Aurelia Butler

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (Reuters) – President Joe Biden cautioned that U.S. inflation could last “for a while” after data on Friday showed that politically sensitive price pressures unexpectedly accelerated in recent weeks.”We’re gonna live with this inflation for a while,” Biden said at a Democratic fundraising event in Beverly Hills. “It’s gonna come down gradually, but we’re going to live with it for a while.”The wary comments at an event hosted by billionaire media magnate Haim Saban came as the administration faces increasing pressure ahead of Nov. 8 midterm elections, where Biden’s fellow Democrats’ control of Congress is on the line. The administration and many professional economists initially thought that inflation pressures would be “transitory,” easing as the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic continued.But price pressures have only expanded to additional goods and services globally as the Russian invasion of Ukraine took oil and food supplies off an already stretched global market.U.S. consumer inflation hitting a 40-year high 8.6% in the 12 months through May, with gasoline marking a record high and the cost of food soaring, Labor Department data showed.The surging costs have become a political headache for the Biden administration, which has tried several measures to lower prices but said much of the responsibility to control inflation falls to the Federal Reserve.Biden on Friday visited the Port of Los Angeles, where he has sought to clear a backlog of goods and accused the U.S. oil industry of capitalizing on a supply shortage to fatten profits. More

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday accused the U.S. oil industry, and Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM) in particular, of capitalizing on a supply shortage to fatten profits after a report showed inflation surging to a new 40-year record. U.S. consumer inflation accelerated in May https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/soaring-gasoline-food-prices-boost-us-consumer-inflation-may-2022-06-10 as gasoline prices hit a record high and the cost of food soared, leading to the largest annual increase in four decades. A gallon of regular gasoline cost an average $4.99 nationwide on Friday, according to motorist group AAA.Biden, who came into office vowing to reduce U.S. dependence on fossil fuels, said on Friday he was hoping to speed up oil production, which is expected to hit record highs in the United States next year.But he also issued a warning to the industry, whose profits have jumped with oil and gas prices, pointing to the gains as evidence consumers are paying for more than higher labor and shipping costs.”Exxon made more money than God this year,” Biden told reporters following a speech to dockworker union representatives at the Port of Los Angeles. U.S. oil companies are not using higher profits to drill more but to buy back stock, he added.Share buybacks improve earnings per share by reducing the number of shares outstanding, indirectly helping to boost share prices. Companies see buybacks as a way to reward investors. “Why aren’t they drilling? Because they make more money not producing more oil,” Biden said. “Exxon, start investing and start paying your taxes.”Exxon pushed back at the comments, noting it has continued to increase its U.S. oil, gasoline and diesel production, and had borrowed heavily to increase output while suffering losses in 2020.”We have been in regular contact with the administration, informing them of our planned investments to increase production and expand refining capacity in the United States,” said spokesman Casey Norton.Exxon will hike spending 50% in its West Texas shale holdings, he said, where it expects to add 25% more output this year after adding 190,000 barrels to oil production last year. An ongoing Texas refinery expansion will add the equivalent of a “new medium sized refinery,” said Norton.Exxon, the largest U.S. oil producer, lost some $20 billion in 2020, and had borrowed more than $30 billion to finance operations. It paid $40.6 billion in taxes last year, $17.8 billion more than in 2020, he said. The president spoke during a visit to the Port of Los Angeles, where he defended his economic and job creation record and deflected blame for inflation, which spiked 8.6% in the year to May according to a new Labor Department report.In a Democratic campaign fundraising event in Beverly Hills that evening, Biden sounded a cautious tone about the prospects for inflation going forward: “We’re gonna live with this inflation for a while,” he said. “It’s gonna come down gradually, but we’re going to live with it for a while.”Biden earlier had chided U.S. oil, gas and refining industries for using “the challenge created by the war in Ukraine as a reason to make things worse for families with excessive profit-taking or price hikes.”Exxon posted its biggest quarterly profit in seven years when it reported fourth-quarter earnings in February. After halting share buybacks several years ago, it resumed them this year and pledged to spend up to $30 billion through next year. Numerous companies have said they are holding down spending that could boost oil output to lower $100-plus per barrel oil prices, because that is what investors are demanding.The surging costs have become a political headache for the Biden administration, which has tried several measures to lower prices. These include a record release of barrels from U.S. strategic reserves, waivers on rules related to the production of summer gasoline, and leaning on major OPEC countries to boost output.Biden in his Friday remarks urged Congress to pass legislation to cut energy, prescription drugs and shipping costs.Shipping companies made $190 billion in profit, a seven-fold increase in one year, Biden said at the port. The situation made him so “viscerally angry” that he wanted to “pop them,” he said. More

