Author: Steven Sahiounie

Gerhard Schroeder will remain a member of the ruling SPD party, despite controversy over his relationship with Moscow Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will remain a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), a party committee decided on Thursday. Schroeder forged close ties with Russia during his time in office, and angered the current SPD establishment by meeting with President Vladimir Putin last summer, in the midst of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. An SPD arbitration committee in Hannover ruled that Schroeder had violated no party rules, and thus could not be expelled, Reuters reported. The ruling upheld a decision…

Escalating political confusion sent the Lebanese pound plummeting to a new low on the black market, trading at 90,000 pounds to the dollar on Wednesday.The latest plunge in the local currency means the exchange rate is more than 60 times lower than the base rate of 1,500 LBP/USD that has been in place for the past three years.Amid warnings of looming economic chaos, the Finance Ministry set the price of the customs dollar at 45,000 Lebanese pounds so the state treasury could pay public sector salaries.The ministry pegged the value at 15,000 pounds only a few weeks ago.Shops and supermarkets…

Australia has recovered better than most from the COVID pandemic. As measured by gross domestic product (GDP), the economy is now 7 per cent larger than it was before the pandemic. Over 2022, the economy expanded by 2.7 per cent — more than any of the seven largest advanced economies, and more than twice the average growth rate in the OECD. That’s the good news from the latest national accounts data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, covering the last quarter of 2022. Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.…

Gold prices edged higher on Wednesday as strong Chinese economic data drove bets for better physical demand from the world’s top consumer, though the risk of elevated US interest rates capped bullion’s gains. Spot gold rose 0.8% to $1,841.83 per ounce by 11:00 a.m. ET, its highest in a week. US gold futures were up 0.5% to $1,847.00 per ounce in New York. With strong data out of China and some countries looking to continue with rate hikes, the dollar was weakening against other currencies, providing some support to the gold market, said David Meger, director of metals trading at…

New China Research, the think tank of Xinhua News Agency, on Wednesday released a report titled “Toward Modernity: The Value of Xi Jinping’s Economic Thought.” The report comprises five chapters, regarding the distinctive features, the practical strategies, the scientific approaches and the implications for the world of Xi Jinping’s economic thought as well as Xi’s stories on economic governance in different localities. The historic achievements and historic changes of the Chinese economy in the new era serve as a profound indication for the great strength of Xi Jinping’s economic thought in practice, says the report. As China enters a new…

Chinese factory activity hit a decade high in February, according to data released Wednesday. China’s economy continues to outperform even the most bullish of analyst expectations, though U.S. businesses with operations in the Asian economic powerhouse remain as pessimistic as ever, according to new reports. China’s manufacturing and services activity are soaring, as the country continues to heal from the stranglehold the government put on businesses in its rigid effort to tame COVID-19 outbreaks. On Wednesday, a leading gauge of manufacturing hit an 11-year high. The official purchasing managers’ index, or PMI, climbed to 52.6 last month, the National Bureau of Statistics, known as…

Financial losses arising from the catastrophe have exceeded $34 billion, the World Bank says The devastating earthquakes that hit Türkiye earlier this month have caused some $34.2 billion worth of physical damage, according to a preliminary assessment revealed by the World Bank on Monday. The Washington-based institution noted that the total cost of reconstruction and recovery facing the nation could be “twice as large.” “Our experience is that reconstruction needs can run as high as two to three times the estimated direct physical damage,” according to Anna Bjerde, World Bank Group vice president for Europe and Central Asia. The amount is the…

Soaring food and energy prices have dealt a blow to Eurozone’s second and fourth-largest economies Consumer prices in France and Spain resumed their upward trend in February, driven by higher food and energy costs, official statistics showed on Tuesday. In France, the consumer price index increased by 6.2%, up from 6.0% in January, according to preliminary data from the statistics bureau Insee. The report noted that food inflation edged higher to 14.5% from 13.3%, services prices were up to 2.9% from 2.6%, while prices of manufactured goods rose slightly to 4.6% from 4.5%, with the end of winter sales. Energy…

Grocery prices in the UK have surged to a new record of 17.1% in the four weeks of February, according to the latest figures released by market researcher Kantar on Tuesday. Milk, eggs and margarine are showing the fastest price growth, data shows. The report says food inflation in the country is at its highest since the firm started tracking the figures in 2008, adding £811 ($980) to the typical annual shopping bill and forcing UK households to change their consumption habits. “This February marks a full year since monthly grocery inflation climbed above 4%. This is having a big…

European gas prices may surge this year as competition for the fuel intensifies, a report warns China’s economic recovery would trigger a fierce competition on global energy markets and could see prices for natural gas return to “unsustainable” levels in the EU, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned in a report released on Tuesday. Last year, gas consumption in China decreased due to lower industrial activity and sluggish economic growth amid Covid-related restrictions and surging energy prices, the IEA research said. At the same time, mild winter weather in Europe along with energy-saving measures taken by the EU authorities, an unprecedented inflow…