Bloomberg South Africa’s state-owned power company, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., will carry on cutting 2,000 megawatts of electricity from the national grid indefinitely due to the breakdown of five generating units, reversing plans to suspend the outages on New Year’s Eve, the utility said in a text message. Eskom has cut power on a record 205 days this year, with ...

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 Tesla Inc is starting 2023 as it ended 2022: with incentives aimed at propping up sales in China. The carmaker is offering Model 3 sedan and Model Y sport utility vehicle buyers as much as 10,000 yuan ($1,450) if they take delivery by February 28, according to Tesla’s website. The company is extending a 6,000-yuan subsidy it started offering ...

  Bloomberg The Taiwanese government is planning to deploy NT$380 billion ($12.4 billion) of funds to support the local economy and combat inflation amid global uncertainties, the presidential office said. Some of the funds, which come from higher-than-expected tax revenue this year, will be used to meet a shortfall in the labor and health insurance system and to provide subsidies ...

  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 Indonesia will do away with indoor mask mandates and remove the requirement to show proof of vaccination when entering buildings, becoming one of the last few countries to completely end Covid-19 restrictions. The decision was taken as almost all of Indonesia’s population had immunity against the virus, said President Joko Widodo. “We once failed in containing Covid, but ...

  Bloomberg Vietnam’s economy grew at the fastest pace in Asia in 2022, signalling momentum just before risks from a global slowdown began to materialise. Gross domestic product rose 8.02% in the year to December, according to official data reported. That was faster than the government’s initial target of 6%-6.5% growth and was aided by a quicker-than-expected 5.92% expansion 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 ...

  Bloomberg Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti is calling for a bolstered presence of Nato peacekeeping forces in his country. “A massive bolstering of Nato troops and military equipment in our country would improve security and peace in Kosovo and the entire West-Balkan region,” Kurti said in an interview with German newspaper WELT. Following recent tensions between Kosovo and neighboring ...

  Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to push ahead next year with an unpopular overhaul of the country’s pension system that will effectively force people to work longer. The new rules on retirement will apply from the end of the summer, he said during a New Year’s address to the nation in which he urged citizens to remain unified ...