January, 2023

• 31 January

  Power crisis triggers water cuts in S Africa’s economic hub

  

  Bloomberg Parts of Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic hub, are being subjected to renewed water-supply cuts as ongoing electricity shortages disrupt pumping operations. A power failure at Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station, which supplies reservoirs in several high-lying areas of Johannesburg, resulted in critically low levels of supply, the municipality said on Twitter on Monday. While repairs have been completed, it ...

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• 31 January

  Olaf Scholz seeks to end China’s lithium dominance in S America

  

  Bloomberg Chancellor Olaf Scholz is using a trip to Latin America to help Germany secure additional supplies of the lithium that car giants like Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Volkswagen AG need for their electric-vehicle batteries. Chile is the world’s second-largest supplier of lithium after Australia and much of its output is currently gobbled up by China. Scholz, who met with ...

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• 31 January

  Denmark plans extra $340 million inflation aid targeting seniors

    Bloomberg Denmark proposed to spend an extra 2.3 billion kroner ($340 million) on inflation aid, mainly targeting senior citizens. The government will now start talks with opposition parties in parliament to reach a broad deal and decide on the details, Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen told reporters in Copenhagen on Monday. Consumers in Denmark have been hit heavily by accelerating ...

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• 31 January

  German recession risk rises after surprise contraction

    Bloomberg Germany’s economy shrank 0.2% at the end of last year — a worse outcome than previously flagged and one that makes a recession on the back of rising energy bills more likely after all. The figures Monday from the statistics office contrast with an estimate this month for output to have stagnated in the fourth quarter. They also ...

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• 31 January

  Spanish inflation unexpectedly jumps after months of easing

  

    Bloomberg Spanish inflation unexpectedly quickened in January after a five-month run of slowing price growth, prompting traders to boost their bets on how high the European Central Bank will raise interest rates. Consumer prices advanced by 5.8% from a year ago, up from the previous month’s 5.5% increase, the statistics institute in Madrid said Monday. That’s well above the ...

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• 31 January

  UK warns builders to sign ‘cladding pledge’

    Bloomberg Britain’s homebuilders have six weeks to sign a UK government contract that will commit them to repair unsafe cladding on apartment blocks — or face banishment from the housing market. The pledge will commit firms to spend an estimated £2 billion ($2.5 billion) to fix tall buildings they developed or refurbished over the past 30 years, according to ...

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• 31 January

  Sunak says UK can’t raise taxes to end dispute with nurses

  

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he cannot raise UK taxes to fund pay rises for workers in the state-run National Health Service. “Where we are with taxes at the moment, we can’t put them up,” Sunak told an audience of health-care workers in northeastern England, adding that government spending on the NHS is at a historical high. “The pie ...

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• 31 January

  North Korea could get a lifeline from arms sales to Russia

  

  Bloomberg Russia’s hunt for weapons to fire at Ukraine could provide a lifeline for North Korea, where even a relatively modest arms deal would help lift the country’s cash-starved and stagnant economy into growth. The US made fresh accusations this month that Kim Jong Un is providing arms and ammunition to aid Putin’s war, including sending shells and rockets. While ...

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• 31 January

  At least 28 killed, scores injured in Pakistan blast

    Bloomberg At least 28 people were killed and more than 100 others wounded in a bomb blast at a mosque in a security compound in northwestern Pakistan, officials said. It was the worst such attack in almost 11 months. The explosion in Peshawar took place Monday during afternoon prayers, inside an area where the town’s police headquarters and other ...

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• 31 January

  Turkey only backs Finland’s bid for Nato membership

    Bloomberg President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey may ratify only Finland’s bid to join Nato, in a move that could delay Sweden from gaining membership. “Sweden will be shocked when we give a different response to Finland’s bid,” Erdogan said Sunday on state-run TRT. Turkey has balked at ratifying Sweden’s bid over its hesitance to wage a crackdown ...

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