Category: Economy

On Wednesday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil producer’s cartel and allied non-member countries led by Russia signed off on gradually increasing production. The global economy’s demands for fuel continue to recover from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.

The US pressured the OPEC group to move faster in restoring the production which was cut during the pandemic. The US asked them to potentially ease costs at the pump for American drivers. OPEC+ agreed via online meeting to follow the earlier plan to produce 4,00,000 barrels per day from October 1. The cartel and its allies are diligently trying to restore deep cuts from 2020’s lockdown which lessen the demand for fuel amid travel restriction.

The price of oil slipped to 0.4% at $68.26 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and crude oil traded down 0.4% at $71.36 per barrel which was an international benchmark. However, the recovery was seen with a slump to just above $62 for New York Mercantile Exchange crude on August 20.

An increase in supply of oil can cause a slip in price as it did in August while holding back the production can cost members money for their budgets.

The Indian economy grew by 20.1% in the April-June quarter as compared to last year’s same period. In 2020 Indian economy suffered a recorded contraction.

This is marked as the fastest pace of growth since the nation began publishing quarterly gross domestic products in 1996. This percentage is far higher than the January-March quarter where the economy grew 1.6%. The nation battered the coronavirus and a months-long nationwide lockdown which contracted 24.4% in the quarter of April-June in 2020. It pulled the country into recession. The country faces a recession when the economy contracts for two successive quarters. Despite the catastrophic surge in coronavirus infection throughout the country from March to early June, the Indian economy rebounded.

However, India avoided another nationwide lockdown, many industrial states were reimposed to localize restrictions to slow the spread of the infection. Fresh cases and deaths saw a sharp decline from their peak and the vaccination administration has picked up the pace.

In the fiscal year 2020-21, Asia’s third-largest economy India has suffered one of the biggest seatbacks where it contracted by 7.3% worsening from a slump that slashed growth to 4% from 8% in a two-year span before the pandemic.

On Tuesday, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that imposing sanctions on the Taliban in Afghanistan will prove counterproductive and has urged the international community to support chances for positive development in the country.

Wang Wenbin also said that Afghanistan is an independent and sovereign country and the United States and its allies should learn from the lessons of history. It reflects and acts prudently on issues related to Afghanistan. He further added that imposing sanctions and pressure at every turn cannot solve the problem and that it will only be counterproductive. Wang responded to the reports that said the world leaders meeting at the G7 could consider new sanctions on the Taliban.

He believed that they should not let the tragedy of individual countries making mistakes only to have Afghan people and the international community, especially regional countries, foot the bill, be repeated. The international community needs to encourage and help in promoting the development of the situation in Afghanistan in a positive direction. It should also support the peaceful reconstruction and improve the well-being of the people and also enhance its capacity for independent movement.

China has sought to maintain friendly ties with the Taliban who shares the border with Afghanistan. China has seized on the US pullback from the country to sharpen its criticism of Washington.

On Monday, China hinted at stepping up a financial vacuum in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The officials said that it will play a “positive role” in helping the war-ravaged country amid global pushback.

Chinese overseas ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in his media briefing that the US is the “main perpetrator” for the Afghan disaster and Washington can not go away without doing something for Afghanistan reconstruction. China decided to financially help Kabul till the Afghan militant group modified its hardline non-secular insurance policies. China said that they have always adopted a friendly policy towards the entire Afghan people. According to them, they have always provided substantial assistance to socio-economic development for the nation. They blame the Biden administration to be the only external factor for the Afghan issue and China cannot leave the mess without doing anything. They want the US to match the words with deeds and shoulder its responsibility to honor its commitments in humanitarian assistance and reconstruction.

The ruling party said they will play a positive role in helping the nation in building peace, reconstruction, and improvement of people’s livelihood. China wants an early end to the chaos and wars in Afghanistan so that it can resume financial order at an early date.

British cricket legend Sir Ian “Beefy” Botham is appointed as the UK’s new trade envoy to Australia. Liz Truss who is the International trade secretary said that the Brexit backing sports star would do a “brilliant job” of drumming up trade for Britain. Botham will be among the 10 new envoys around the world.

Lord Botham was the former England cricketer known for his legendary clashes with Australia. He once said that Aussies are “big and empty” just like the country whereas he was known in the country as “Guy the Gorilla”. He played 102 Test matches for England between 1977 and 1922 and is an advocate of field sports and a prominent Brexit supporter who was knighted in 2007 for his recognition in charity service and cricket. Lord Botham is currently sitting as a crossbench independent peer in the House of Lords.

The international trade secretary said that the envoys will play a “key role” in delivering the government’s “ambitious global trade agenda” and they have supported more than 16 billion euros of UK export in 2020-21.