“There are no reserves in the 2022 federal budget,” Christian Lindner was quoted by news website t-online as saying on Saturday.He warned against granting further financial support before the autumn to citizens to offset the impact of rising inflation. “I advise letting the measures taken so far take effect,” he said.In March, the government announced relief worth 16 billion euro ($16.8 billion) to help consumers cope with soaring energy costs and reduce dependence on Russian gas.Germany normally operates its budget with a deficit limit of 0.35% of gross domestic product. It aims to reintroduce that rule, known as the debt brake and suspended since the start of 2020, in 2023.($1 = 0.9509 euros) More

(Reuters) – Lockheed Martin Corp (NYSE:LMT) expects to produce its new-build F-16 fighter jets next year and commence deliveries in 2024, its chief financial officer Jesus Malave said on Wednesday.The company has a list of key U.S. allies including Bahrain, Taiwan, Slovakia and Jordan eager to purchase the jet.Malave flagged that hiring new workforce and training employees to build the aircraft was a “little bit of a challenge” for the company than expected.”So the ramp is taking a little bit longer. As a result, we will probably see some cost burden on our initial contract there,” Malave said while speaking at the UBS Global Industrials and Transportation Conference.The F-16 is considered a highly maneuverable aircraft proven in air-to-air combat and air-to-surface attack. In April, the U.S. State Department approved the potential sale of up to eight F-16 aircraft and related equipment to Bulgaria, in a deal valued at $1.673 billion, and said Lockheed will be the principal contractor.”There’s a lot of interest in the aircraft. I think an aspiration probably the next few years would be probably [production of] 3 per month,” Malave added. More

By Manoj Kumar(Reuters) – Pakistan Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on Friday unveiled the budget for the 2022/23 fiscal year starting July, aiming for economic growth of 5% amid pressure to control the fiscal deficit and secure International Monetary Fund bailout money.These are the highlights from the 2022/23 budget:GDP/DEFICIT* Targets 5% economic growth for 2022/23 fiscal year, starting July, after an estimated annual growth of 5.97% for the current fiscal year* Fiscal deficit target set at 4.9% of GDP for 2022/23 vs revised target of 7.1% in 2021/22* Tax to GDP ratio set at 9.2% for 2022/23 vs 9% in 2021/22RISKS TO ECONOMY * Conflict between Russia and Ukraine poses a risk to Pakistan’s economy * Higher crude oil, food prices could stoke high inflation * Monetary tightening and fiscal consolidation may slow down economic growth EXPENDITURE* Federal expenditure estimated at 9.5 trillion rupees for 2022/23* Development expenditure set at 800 billion rupees for 2022/23* Pakistan to spend 699 billion rupees on targeted subsidies in 2022/23* Defence expenditure set at 1.52 trillion rupees for 2022/23 vs 1.48 trillion rupees in 2021/22* Budget allocates 90.55 bln rupees for education in 2022/23 vs 90.86 bln in 2021/22* Pakistan cuts health budget to 19.03 bln rupees for 2022/23 vs 154.49 bln rupees in 2021/22 REVENUE* Revenue target set at 7 trillion rupees for 2022/23* Aims to raise 96.41 billion rupees from privatisation in 2022/23 * To impose 2% additional tax on income taxpayers with 30 million rupees annual income* Expects 300 bln rupees receipts from central bank in 2022/23 vs 474 bln rupees in 2021/22INFLATION* Budget forecasts average inflation of 11.5% in 2022/23 vs 11.7% in 2021/22 * Consumer-price-index based inflation rose in May to 13.8% year-on-year, the highest in two-and-half years. * Pakistan raised petrol and diesel prices by around 20% earlier this monthINTERNATIONAL TRADE* Pakistan’s export target set at $35 billion for 2022/23* Import target set at $70 billion for 2022/23* Trade deficit target set at 2.2% of GDP in 2022/23 * Budget forecasts remittances of $33.2 billion in 2022/23AUSTERITY MEASURES* Ban on buying new cars for govt officials* Aims cuts in fuel consumption by govt officials* Funds for debt servicing estimated at 3.9 trillion rupees in 2022/23OTHER INITIATIVES* To raise tax exemption limit for salaried income taxpayers * Announces to promote special economic zones to boost manufacturing* Offers 5-year tax holiday for film production industry * To set up 250 mini-stadiums to promote sports * To exempt import of solar panels from tax* Exempts 30 pharmaceutical products from customs duty* Proposes 15% hike in govt employees’ salaries($1 = 202.00 Pakistani rupees)(This story corrects federal expenditure figure to 9.5 trillion rupees from 9.5 billion rupees) More