Aurelia Butler

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s economy likely grew at the slowest pace in 1-1/2 years in the fourth quarter, dragged by weaker demand due to a property downturn, curbs on debt and strict COVID-19 measures, raising heat on policymakers to roll out more easing steps.Data on Monday is expected to show gross domestic product (GDP) grew 3.6% in October-December from a year earlier – the weakest pace since the second quarter of 2020 and slowing from 4.9% in the third quarter, a Reuters poll showed.On a quarterly basis, growth is forecast to rise to 1.1% in the fourth quarter from 0.2% in July-September.For 2021, GDP likely expanded 8.0%, which would be the highest annual growth in a decade, partly due to the low base set in 2020, when the economy was jolted by COVID-19 and stringent lockdowns.The government is due to release the GDP data, along with December activity data, on Monday at 0200 GMT.The world’s second-largest economy, which cooled over the course of last year, faces multiple headwinds in 2022, including persistent property weakness and a fresh challenge from the recent local spread of the highly-contagious Omicron variant.Exports, which were one of the few areas of strength in 2021, are also expected to slow, while the government is seen continuing its clampdown on industrial emissions.Policymakers have vowed to head off a sharper slowdown, ahead of a key Communist Party Congress late this year.The central bank is set to unveil more easing steps, though it will likely favour injecting more cash into the economy rather than cutting interest rates too aggressively, policy insiders and economists said.Analysts polled by Reuters expect the central bank to deliver more modest easing steps, including cutting banks’ reserve requirement ratios the one-year loan prime rate (LPR) – the benchmark lending rate.Analysts at ANZ said in a note that they saw a possibility that the central bank will cut the rate on its medium-term lending facility (MLF) on Monday.Policymakers have also pledged to step up fiscal support for the economy, speeding up local government special bond issuance to spur infrastructure investment and planning more tax cuts.”We might see a larger effect of the monetary and fiscal easing only in the second half of 2022 due to the transmission lags of these policies,” analysts at Natixis said in a note.”The recent monetary easing and the stabilization of PMI (factory activity) have indicated such a direction, but more efforts are needed to boost fixed asset investment.”Growth is likely to slow to 5.2% in 2022, according to the poll. More

BARINAS, Venezuela (Reuters) – Cattle ranchers in Barinas state, one of Venezuela’s main agricultural regions, milk their herds in the small hours each morning before selling the milk in dollars to make ends meet, as a lack of credit worsens a long-running economic crisis.Venezuela’s agriculture industry has been hit by years of regulations and expropriation of land, leading ranchers who depend on selling meat to scale back cattle breeding and shift to dairy.Ranching across Venezuela’s sprawling plains boasted 2.5 million head of cattle as little as four years ago, but has dwindled to 1.7 million as rearing costs soared, producers said. Fewer cattle are being slaughtered because high inflation has hit demand for beef, they added.Though President Nicolas Maduro’s government loosened business regulations in 2019, the measure has not permitted the complete reactivation of key areas for the South American country’s battered economy.However, some ranchers can now sell milk for dollars, helping to offset the devaluation of Venezuela’s bolivar.”Milk is what provides us the opportunity to have petty cash on the farm … that keeps us operating,” said Jose Labrador, president of the Barinas rural producers association, adding that he and his fellow ranchers faced a grave crisis.A liter of milk can go for 30 to 60 cents, Labrador said.Use of the dollar has helped producers survive, they said, while making smuggling cattle to neighboring Colombia less attractive, Fedenaga said.Beef production is much slower and takes longer to generate income in a country where annual consumption has dropped to eight kilograms per person from 26 kilos in the 1990s, according to the national federation of ranchers in Venezuela (Fedenaga).A handful of ranchers have been able to sell beef abroad, with the government pushing exports to Asia and the Middle East.Milk production in Barinas is around 2 million liters per day, according to producers’ estimates. Milk production figures from before Venezuela’s crisis were unavailable.Restrictions on new loans have limited producers’ capacity to invest in their farms, causing some to abandon their lands, while others turn to options like producing corn or rearing sheep or pigs alongside cattle, Labrador said.Ranchers also contend with government measures to limit loan availability and spending in bolivars to control hyperinflation, which have reduced the circulation of local currency.According to the central bank, inflation in Venezuela hit 686.4% in 2021.A farm on the outskirts of Barinas state’s capital of the same name produced some 14,000 liters of milk per day before Venezuela’s economic crisis, but now sees output of 9,000 liters due to high production costs.Only one of the farm’s milking systems is operational after a lack of financing paralyzed the other, which was poised to add 8,000 liters to daily production, Labrador said.Attacks by criminal gangs who burn farms, destroy equipment and kill livestock, as well as damaging nearby forests, has also disrupted output, producers added.The gangs aim to drive ranchers from their lands, before selling them to third parties, producers told Reuters. Videos provided by ranchers and on social media show cattle being abused, or confined without food until they die. More

