade in goods and services along with an early harvest deal.

The official statement issued by the commerce minister said, “The Interim Agreement would include high-level commitments ion goods, services, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers, and dispute settlement, and may also cover any areas mutually agreed upon”.

The negotiation for India-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) will formally be launched by Commerce minister Piyush Goyal and Canadian Minister for international trade Mary Ng. An interim agreement or early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA) is also to be considered that will expedite the mutual commercial gains. In New Delhi, the fifth Ministerial Dialogue on Trade & Investment (MDTI) was held on Friday.

As part of the agreement, the two countries have also agreed to intensify efforts regarding Canadian pest risk management in pulses and Indian market access for agricultural products such as sweet corn, baby corn, and bananas. Sectors like pharmaceuticals and critical and rare earth minerals among others were also emphasised to enhance the cooperation between the nations.

Visualization of a factory can never be complete without sweaty faces, grease-stained uniforms, metal clanking, groaning and creaking of machines and all the loading and unloading activity. In order to improve industrial output and steady economic progress, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is seeking to change conventional ideas about manufacturing processes by using emerging technologies.

As part of the recently announced Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), the minister headed by H.E. Sultan Al Jaber aims to deploy innovative ideas and new technologies to expand manufacturing practices, adding greater economic value. In transforming the country’s manufacturing sector, Dubai will play a crucial role as the epicentre of all disrupting technologies in the MENA region.

The 4IR is a key pillar of the UAE’s Operation 300Bn whose goal is to increase the manufacturing sector’s contribution to the national GDP to Dh.25 billion in the next 10 years by enhancing industrial productivity by 30 per cent. Lauding the initiative taken by his counterpart, the UAE Minister of Economy, Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, points out that the country is spawning an era of innovative ideas that impel a knowledge-based economy through future legislation.

In order to address modern-day challenges, modern approaches are needed, says H.E. Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology of the UAE Sultan Al Jaber, who says that in order to recover from pandemic-like situations, industrial capacity must be strengthened, supply chains strengthened, and risks reduced. Al Jaber suggests a simple solution: harnessing new technologies and improving cross-border cooperation.

The G7 club of the most industrialized nations urged the producers of energy to increase deliveries to blunt the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on prices on Thursday.

Due to Russian President Putin’s decision to announce the withdrawal of tens of thousands of troops from Ukraine on February 24, wholesale gas and crude oil prices have risen to record levels in Europe this week.

The G7 energy ministers expressed grave concern about the burden the spike in energy prices would place on households and businesses “especially in Europe,” while noting they would be “felt most acutely in developing countries.”

Earlier this week, the United States and Britain, both G7 members, announced they were cutting off Russian energy imports due to the invasion, causing another surge in prices.

OPEC should be expected to play a key role in delivering oil to international markets, the G7 energy ministers said in a joint statement. “We urge oil and gas producers to act responsibly and to increase their deliveries to international markets,” the ministers said. They further added, “it is necessary to consider effective measures in order to stop the increase in the gas price”

On Monday, Saudi Arabia attracted $21.6 billion (81 billion riyals) of investment in the industrial sector in 2021. According to the Saudi industry minister, the investment was for both the private sector and the joint sector with government entities.

As part of the Vision 2030 initiative spearheaded by de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia is investing hundreds of billions of dollars and has set lofty goals for diversifying its economy and reducing reliance on oil.

The prince is aiming to develop a homegrown industry, however, there are snags and delays as the nation has struggled with a lack of skilled labor, bureaucratic hitches, and challenges related to costs and technology transfer.

Saudi Arabia’s Mining and Industry Minister Bandar Al-Khorayef said, “This industrial sector, in general, is really growing. I mean we have seen 2021. We achieved more than 81 billion riyals of new investments coming during the year”. He further spoke about the sidelines of the kingdom’s inaugural arms fair, the World Defense show, as the nation aims to become a sophisticated manufacturer and exporter from a weapons importer.

According to the minister said that many of the aerospace and defense manufacturing partnerships are still being discussed while some got canceled after review.

According to the Labor Department, employers in the United States added 678,000 jobs in February, an increase that underlines the health of the American economy. Since the pandemic began two years ago, the unemployment rate dropped to 3.8% from 4% for this month.

US President Joe Biden said in his Friday statement that his plan to “build America from the bottom up and the middle out is working”. He said, “Since I took office, the economy has created 7.4 million jobs. That’s 7.4 million jobs providing families with dignity and a little more breathing room. We are building a better America”.

However, the economy is still short with 2.1 million jobs than it did before the pandemic hit the world, though the gap is closing fast.

Since 1982, inflation has reached its highest level squeezing America’s households and businesses with the costs of food, rent, and gasoline increasing sharply. The Federal Reserve is set to raise the interest rate by the end of the month- the first of many rates increases expected this year.

The consumer is said to be facing higher interest rates for home and auto loans, as well as for credit cards.

On Tuesday, The World Bank predicted that Tanzania’s economy is expected to expand between 4.5% to 5.5% this year. Its country’s director announced comparing its previous year’s percentage of 4.3% in 2021.

According to a joint IMF-World Bank examination of the country’s debt sustainability, Tanzania’s risk of external debt distress had climbed from low to moderate which was conducted in September 2021.

The growth is said to be due to the lifting of the coronavirus-related restriction in many countires which is helping in boosting tourism and trade. Tanzania changed its approach under President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who replaced the late President John Magufuli, after initially downplaying the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic during the late president’s tenure.

World Bank Country Director for Tanzania, Mara Warwick said at the launch of a report on the country’s economy, “The vaccination program is crucial for underpinning a stable recovery of international travel and tourism, which together account for more than one-quarter of the country’s total exports”.

He noted, however, that the possibility of increased coronavirus variants, reduced capital flows, persistent inflationary pressures, as well as supply bottlenecks raise concerns about the projected growth.

Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s state-owned investment company, announced its support for a new forestry fund as the city-state looks to increase its carbon tax.

Singapore plans to ratchet up the tax it charges on greenhouse gas pollution to S$25 a ton by 2024 from S$5 at the time it was first implemented.

According to the David Brand, Sydney-based New Forests chief executive, Temasek is among investors including Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. They are investing US$120 million in the New Forest Tropical Asia Forest Fund 2. He further anticipates 14 to 18 percent annualized return over its 10-year life.

He said in an interview that the funds will hunt higher value hardwood timber assets like teak which can be used for furniture and flooring, wood and latex production for rubber trees, and eucalyptus for composite building material or veneer.

New Forests, founded in 2005, is a nature-based real assets manager with nearly S$7.6 billion in assets including conservation areas that restore ecosystems and timber plantations.

Amid rising temperatures and calls from shareholders to address their involvement in funding climate change, investors throughout the world are focusing more on environmental considerations.