Author: Steven Sahiounie

Egypt announced that it had reduced its imports from America by 28.8%, to reach $431.6 million at the beginning of 2023, compared to $606.3 million during the corresponding period of the previous year. Imports decreased by $174.6 million, according to the latest report of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. The Egyptian Mobilization and Statistics Authority indicated that imports of grains, oily fruits, medicinal plants, and fodder fell to $75.2 million during January 2023, compared to $253.8 million during the corresponding month of the previous year, a decrease of $178.6 million, or 70.4%, and its imports of boilers…

The International Monetary Fund stated that Saudi Arabia will benefit more from the production cuts announced by the Kingdom with “OPEC” and its allies, as it will achieve more revenues thanks to the rise in oil prices. “The impact on the budget and the external situation relative to what we expected is positive, so the price impact will compensate for the loss that may arise from production,” the IMF’s head of mission to the kingdom, Amin Mati, said in an interview in Washington. Oil prices rebounded after the banking crisis that swept the markets and pushed black gold prices in…

Bank of Cyprus told its clients from Russia that their accounts will be closed, Forbes has reported Bank of Cyprus has notified its Russian customers that their accounts are set to be closed, Forbes reported on Tuesday, citing Main Partner Trust, a company that provides legal and financial services in Cyprus. The information was reportedly confirmed by an unnamed source in the country’s banking sector. Russian clients of Bank of Cyprus, the nation’s biggest banking institution, began receiving the notifications several days ago, according to Aljona Sakharova, a non-executive director of Main Partner Trust. The letters inform customers that their…

India and Russia have seen massive growth in bilateral trade over the past year, rapidly outpacing the goals initially set by the two countries, according to the Indian Minister of External Affairs. The trade turnover between the nations touched $45 billion between April 2022 and February 2023, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar announced on Monday at a Russia-India business-dialog meeting in New Delhi. Riding largely on oil shipments and fertilizer exports from Russia, the volume of trade has outperformed the countries’ $30-billion-by-2025 target, and well ahead of schedule. It is also more than triple the $13 billion trade turnover registered in 2021. Russia…

Gross Domestic Product is expected to grow 2.8% by 2026, Economy Ministry projects The Russian Ministry of Economic Development expects solid growth of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the next three years, due to a partial resumption of consumer demand against the backdrop of rising wages, business daily RBK reported on Monday. According to the ministry’s data, seen by the news outlet, the economy will grow 1.2% this year, following a decline of 2.1% in 2022. Next year, the GDP growth rate will be 2%, accelerating to 2.8% by 2026. The report also indicated that the growth rate…

Sanctioned businessman Oleg Deripaska says the situation “may well get out of control” One of Russia’s richest men has warned that a surge in global debt and rising interest rates will lead to an imbalance in the global financial system. Sanctioned businessman Oleg Deripaska made the comments on his Telegram channel on Monday. The record debt which global governments, households, financial corporates, and nonfinancial corporates owed exceeded $290 trillion last year, Deripaska claimed. The world’s leverage is at a higher level than pre-global-financial-crisis peaks, yet the demand for debt is likely to continue, according to the billionaire. The volume of…

The price cap on Russian crude oil will remain at its current level of $60 a barrel, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a Group of Seven (G7) official. The decision reportedly comes amid increasing global prices for crude and calls by some nations to lower the price ceiling set by the group in response to Russia’s military operation in Ukraine. The measure that came into effect in December bars Western businesses from providing transportation, insurance and financing to shipments of Russian crude, unless the cargo is bought at or below the set price. The oil price cap has been supported…

Bangladesh will repay a loan for the construction of its first nuclear power plant in Chinese yuan Bangladesh is set to make loan repayments in Chinese yuan for a nuclear power plant being built by Russia, as a way to sidestep Western sanctions, Nikkei Asia reported on Monday. According to the news outlet, the decision follows last week’s high-level talks between the sides, where it was agreed that the bills could be paid in yuan. Bangladesh owes Russia the equivalent of $110 million for the facility, which is still under construction. “Because of the sanctions against Russian banks… we couldn’t…

One reason why ether is appreciating is because of its relative underperformance versus bitcoin so far this year, the exchange said. The price of ether (ETH) has been resilient following the Ethereum blockchain’s Shanghai upgrade (aka Shappela) last week, crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) said in a research report Friday. The successful upgrade supported better-than-expected ether price action, which Coinbase says could continue through the end of April. The upgrade allows validators to withdraw staked ether that have been locked up and to claim rewards. Within the first 24 hours of withdrawals being enabled, ether’s supply has been limited for a few reasons, the report…

The cryptocurrency seems to be mirroring its performance in first-half 2019, when it more than tripled in valuation after a yearlong bear market. Bitcoin (BTC) is closely following its early 2019 surge, and prices could peak at around $45,000 next month, according to Vetle Lunde, a senior analyst at K33 Research. The largest cryptocurrency by market value has soared 80% this year, beating traditional risky assets, including the tech-heavy Nasdaq index, by a wide margin. The rally comes after a 12-month decline, when prices fell 76% and bottomed out last November. The drop and subsequent recovery are analogous to the…