BEIJING: China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Thursday exhorted the US to cancel the tariffs it had imposed, citing the resultant benefits to consumers and producers across the Pacific amid inflation woes, after US President Joe Biden said that he was not ready for a removal of tariffs imposed by his predecessor. “China has always … Read more
LONDON: British airline EasyJet slashed losses by half in the first quarter, despite the emergence of the Omicron coronavirus variant which disrupted the travel industry, it said on Thursday. Pre-tax losses stood at £213 million ($288 million, €255 million) in the three months to the end of December, after a £423 million loss in the … Read more
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan said that after assuming the charge in 2018, his first objective was to stabilise the country but the coronavirus pandemic hit the world and caused inflation. However, he vowed that the government will overcome this problem like the pandemic. While answering public telephone calls on Sunday, the premier said the … Read more
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka consumer prices shot up a record 14 per cent in December, surpassing a previous high of 11.1 from a month earlier, official figures showed on Saturday as food and fuel shortages worsened. Senior ministers warned parliament earlier in the week of a growing food crisis with rice harvests due in March expected … Read more
LONDON: British annual inflation accelerated in December to its highest level for almost three decades, official data showed on Wednesday, fuelled by price gains for clothing, food and furniture. The rate hit 5.4 per cent last month after striking a decade-high in November on jumping fuel costs, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. … Read more
KARACHI: Since the start of FY21, Pakistan’s economy has started recovering, but the boom in the international commodity prices after the opening up of global economies, amid ample liquidity, brought the country’s external account under pressure. “The economy is now on the path of stabilisation due to painful yet necessary policy measures undertaken by the … Read more
PARIS: French bakers have taken aim at a major supermarket chain that is offering inflation-busting low prices for baguettes, saying the move would undermine competition in one of the country’s prized industries. The Leclerc group said in newspaper ads on Tuesday that “because of inflation, the average price of baguettes could increase significantly. That’s unthinkable,” … Read more
WASHINGTON: The US consumer prices jumped last year at the fastest pace in four decades, the government confirmed on Wednesday, underscoring the potent inflation wave that has sapped public support for President Joe Biden even as the economy recovers from the pandemic. The seven per cent increase in the Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI) over … Read more
Opposition Leader in the National Assembly (NA), Shehbaz Sharif, and Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Chief, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, said the ‘Mehngai march’ (march against inflation) to Islamabad on March 23 has become inevitable. While speaking to the media after meeting the PDM chief, who also heads Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), in Islamabad on Wednesday, the opposition … Read more
Federal Energy Minister Hammad Azhar said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) saved Pakistan’s economy from bankruptcy as it was left by Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N). While addressing in the National Assembly (NA) session on Wednesday, the minister said that the entire world was declaring that Pakistan’s economy was steering towards bankruptcy. However, he added, the incumbent … Read more
HAVANA: Cubans are no strangers to queuing for everything from bread to toothpaste, often standing for hours under a blazing sun with no access to a toilet or drinking water, and always with the fear of leaving empty-handed. It is a daily ordeal Cubans have endured for about 60 years of communist rule, now worsened by … Read more
WASHINGTON: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will highlight the central bank’s efforts to fight inflation and stabilise the US economy at his confirmation hearing, according to testimony released on Monday. However, the Republican will likely also face questions about his ethics from a Democratic senator, after a media report raised further questions over whether a Fed … Read more
Pakistan Muslim League –Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Asif on Sunday asserted that the supporters and voters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government are also accepting failure of the government. Addressing the party’s workers convention in Sialkot, Khawaja Asif claimed that there are chances of elections and the incumbent government ‘can go at any time’.’ “The … Read more
KARACHI: Irfan Ahmed, an electric generator assembling business owner in Karachi and a Perkins’ authorised distributor, calculates at least 20 per cent decline in his January revenues and predicts a similar trend in the months ahead. “Just in two days, the cost of materials and parts we use surged around 10 per cent because … Read more
