Author: Steven Sahiounie

Russia has become Iran’s largest foreign investor, Fars news agency reported on Sunday, citing the country’s deputy finance minister, Ali Fekri. According to the official, Russia “had brought some $2.7 billion worth of investment to two petroleum projects in Iran’s Western province of Ilam in the past 15 months.” The figure accounts for some 45% of the total foreign investment attracted by Tehran over the period, Fekri noted. The UAE, Afghanistan, Turkey and China were also among Iran’s biggest investors in the reporting period. However, Fekri noted that Beijing had notably reduced spending in 2022. “China has invested nearly $185…

The United States government hit its borrowing limit last week, on January 19, leading to new economic worries at a time when most countries are expecting a slowdown in economic growth. The US administration has already started implementing measures to avoid any default, which could have catastrophic effects on both domestic and global economies. What is the debt ceiling? The debt limit, also known as the debt ceiling, is the statutory limit for the amount of money the US Treasury can borrow in the form of securities, including bills and savings bonds, to finance existing federal operations. This may include…

NASA has announced the timescale for sending up a rocket to an asteroid that is worth more than the entire economy of our own planet. It’s called Psyche, and it’s made out of metals that – if we could mine them and get them back down here – would be worth an eye-watering sum of money. But that’s not necessarily the important thing about it. It could be that the hurtling lump of space stuff is the former core of another planet that was bashed around at the very birth of our solar system, meaning there could be some stuff that we could learn…

Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, is closing in on a multibillion pound deal with Britain’s biggest housebuilders to help resolve the national cladding crisis exposed by the 2017 Grenfell Tower disaster. Sky News has learnt that major companies including Barratt Developments and Persimmon are preparing for the imminent signing of a legally binding contract with the government that could ultimately cost the industry £5bn or more. One executive said they expected the final contract to be signed and unveiled as soon as next week, although they cautioned that the timing remained fluid. Last year, dozens of developers signed a pledge to…

Start with consumer spending, the main engine of the economy. It fell in the final two months of 2022. Businesses aren’t about to come to the rescue, either. Construction companies were the first to pull back last year after rising mortgage rates choked off home sales. More recently, manufacturers have retreated in response to slower sales. Industrial production declined in both November and December and executives have signaled they will proceed with caution early in the new year. The government is also not going to lend a helping hand like it did during the first few years of the pandemic. Republicans who’ve…

Pakistan has hiked up petrol and diesel prices after the country’s currency value plummeted this week and just days before an International Monetary Fund (IMF) visit to the country to discuss the stalled ninth review of Pakistan’s funding programme. Finance minister Ishaq Dar said at a press conference on Sunday that petrol price will rise by 35 rupees to 249.80 rupees ($1) per litre while high-speed diesel would go up to 262.8 rupees ($1.05) per litre. The announcement was made just 10 minutes before the new prices went into effect at 11am (05:00 GMT). “We will have to take the rise in international…

Shipments of automobiles from China to international markets topped 2.5 million units in 2022, making it the world’s third biggest exporter of cars, Bloomberg reported earlier this week, citing data from the China Passenger Car Association. China’s numbers came in behind Japan and Germany, but ahead of the US and South Korea, signaling the emergence of a strong challenger to the established automaking giants. Chinese brands are currently among the best-selling in the Middle East and Latin America. In Europe, electric models from Tesla and Chinese-owned former European brands (as well as European brands such as Dacia Spring and the…

A Norwegian research team has discovered large reserves of metals and minerals under the seabed of the country’s vast continental shelf, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said in a statement on Friday. The major discovery reportedly offers one of the world’s biggest oil and gas exporters the prospect of extracting “substantial” amounts of minerals, ranging from copper to rare earth metals. “Of the metals found on the seabed in the study area, magnesium, niobium, cobalt and rare earth minerals are found on the European Commission’s list of critical minerals,” director of technology and analysis at NPD, Kjersti Dahle, said. According to the preliminary estimates, polymetallic…

Russian-born billionaire Alexander Gerko became the UK’s top taxpayer last year, according to the Sunday Times Tax List published on Friday. Gerko, 43, has contributed more than £487 million ($601 million) to Britain’s public finances in just 12 months. It is equivalent to more than £1.3 million in tax a day – or £55,639 an hour. This is up from the £117.4 million he paid the previous year, when he ranked in tenth place. By taking the top spot on the list of the 100 biggest taxpayers in the UK, Gerko outpaced the head of Britain’s gambling empire Bet365, Denise…

Supply issues will continue to affect the European gas market this year, due to the need to refill storages, as supplies from Russia are severely diminished, TotalEnergies СEO Patrick Pouyanne told Belgian news outlet L’Echo on Saturday. According to Pouyanne, the current downward trend in energy prices will not last long. “The winter is quite mild, the storages are full, Europe needs to import less liquefied natural gas (LNG). But the fundamentals remain there: in 2023, Europe will receive less Russian gas than it received in 2022. It will again have to massively re-import LNG, even though it has not…