January, 2019

• 5 January

  ‘12 nations’ call for new polls in Venezuela

  

  Bloomberg A group of 12 Latin American nations plus Canada urged Venezuela’s leader to hand power to the opposition-controlled National Assembly and call new elections, stepping up pressure on Nicolas Maduro days before he’s due to start a new term. The so-called Lima Group of nations views the presidential election in Venezuela last year as illegitimate and won’t recognise Maduro ...

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• 5 January

  Tropical storm hits tourism in Thailand

  Bloomberg Thailand’s most powerful tropical storm in decades has weakened after strong wind and flash floods disrupted oil production and flights, leaving thousands of tourists stranded near the nation’s southern beaches. Wind from tropical storm Pabuk slowed to 55 kilometres per hour (34 mph) from 65 kph on Saturday before crossing the peninsula to the Andaman Sea at 9 am ...

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• 5 January

  Amazon, Walmart team up to fight new Indian e-comm rules

  

  Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc find themselves on the same side for once. The bitter rivals have come together in India to lobby the government on regulations that threaten to dampen their expansion ambitions. Among other things, the giant retailers are asking for an extension on a February 1 deadline for implementing those rules, according to people with knowledge ...

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• 5 January

  ‘Heathrow plans to add 25,000 flights’

  

  Bloomberg London’s Heathrow Airport plans to increase the number of flights by 5 percent before opening a third runway as part of a 16-billion-pound ($20 billion) expansion plan, the Times reported, citing a spokeswoman. The airport expects to add 68 more take-offs and landings a day in the next few years, which would exceed an existing flight limit set two ...

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• 5 January

  FedEx drops Cuba-US air-freight service plan

  

  Bloomberg FedEx Corp dropped a plan to begin cargo flights to Cuba, as an opening between the US and the communist country has foundered. The courier “will not be filing for an extension of the startup date for US–Cuba cargo air service between Miami and Varadero,” FedEx said. The company is abandoning its right to fly five weekly frequencies and ...

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• 5 January

  Ryanair passenger growth slowest since 2015 after its strike turmoil

  

  Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc posted another year of slower passenger growth as the discount carrier’s battle with unions, bad weather and industrywide air-traffic-control strikes took a toll. Passenger numbers for the 12 months through December rose 8 percent to 139.2 million tickets sold, Ryanair said. Even with the addition of Austria’s Laudamotion, the increase was smaller than 2017’s 10 percent ...

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• 5 January

  Next offers Christmas retail cheer as investors seek relief

  

  Bloomberg Next Plc shares rose after surprisingly robust Christmas retail figures cheered investors who were fearing the worst after months of gloom in the sector. Strong sales in the weeks before the holiday helped make up for disappointing results in November, the UK clothing retailer said, a result that was better than some analysts anticipated. At the same time, the ...

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• 5 January

  Europe gas market set for slump as buyers watch for Russia flows

  

  Bloomberg European natural gas prices look set to fall for the first time in four years in 2019 as buyers keep a close eye on flows from Russia that reached a record last year. With a healthy amount of fuel in storage after a mild start to this winter, the outlook is bearish. That’s being exacerbated by an expected increase ...

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• 5 January

  Venezuelan oil exports slump to 28-year low

  

  Bloomberg Venezuela, once Latin America’s largest oil exporter, ended 2018 with a whimper as overseas sales dropped to the lowest in nearly three decades. Home to the world’s biggest crude reserves, the country exported 1.245 million barrels a day last year, the lowest since 1990, as production tumbles amid an economic and humanitarian crisis. Financial sanctions imposed by the US ...

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• 5 January

  Zimbabwe gets more time to pay for fuel

  

  Bloomberg Zimbabwe has reached flexible payment arrangements with some gasoline importers that will ensure it stabilises supplies amid a forei- gn-currency shortage that threatens economic growth. The government has struck a deal with a unit of Trafigura Beheer BV and Independent Petroleum Group (IPG) of Kuwait Ltd to extend payment periods for gasoline supplies to as many as six months ...

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