Author: Steven Sahiounie

ECONOMIC REPORT DUE: At 8:30 a.m. ET, the Commerce Department is out with the U.S. trade balance for October. The monthly deficit in goods and services is expected to widen for the second month in a row and the second time in seven months to $80.0 billion, the largest since May. For context, the deficit hit a record $106.9 billion in March on huge demand for imported goods and rising prices tied to inflation (that record trade gap was largely to blame for the 1.6% contraction in 1Q GDP). DAILY STOCK REPORT: Stocks tied closely to the health of the U.S. economy dropped sharply Monday…

Fitch Ratings on Tuesday retained India’s economic growth forecast at 7 per cent for the current fiscal, but cut projections for the next two financial years saying the country is not impervious to global developments. In its December edition of the Global Economic Outlook, Fitch projected India’s GDP to grow at 7 per cent in the current fiscal, at a slower rate of 6.2 per cent in 2023-24 and at 6.9 per cent in 2024-25. In September, Fitch projected 7 per cent growth for the current fiscal, followed by 6.7 per cent in 2023-24 and 7.1 per cent growth in 2024-25. Given the…

The country aims to sign 26 Cepa deals in 7-8 years, says minister of economy The UAE economy is projected to grow over 6.5 per cent this year and the next, driven by the new economy sectors as well as new socio-economic initiatives taken by the government, said a senior official on Tuesday. Abdullah bin Touq, Minister of Economy, said 2022 has been a great year for the UAE economy with trade crossing Dh1 trillion and re-exports crossing Dh300 billion for the first time ever. “We expect GDP growth of 6.5 per cent this year. I hope it’ll be more…

There’s a growing sense that, if Chinese government sticks to the reopening path, China’s economy will have the greatest potential to deliver a strong rebound throughout the 2023, given that it has been so damaged by the pandemic. Will Chinese economy recover in 2023? China just went through a dramatic week when things changed so rapidly and unexpectedly. Unprecedented protests that kicked off last week unveiled the deepened disappointment and frustration that have accumulated following the nation’s three-year long zero-Covid policy. As a result, Chinese authorities seemed to have little choice but to ease the policy quickly to ease its…

The world economy is facing one of its worst years in three decades as the energy shocks unleashed by the war in Ukraine continue to reverberate, according to Bloomberg Economics.In a new analysis, economist Scott Johnson forecasts growth of just 2.4% in 2023. That’s down from an estimated 3.2% this year and the lowest — excluding the crisis years of 2009 and 2020 — since 1993.However, the headline figure is likely to mask diverging fortunes, with the euro area starting in 2023 in recession and the US ending the year in one. By contrast, China is projected to expand more…

2022Stats SA has published the latest gross domestic product numbers for the third quarter of 2022, showing surprising growth of 1.6% in the quarter.The growth beat out market expectations by some margin – consensus among economists and analysts was that the economy would grow 0.4% for the quarter, given the heightened levels of load shedding taking place. At best, optimistic views were for 0.7%.According to Stats SA, however, the output from the country’s various economic sectors was higher than anticipated, and the reported number is four times higher than the predictions.Notably, Stats SA’s data shows that South Africa’s economy in the third…

RWE reportedly wants more than $400 million in compensation for missing gas supplies German energy company RWE has launched arbitration proceedings against Russia’s state-owned oil and gas giant Gazprom over allegedly undelivered volumes of gas, the firm’s spokesman told the Handelsblatt newspaper on Monday. Although RWE’s reliance on supplies from Gazprom was relatively low and was due to cover 15 terawatt hours (TWh) by next year, experts say the company may seek hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for missing deliveries, which were reportedly reduced by 4 TWh.In June, an analyst from Stifel Research, Martin Tessier, wrote that “in the…

A key section of the East Route natural gas pipeline has been completed, Global Times reports. A key construction project that is part of the East Route pipeline supplying Russian natural gas to China was completed over the weekend, the newspaper the Global Times has reported, citing energy giant PipeChina. The now-completed tunnel under the Yangtze River will allow Russian gas to reach Shanghai. Having taken 28 months to construct, the tunnel is over 10km long and is designed with three natural gas pipelines, each 1.4m in diameter, according to the report. The East Route natural gas pipeline is expected…

New Delhi will prioritize its energy needs just like the EU, its foreign minister says India will make its own decisions with regard to Russian oil imports, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Monday. He questioned the fairness of Western states putting their energy needs first while asking his country to do otherwise. “I understand that there is a conflict situation. I also understand that Europe has a point of view and Europe will make the choices it will make, that is Europe’s right. But for Europe to make choices which prioritize its energy needs and then ask India…

Deliveries of Russian seaborne oil to Europe have dropped more than fivefold since the start of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on Monday citing vessel tracking data. According to the report, the shipments plunged to an average of 309,000 barrels per day in the four weeks to December 5. This is less than a fifth of their volume in the four weeks to February 25, an average of 1.58 million barrels a day. Deliveries in the final week to November 25 dropped by 34%.Analysts expect those figures to slide further after an EU embargo and the Western coalition’s…