WASHINGTON: Federal Reserve officials last month were concerned about the Omicron impact, but believed the US economy had recovered enough from the pandemic downturn that interest rate hikes could come sooner than expected, according to minutes of the December meeting released Wednesday. The document provides a behind-the-scenes look at the deliberations of the Fed’s policy committee, … Read more
SAO PAULO: Jussara Romero’s credit card is nearly maxed out, and the sky-high interest payments have left her family struggling to get by. Still, inflation-battered Brazil’s soaring prices have left the 37-year-old mom little choice when she gets to the cash register, she says: she often breaks out the plastic yet again. Many workers in Brazil … Read more
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden offered independent US farmers $1 billion in aid Monday as part of a battle against meatpacking giants he accuses of building monopolies to squeeze out smaller competitors. “We’re here to talk about strengthening competition, which will bring down costs,” Biden told a virtual meeting of independent farmers and meat producers. Calling the … Read more
ANKARA: Turkey’s annual inflation rate surged to its highest level since 2002 in December, official data showed on Monday, after a currency crisis sparked by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s unconventional economic policies. Consumer prices jumped to 36.1 per cent last month from the same period in 2020, up from 21.3 per cent in November, according to … Read more
LONDON: From the great lockdown, to the great rebound? At the start of this year the world was optimistic that the development of pioneering vaccines would restrict the global spread of the Covid-19. December 2020 marked the date when vaccinations for the virus first began to be administered around the world. Since then, the death … Read more
STOCKHOL: Ikea will hike its prices by an average of 9 per cent next year due to the ongoing supply and transportation disruptions, the company that operates most of the Swedish furniture giant’s stores said. Thursday’s announcement comes as pandemic-fuelled shortages and shipping challenges ramp up inflation and pinch economies globally, with consumers increasingly feeling the … Read more
KARACHI: The headline inflation for December 2021 is likely to rise up to 12.3 per cent, despite soft food prices, analysts said on Tuesday. The analysts at Insight Securities said that despite soft food prices, the inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for December 2021 will arrive at 12.3 per cent on a … Read more
ISLAMABAD: Criticising the government over its incapability to control the declining price of the Pakistani rupee against the US dollar, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Sherry Rehman held the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and its policies responsible for currency’s devaluation. Read more: Rupee may remain in hot water next week Sherry took to Twitter on Tuesday … Read more
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto said his party doesn’t believe in any deal but rather the power of people, adding that those who accomplish deals do not have graveyards of martyrs. Bilawal was delivering his speech in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on the 14th death anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who was … Read more
German consumer sentiment worsened for the second month running, a key survey said on Tuesday, as Europe’s largest economy braces itself for rising inflation and the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. Pollster GfK’s forward-looking barometer fell to -6.8 from a revised figure of -1.8 for December. “The high incidence of the virus due to … Read more
In 2020, we observed the largest one-year debt surge since World War II, with global debt rising to $226 trillion as the world was hit by a global health crisis and a deep recession. Debt was already elevated going into the crisis, but now governments must navigate a world of record-high public and private debt … Read more
Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) President and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly (NA) Shahbaz Sharif said that the time to end Imran Khan’s government has come. While addressing a ceremony commemorating Khawaja Muhammad Rafiq in Lahore on Thursday, he claimed that the incumbent government is a product of rigging which knows nothing except … Read more
FRANKFURT: The German cabinet approved the nomination of career central banker Joachim Nagel as the new head of the Bundesbank on Wednesday, as the EU’s top economy comes under pressure from inflation and Omicron. In Nagel, Germany has a “noted economist and proven financial markets expert” who will “carry forward the Bundesbank’s stability-oriented legacy”, government spokesman … Read more
MOSCOW: Walking through a freezing market in Moscow earlier this month, 60-year-old Sergei Borisovich recalled that he rang in the last New Year at a table laden with festive delicacies. This year, the factory worker, who declined to give his last name, said a spike in prices meant he would have to forego caviar and other … Read more
