Author: Steven Sahiounie

The same rule applies to the country’s crude, according to earlier guidance from the department. Seaborne deliveries of Russian petroleum products that are ‘substantially transformed’ outside Russia will not be subject to a price cap, the US Treasury Department said in preliminary guidance on the measure on Friday. The cap on Russian oil products is set to come into force on February 5. In order to be exempt from the price limit, Russian oil products must undergo one of a number of processes abroad, according to the document. These include distillation, thermal or fluid coking, catalytic cracking, hydrotreating, de-waxing, as…

The assets will reportedly be held until the court allows their return to customers and creditorsThe Bahamian Securities Commission (BSC) says it took control of FTX deposits valued at more than $3.5 billion, shortly after the crypto exchange filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November.According to a media release published late Thursday by the commission, all digital assets in FTX’s Bahamas unit FTX Digital Markets were seized due to a risk of their “imminent dissipation.”The report highlighted that shortly after FTX filed for bankruptcy, about $372 million worth of tokens were stolen from the exchange by an unknown actor…

Countries that support the measure will have a difficult time trying to substitute lost Russian supplies, Mamdouh Salameh says. Western countries have failed in their attempts to stem the surge in global oil prices with a cap on Russian crude exports, Mamdouh Salameh, a prominent oil economist and World Bank energy consultant, told the Oilprice news outlet this week.According to Salameh, none of the major oil-producing countries would agree to sell their crude at a price much lower than the market average, which would effectively deprive the West of oil supplies.“The Western price cap on Russian oil exports has already…

The country has sold over 700,000 tons this year. Russia’s wheat flour exports tripled in 2022, the country’s agricultural watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor, said in a statement on Thursday. According to the statement, the volume of wheat flour exports reached 722,000 tons this year, up from 259,000 tons in 2021. Overall exports of processed grain products rose to 1.3 million tons, which is 69% higher than last year. Sales of Russian oats also jumped by 37% to 163,000 tons.The volume of grain and grain product exports increased by 3% compared to last year. According to Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia supplied these products to 126…

Beijing aims to produce 450 gigawatts of renewable energy to slash carbon emissions. A massive renewable energy project worth more than $11 billion kicked off construction in China’s seventh-largest desert in the province of Inner Mongolia on Wednesday. The project is part of the country’s ambitious clean energy agenda.The solar and wind power base with an overall installed capacity of 16 million kW will be the world’s largest renewable electricity generation facility of its kind in a desert area, according to the construction company. It will combine solar, wind, and upgraded coal power to produce 40 billion kWh of electricity…

Leading indices have sold off on high inflation, geopolitical tensions, and tightening monetary policy. Major European stock indices struggled in 2022, with most showing their worst performance since before the Covid-19 pandemic, CNBC reported on Friday. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index began the last trading day of the year down more than 12% versus a year ago, its worst yearly drop since a 13.24% plunge in 2018, according to the media outlet.The French CAC 40 is on pace to register a 12% plunge for the year, while the German DAX is on track to lose 18% in 2022, the worst performance in…

The National Wealth Fund, which accumulates revenue from the country’s energy exports, has been growing this year. Russia’s Finance Ministry intends to replenish the National Wealth Fund (NWF) in Chinese yuan starting from next year as part of its budget rule, the head of the ministry, Anton Siluanov, has revealed.The fund, which accumulates revenue from oil exports, was created to support the national pension system, and the funds can also be used to cover budget deficits in times of crisis. The assets of the fund amounted to $186.5 billion as of December 1.In 2020, the ministry proposed diversifying the assets…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator This is part two of an examination of the current state of Lebanon. In part one, we looked at the Soldiers of God, an extremist Christian militia that pose a threat to the security of Lebanon and could ignite a new civil war. Lebanon needs up to $15 billion to rise from its present economic collapse which was decades in the making and can be blamed on the corrupt ruling elite who lined their pockets at the expense of the citizens, driving the country into financial ruin and deadly social turmoil. Despite elections in…

It is hard to recall a time when there were as many economic and political ‘crosscurrents’ as there are for South Africa as it enters 2023.SA’s economic prospects in 2023 will be broadly shaped by global developments, Eskom, and policy implementation commitments by government. The interaction between these factors will determine the risks and the opportunities that exist over the next 12 months in a changing socio-economic environment both in SA and elsewhere.The reality nonetheless is that in the meantime business and consumers in SA will face another tough year with strong inflation, rising interest rates, high unemployment, load-shedding and…

KUALA LUMPUR – Like every classic tale, Malaysia’s economic outlook for 2023 is expected to have two halves, with a gloomy outlook predicted in the first half and an improving outlook in the second amid a looming recession.Economists do not expect the nation’s strong economic growth witnessed in 2022 to continue into 2023 as consumer pessimism weighs significantly on growth.Malaysia recorded double-digit economic growth of 14.2 per cent in the third quarter of this year, driven by an encouraging performance in all economic sectors, especially services and manufacturing.However, economists reckon that domestic consumption will slow significantly by end-2023 due to cumulative inflationary…