Author: Steven Sahiounie

The country has overtaken Japan as Covid restrictions are eased and demand recoversChina’s imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) increased in November versus January, according to Chinese customs data reported on Sunday, thus propelling the country past Japan to become the globe’s leading importer of the fuel.   The volume of LNG supplied to China totaled 6.42 million tons in November, although this is below the 6.9 million tons it imported last year. Japan, meanwhile, saw inbound shipments of 5.09 million tons in the same month of this year.However, China’s LNG imports of 56.88 million tons for the first 11 months…

Major Russian bank launches new service in Iran.Individuals and businesses in both countries will be able to conduct cross-border transactionsRussia’s second largest bank, VTB, has launched a new service allowing both individuals and businesses to transfer money to and from Iran, the lender announced on Monday.  State-owned VTB, which has been subject to sweeping Western sanctions since late February, has thus become the first lender to provide banking services to Iran, a country that has been under international restrictions for decades.   The bank’s vice president, Denis Valvachyov, believes that such transactions will be in high demand and that the move…

Meta hit with EU antitrust complaintThe tech giant is stifling competition in the online classified ad business, according to the European CommissionThe European Commission (EC) has accused Facebook parent company Meta of breaching antitrust rules and announced on Monday having issued a formal complaint that could lead to fines. In its complaint following an investigation launched last year, the commission alleges that the tech firm was squeezing out classified ad rivals by tying Facebook Marketplace to its own social network.The EU watchdog suggested that Facebook users automatically had access to Marketplace “whether they want it or not.” The bloc’s antitrust commissioner,…

The crude sent through the Druzhba pipeline does not fall under the EU embargoGermany and Poland have requested pipeline oil deliveries from Russia for 2023, the head of state oil supplier Transneft, Nikolay Tokarev, said in an interview with Russia 24 TV on Monday.Both countries had previously said they would give up pipeline supplies of Russian oil by the end of the year.According to Tokarev, Warsaw expects to receive 360,000 tons of Russian crude this December and 3 million tons more in 2023. He added that Berlin has also placed an order for the first quarter of next year, but…

The famed economist warns mankind is headed into a crisis of global proportionsThe global community is facing a host of new threats, which may drive it back to the times of wars, pandemics and famine, renowned economist Nouriel Roubini told the Financial Times.According to the man dubbed ‘Doctor Doom’ by Wall Street, the period of optimism and growth that lasted for the past 75 years is an exception for humanity, not a rule.“I think that really the world is on a slow-motion train wreck. There are major new threats that did not exist before, and they’re building up and we’re…

The two countries are holding talks on cooperation, according to Kazem JalaliTehran is exploring the possibility of undertaking joint automobile production with Moscow, Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali has revealed.Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, he said that the sides were discussing the issue and expressed hope that the plans would be realized. Jalali noted that the two major Iranian automakers, Iran Khodro and SAIPA, both of which participated in an auto parts exhibition in Moscow this past summer, have also held talks with Russian partners.In late November, the head of the Iranian association of auto parts manufacturers, Mohammadreza Najafi-Manesh,…

The estimated drain is reportedly just the start of deepest energy crisis in decades. EU member states have spent roughly a trillion dollars (€940 billion) in the face of the bloc’s worst energy crisis in decades, Bloomberg is reporting on Sunday, citing calculations based on market data. Soaring energy prices have sent its economies plunging into recession as most member states opted to stop importing gas from Russia, facing the necessity to turn to more expensive supplies. The agency highlighted that the total estimated losses marks just the beginning of a full-scale crisis, as a period of high prices for…

Monetary tightening by major central banks is undermining the world economy, they warnGlobal recession risks rising – economistsAttempts by central banks to aggressively fight price pressures by raising interest rates could plunge the global economy into recession, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing multiple economists. The experts pointed out that after they increased rates by half a percentage point, the heads of the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BoE) all signaled the need for further increases, even as they acknowledged that their economies were weakening. The mounting risk is that further tightening of…

The national grid operator has delayed the planned reopening of a number of nuclear power plantsFrance faces a greater risk of running short on electricity this winter after the nation’s grid operator, Electricite de France (EDF), extended maintenance halts for several nuclear reactors, Bloomberg has reported. The utility announced on Monday that the restart of its Penly-2 unit has been delayed from January 29 until June 11, while the reopening of the Golfech-1 unit has been pushed back to June 11 from February 18, according to the outlet. The halt of the Chattenom-3 reactor has reportedly been prolonged by one…

The mechanism was legalized to provide the market with goods that Western companies stopped delivering due to sanctions The volume of goods supplied to Russia via the parallel imports mechanism has exceeded $20 billion so far this year, according to the head of the Federal Customs Service, Vladimir Bulavin. Parallel imports, sometimes called ‘gray imports’, refer to the practice in which a non-counterfeit product is imported without the permission of the intellectual property owner via alternative supply channels. Bulavin told Russia 24 TV on Monday that 2.4 million tons of goods, mainly cars, machine tools, and equipment, as well as…