Author: Steven Sahiounie

The UK government has reached agreement with the EU on major changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol. The protocol is the part of the Brexit deal which sets Northern Ireland’s trade rules. It keeps Northern Ireland inside the EU’s single market for goods. That keeps the Irish land border open but means products arriving into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK are subject to checks and controls. The new deal should reduce the frictions on Great Britain-to-Northern Ireland trade – so what are the major changes? Green lanes and red lanes At the heart of this deal is…

Tesla and Space X chief executive Elon Musk has once again become the world’s wealthiest individual after Tesla’s stock price nearly doubled since the start of 2023, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Musk is now back on top of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after slipping to the second spot in late December. As of February 27, the billionaire’s wealth reportedly amounted to $187.1 billion at the close of markets, outstripping the fortune of LVMH’s Bernard Arnault by $1.8 billion. The surge in Musk’s net worth is attributed to the resurgent stock price of his electric car maker Tesla, which has nearly…

The Swiss economy is expected to slow this year but will not slide into a recession, the government said on Tuesday, after it reported zero growth at the end of 2022. “From the current perspective I would not expect a recession,” Eric Scheidegger, the Head of the Economic Policy Directorate at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, told reporters. He cited the mild winter, which had helped Europe avoid an energy crisis, and recent data on economic activity which he said was encouraging. This article was originally published by reuters.

Economic confidence in Türkiye dropped slightly in February, official data showed Monday, following devastating earthquakes that jolted the country’s southeastern region. The economic confidence index fell 0.3% month-over-month in February to 99.1 points, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said, following a 1.3% increase in January. All sub-indexes posted a decline in the month except for consumer confidence. The construction confidence index slipped 3.6% to 89.8 in the month. The retail trade confidence index dropped 2.4% from January to 123.1 in February, while the services confidence index was down 2.2% to 115.5. The index for the real sector-manufacturing industry-edged down by 1% to…

Economic and political worries spur more exits and fewer new entries. BEIJING — Investment by foreign companies in China tumbled to its lowest level in 18 years in the second half of last year, buffeted by tensions with the U.S., a dimming growth outlook and fears of possible backsliding on economic reforms. Foreign direct investment into China totaled $42.5 billion between July and December 2022, according to an official balance of payments. That constituted a 73% decline on the year, the sharpest drop dating back to data in 1999. Half-year totals had averaged more than $160 billion between late 2020 and early 2022.…

Taiwan’s economic freedom ranking has risen to an all-time high, according to The Heritage Foundation’s 2023 Index of Economic Freedom released on Monday. The index ranks Taiwan No. 4 with an overall economic freedom score of 80.7 and No. 2 out of the 39 economies in the Asia-Pacific region. The region’s average overall economic score is 58.2 while the world’s average is 59.3, or “the lowest it has been over the past two decades,” according to the index’s executive summary. “This year’s Index of Economic Freedom reveals just how fragile the world’s economy has become. The world and America are at a crossroads,” Kevin Roberts,…

Stocks are rising Monday, clawing back some of their losses from Wall Street’s worst week since early December. The S&P 500 was 0.6% higher in afternoon trading and on pace for just its second gain in the last seven days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 146 points, or 0.5%, at 32,963, as of 1:40 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher. Stocks have struggled in February after a strong start to the year as reports have shown inflation and much of the overall economy are staying more resilient than expected. While the strong economic data…

The crypto market saw another day of sideways trading on Monday as the weakness present at the end of last week carried through the weekend while traders continued to weigh the prospect of higher interest rates for longer and what that means for risk assets. Stocks rallied in the early morning session as Wall Street looked to bounce back from its worst week of the year, but the early gains moderated as the day progressed and economic data showed that new orders for manufactured durable goods plunged 4.5% in January, the biggest drop since April 2020. At the close of…

The South African rand was pressured by a stronger U.S. dollar in early trade on Tuesday ahead of the release of domestic money supply, budget, trade and unemployment data later in the day. At 0550 GMT, the rand traded at 18.4600 against the U.S. dollar, about 0.2% weaker than its closing level on Monday. The dollar was up around 0.2% against a basket of global currencies . South Africa’s January money supply figures (ZAM3=ECI) are due at 0600 GMT, followed by fourth-quarter unemployment numbers (ZAUNR=ECI) at 0930 GMT. January trade (ZATBAL=ECI) and budget (ZABUDM=ECI) data will be released at 1200 GMT. South Africa’s economy is expected to register…

New YorkCNN — Analysts have long expected a slowdown in the US labor market, but for the past 10 months, the data has come in better than expected. That may sound like a good thing for the economy, but as the Federal Reserve attempts to fight inflation, the still-hot jobs market is signaling that more painful interest rate hikes could be ahead. But lately, some economists have begun to worry that the data on which Fed officials rely is becoming increasingly inaccurate. The number of people responding to labor market and inflation surveys has been declining for years, and the pandemic accelerated that…