The government had built its budget planning on expectations for the economy to grow 6.25% last year, but the most recent indications are that the figure was probably around 6.7%.”The strength of our growth translates into more tax revenue than expected and we spent less because companies drew less on emergency support,” Public Accounts Minister Oliver Dussopt told weekend newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.”All of the extra revenue is going entirely towards reducing the deficit even without sacrificing any measures to stimulate the economy or support purchasing power,” he added.The government is ploughing 100 billion euros ($114 billion) into the economy, mostly in public investments, as part of a pandemic recovery plan and also had to roll out some emergency handouts for low-income households last year struggling with a surge in inflation.Despite the stimulus spending and income support, the 2021 public deficit was now expected to come in at around 7% of economic output, he said. The government had previously put the deficit at 8.2%.Against that backdrop, the Finance Ministry was comfortable with its forecast for the deficit to fall further this year to 5% and be back below the European Union’s deficit ceiling of 3% in 2027, Dussopt said.The stronger than expected recovery means that the central state’s deficit was expected to be better than expected to the tune of 34.5 billion euros at 171 billion euros, he said.($1 = 0.8761 euro) More

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The COVAX global vaccine-sharing programme has delivered 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses, one of the organisations which manages it said on Saturday.Supplies to poorer nations have long been very limited because of lack of vaccines, as wealthier states secured most of the doses initially available from December 2020.But in the last quarter shipments have exponentially increased, allowing COVAX to reach the milestone of 1 billion doses shipped to 144 countries, said Gavi, which co-leads the programme alongside the World Health Organization (WHO).COVAX was launched in 2020 with the goal of delivering 2 billion doses by the end of 2021, but was slowed by wealthier states’ initial hoarding of limited shots, export restrictions and frequent changes https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/global-vaccines-project-revamp-rules-after-britain-got-more-than-botswana-2021-09-27 within its organisation.The program began delivering vaccine doses in February 2021. About one-third have been donated by rich nations, despite COVAX’s initial plans to supply only jabs procured directly by the programme with a budget of over $10 billion in donors’ funds.The change of strategy has led to delays, as donors have often requested to send doses to countries selected by them.Despite the recent surge in deliveries, vaccine inequity remains high. The latest WHO data shows 67% of the population in richer nations have been fully vaccinated, compared with only 5% in poorer nations. Over 40% of the world’s population has not yet received a first dose. Gavi, a vaccine alliance which co-manages COVAX, is seeking more funds to reach the WHO’s goal of vaccinating 70% of the population in poorer nations by July. More

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s Reliance Industries, Softbank (OTC:SFTBY) Group-backed Ola Electric and automaker Mahindra & Mahindra have submitted bids under the country’s $2.4 billion battery scheme, the government said on Saturday. India last year finalised https:// an incentive program to encourage companies to invest in the local manufacturing of batteries as it looks to establish a domestic supply chain for clean transport and build storage for renewable energy.Hyundai Global Motors, engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro, and battery makers Amara Raja and Exide have also submitted bids, the Ministry of Heavy Industries said.”The program envisages an investment which will boost domestic manufacturing … and foreign direct investment in the country,” the ministry said. India wants to establish a total of 50 gigawatt hours (Gwh) of battery storage capacity over five years, which it expects will attract direct investment of about $6 billion.To qualify for the incentives, companies must set up at least 5 Gwh of storage capacity and meet certain local content conditions, all of which would require a minimum investment of more than $850 million.Ten companies have submitted bids totalling about 130 Gwh, the ministry said.India was also encouraging global companies https://reut.rs/3ntv4K3 such as Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc, Samsung (KS:005930), LG Energy, Northvolt and Panasonic (OTC:PCRFY) to invest. Clean auto technology is a key part of India’s strategy for cutting pollution in major cities and reducing oil dependence. But electric vehicles (EVs) currently make up a fraction of total sales in the country mainly due to their high price as batteries are imported. The South Asian country wants electric cars to make up 30% of private car sales by 2030 and for electric motorcycles and scooters to make up 40% of such sales, driving demand for batteries which currently contribute about 35% to 40% of the total vehicle cost. More

Speaking to heads of non-governmental organisations in Istanbul, Nebati also said the conversion of forex holdings to Turkish lira will accelerate in coming weeks.He added that as of Friday night more than 131 billion lira ($9.69 billion) had been deposited in accounts under a government scheme that protects lira deposits from forex depreciation.($1 = 13.5214 lira) More