Uncategorized

Bloomberg European natural gas prices started the New Year declining as mild weather curbed demand. Benchmark futures dropped 7.9% to the lowest level since February 21, extending three weeks of net declines. Weather forecasts point to temperatures above seasonal norms for most of the region in next two weeks, which will help Europe avoid depleting its stocks too soon as ...

Bloomberg President Xi Jinping said tough challenges remain in China’s fight against Covid-19 and acknowledged divisions in society that led to rare spontaneous protests, after weeks of silence on a virus policy pivot that’s infected hundreds of millions and delivered a severe blow to economic activity. In a New Year’s address, Xi said the country is in a new phase ...

  Bloomberg India’s Supreme Court upheld Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2016 decision to overnight invalidate high-value currency notes, a decision that could provide firepower to the ruling party ahead of a series of elections in coming months. A five-judge panel in a majority verdict said the government’s move satisfied the test of “proportionality” and the court cannot supplant the wisdom ...

Bloomberg Chinese tourists accounted for nearly a third of Thailand’s visitors prior to Covid, so their pending return has local businesses hoping for a much needed boost. But a full recovery from the crisis remains a way off. Thai government and industry estimates on Chinese visitor numbers for next year range from 3 million to 5 million — a wide ...

Dubai / WAM Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), has announced that the production capacity of clean energy in Dubai has reached 2,027 megawatts (MW) using photovoltaic solar power (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP). This is about 14% of Dubai’s total power production capacity of 14,517 MW. He made the announcement ...

  Ras Al Khaimah / WAM Ushering in the New Year in legendary fashion, Ras Al Khaimah, already the holder of several world records for its renowned fireworks performances, welcomed 2023 with a mesmerising pyro-musical show, smashing two Guinness World Records titles. Securing the title of the ‘largest number of operated multi-rotors/drones with a simultaneous fireworks display’ with record-breaking 671 ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged citizens to continue their energy-saving drive and said Germany’s new floating LNG terminals will make Europe independent of Russian gas for the long term. In his New Year’s address to the nation, Scholz acknowledged that the energy crisis triggered by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was a “tough test” for the continent’s biggest economy. But ...

Bloomberg China’s abrupt reversal of its Covid Zero policy pushed economic activity — its service sector in particular — to the slowest pace since February 2020, as the virus swept through major cities and prompted people to stay home and businesses to shut. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to 47 this month from November’s 48, the National Bureau ...

  Bloomberg South Korea’s exports continued to decline in December in a sign of cooling global demand as higher interest rates weigh on consumption. Overseas shipments dropped 9.5% from a year earlier, compared with economists’ forecasts for an 11.1% decline, according to data by the trade ministry. Imports fell 2.4%. The trade shortfall was $4.7 billion in December, resulting in ...

Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged to increase his nuclear arsenal in the new year to stifle US and South Korean hostile acts, in a policy-setting address where he left almost no opening for a return to long-stalled disarmament talks. In a speech that came at the end of a nearly weeklong meeting of his ruling Workers Party, Kim ...