Author: Steven Sahiounie

Production of liquefied natural gas surged by as much as 10% last year, the operator of Sakhalin-2 saysThe Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) project is expected to generate twice as much revenue in 2023 compared to its earnings before the Ukraine-related sanctions rained down on Russia’s energy sector, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing industry analysts.The boost is attributed to long-term contracts with clients from the Asian region, along with higher global energy prices. Renewed deals with Asian buyers are expected to secure demand for up to 6.5 million tons of the super-chilled fuel annually from Sakhalin 2, according to calculations by…

The company says its move is a result of asset sales rather than a sign of weakness in its business. IBM Corporation has joined the wave of layoffs by tech giants saying it will slash some of its global workforce. The company described the move as being mainly a result of earlier asset sales.The announcement came on Wednesday during a conference call when the company revealed it will cut 3,900 jobs or about 1.5% of its employees worldwide.   IBM explained that the layoffs were related to the previously announced spinoff and sale of its Kyndryl business and a part of AI…

Toyota’s CEO to step down from post, effective April 1 Toyota Motor Corporation’s President and Chief Executive Akio Toyoda will step down from his post on April 1, to be replaced by current Chief Branding Officer Koji Sato, the Japanese automaker said. Toyoda will become the new chairman of the board, while the current Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada will continue as a member of the board. “I thought the best way to further Toyota’s transformation would be for me to become chairman in support of a new president, and this has led to today’s decision,” Toyoda said in a webcast. Tokyo-listed…

On Thursday, the government will issue its advance estimate of the nation’s economic output for the fourth quarter of 2022. The report on gross domestic product will likely show the economy grew at an annual pace somewhere around 2.6% or so, down from the 3.2% in the third quarter. The Federal Reserve’s campaign to arrest inflation by raising interest rates is working and the consequences of the higher borrowing costs are a slowing economy that will be reflected in the GDP data. But for those looking for more evidence of a slowdown and even the possibility of a recession in…

A new survey from Research Co. shows that most of Canadians are not happy with the current economy and that their financial status have worsened over the past six months. As many as 62 per cent of respondents described current economic condition in Canada as “bad” or “very bad”, up five points since Research Co. conducted a similar story in July 2022. In addition, just 35 per cent of Canadians (down five points) rate the economic conditions tight now as “very good” or “good”. When it comes to their own personal finances, 51 per cent of respondents described their personal finances as…

Japan cut its view on the overall economy for the first time in 11 months in January, as China’s COVID-19 infections and a slowdown in global demand for tech and semiconductors hurt exports, especially to Asia. The government expects the economy, the world’s third largest, will pick up going forward but Japan needs to pay full attention to the impact from China’s spreading infections after it dropped stringent pandemic curbs, the report said. The economic downgrade followed the Bank of Japan’s move last week when it slashed its economic growth projections for the next two fiscal years amid worries that…

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has marked the opening of a $1.5 billion, Chinese-funded deep seaport in the commercial hub of Lagos that authorities hope will help grow the West African nation’s ailing economy. The Lekki Deep Sea Port is one of the biggest in West Africa and will create hundreds of thousands of jobs in addition to easing cargo congestion that costs billions of dollars in annual revenue, Lagos Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu said Monday. The port — whose container terminal is able to handle at least 2.5 million 20-foot standard containers per year — will be operated as a joint…

The market is bracing for a perfect storm of bad news. The latest worry? The impending debt ceiling drama in Washington. The United States hit its borrowing cap on Thursday, forcing the Treasury Department to start taking “extraordinary measures” to keep the government open. If an agreement isn’t reached, markets could plunge (like they did the last time this happened in 2011) and the United States risks having its credit rating downgraded again. “From both an economic and a financial perspective, a failure to raise the debt ceiling would be an unmitigated disaster,” said David Kelly, chief global strategist with JPMorgan Funds, in a report earlier this week.…

The United Nations forecast Wednesday that global economic growth will fall significantly to 1.9% this year as a result of the food and energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine, the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, persistently high inflation and the climate emergency. Painting a gloomy and uncertain economic outlook, the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs said the current global economic slowdown “cuts across both developed and developing countries, with many facing risks of recession in 2023.” “A broad-based and severe slowdown of the global economy looms large amid high inflation, aggressive monetary tightening, and heightened uncertainties,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said…

South Korea’s economy saw its first quarterly contraction since the second quarter of 2020, according to advance estimates released by the central bank. Real gross domestic product fell by 0.4% in the final quarter of 2022 compared with the previous quarter, according to the Bank of Korea — reversing gains seen in the three months prior and shrinking more than the 0.3% contraction forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. The worsening conditions in South Korea’s economy signaled that a recovery, once seen coming from “revenge-spending” consumers putting the pandemic behind them, may be fading sooner than expected. A sharp, 5.8% decline…