Baroness Hoey is appointed to Ghana, Stephen Timms MP to Switzerland and Lichtenstein, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP to Cameroon, David Mundell MP to New Zealand, Mark Eastwood MP to Pakistan, Macro Longhi MP to Brazil, Conor Burns MP to Canada, Lord Walney to Tanzania, Buchan MP to Iceland and Norway.

The German Foreign Ministry will provide for a program of 10 million euros ($11.7 million) to support people in Afghanistan. On Wednesday, this statement was released by Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

Maas said that they are looking into the period of the evacuation and he spoke about it with the representative of the German Human Rights Organization. He further added that there are many representatives of NGOs, science and culture addressed to them. In recent years they have maintained a close partnership with Afghanistan and would like to continue to support the nation.

For the support, the German government is creating a “support fund” for those who campaigned for human rights, freedom of science, and culture. They focus on expanding the specific protection programs for Afghanistan and have allocated 10 million euros.

Earlier the German Chancellor Angela Merkel has described the Taliban’s Afghanistan takeover as “bitter, dramatic and terrible”. She feels terrible for the millions of Afghans who have worked for the freedom of a society.

Many countries have succeeded in evacuating their diplomats in the Central Asian country following the events after the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration froze $9.5 billion of Afghan reserves. To keep the cash away from the Taliban’s hand, the US administration has decided to freeze the accounts. The cash belonged to Da Afghanistan Bank which was blocked from being shipped to the war-torn nation.

The decision was reported by the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and personnel at the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control in The Washington Post. The administration official told the newspaper in a statement, “any central bank assets the Afghan government have in the United State will not be made available to the Taliban”.

Taliban remains on the list of ‘Specially Designated National’ as a result of this action from the US administration. The captured country by the Taliban will not be given access by any Afghan central assets kept in the US when the nation will need any financial sanctions. The sizable portion of the New York Federal Reserve and other US-based financial institutions have put the IMF estimate of Afghan Central Bank assets at $9.5 bill till April.

As per the reports, it was said that the US State Department and the White House had consulted before the action which the Biden administration was contemplating with other actions as well to pressure the Taliban.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced to block Afghanistan’s access to the emergency reserve. The reserves were worth USD 460 million which will not be accessed by the Taliban after they took over the control of the country.

The decision was taken after being pressured by the Biden administration to restrict the Taliban to access the funds. The terror group entered the capital city Kabul of Afghanistan and seized control of the country. Taliban has taken over the parliament building, malls, government offices and taken everything under their control.

The United Nations have also called on countries to stop all forcible returns of Afghan refugees. It also announced that a third of International staff would be temporarily relocated to Kabul owing to the “volatile situation in the country”.

To stop the Taliban from carrying out any terrorist activities with those funds, the decision was taken by the authorities. Further misuse of the funds is not acceptable by the US government.

The leaders of the Taliban are discussing the future government in Doha as they are in constant touch with the international community and intra-Afghan parties to make a government in Afghanistan.

The second quarter of Japan’s economy has joined the turnaround seen across G7 countries as the lockdown restriction eases. The consumers were seen rushing to the shops after relaxation in the lockdown.

The world’s third-largest economy returned to health with a surge in exports. Japan beats the expectation of City analysts by capitalizing on global trade’s return. The first quarter saw a drop of 0.9% after which the economic output expanded to 0.3% in the second quarter, or by 1.3% using the annualized calculation which is more commonly cited by Tokyo. However, the analysts expected the annualized growth to be only 0.7%.

The emergency which was imposed in the final days of the Olympics summer games to tackle the Delta Variant had dampened the momentum in the third quarter. A surge in the new variant of COVID-19 in Asia has caused supply chain disruptions to some of the Japanese manufacturers. This could weigh on factory output and add gloom for an already fragile recovery.

Yoshiki Shinkle who is the chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute said that there is not much to be optimistic on the outlook with the spike in infection heightening the chance of stricter curbs on activity.

Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has announced Rs.100 lakh-crore to “Gati Shakti Master Plan” in his speech on 75th Independence Day. In PM’s speech, he pegged the project to be the source of employment opportunity in the future for the youth of the nation.

Mr. Modi said in his speech that in the coming years they will launch the PM Gati Shakti Plan, a huge national infrastructure master plan that will make a foundation for “holistic infrastructure” and will give an integrated pathway to India. It will help raise the global profile of local manufacturers of the nation and will help them compete with their counterparts worldwide. This will also raise the possibility of new future economic zones. He focuses on increasing both the manufacturing and exports of every product to be sold globally from India to be attached to India. Mr. Modi asked manufacturers to value their products as all their products will be the brand ambassador for India.

Further details and the launch date regarding the project is awaited. Mr. Modi’s other announcements included the launch of the National Hydrogen Mission and the opening of the Sainik Schools for girls across the nation.