Economy

The price of nickel, an essential ingredient in most batteries, has soared because of fear that Russian supplies could be cut off.Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shaken the global market for nickel just as the metal gains importance as an ingredient in electric car batteries, raising fears that high prices could slow the transition away from fossil fuels.The price of nickel doubled in one day last week, prompting the London Metal Exchange to freeze trading and effectively bring the global nickel market to a standstill. After two years of supply chain chaos caused by the pandemic, the episode provided more evidence of how geopolitical tensions are destroying trading relationships that companies once took for granted, forcing them to rethink where they get the parts and metals they use to make cars and many other products.Automakers and other companies that need nickel, as well as other battery raw materials like lithium or cobalt, have begun looking for ways to shield themselves against future shocks.Volkswagen, for example, has begun to explore buying nickel directly from mining companies, Markus Duesmann, chief executive of the carmaker’s Audi division, said in an interview on Thursday. “Raw materials are going to be an issue for years to come,” he said.The prospect of prolonged geopolitical tensions is likely to accelerate attempts by the United States and Europe to develop domestic supplies of commodities that often come from Russia. There are nickel deposits, for example, in Canada, Greenland and even Minnesota.“Nickel, cobalt, platinum, palladium, even copper — we already realized we need those metals for the green transition, for mitigating climate change,” said Bo Stensgaard, chief executive of Bluejay Mining, which is working on extracting nickel from a site in western Greenland in a venture with KoBold Metals, whose backers include Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. “When you see the geopolitical developments with Ukraine and Russia, it’s even more obvious that there are supply risks with these metals.”But establishing new mining operations is likely to take years, even decades, because of the time needed to acquire permits and financing. In the meantime, companies using nickel — a group that also includes steel makers — will need to contend with higher prices, which will eventually be felt by consumers.An average electric-car battery contains about 80 pounds of nickel. The surge in prices in March would more than double the cost of that nickel to $1,750 a car, according to estimates by the trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald.Russia accounts for a relatively small proportion of world nickel production, and most of it is used to make stainless steel, not car batteries. But Russia plays an outsize role in nickel markets. Norilsk Nickel, also known as Nornickel, is the world’s largest nickel producer, with vast operations in Siberia. Its owner, Vladimir Potanin, is one of Russia’s wealthiest people. Norilsk is among a limited number of companies authorized to sell a specialized form of nickel on the London Metal Exchange, which handles all nickel trading.Unlike other oligarchs, Mr. Potanin has not been a target of sanctions, and the United States and Europe have not tried to block nickel exports, a step that would hurt their economies as well as Russia’s. The prospect that Russian nickel could be cut off from world markets was enough to cause panic.Analysts expect prices to come down from their recent peaks but remain much higher than they were a year ago. “The trend would be to come down to a level close to where we last left off,” around $25,000 a metric ton compared to the peak of $100,000 a ton, said Adrian Gardner, a principal analyst specializing in nickel at Wood Mackenzie, a research firm.A plant owned by Nornickel, the world’s leading producer of nickel and palladium, in Norilsk, Russia.Tatyana Makeyeva/ReutersNickel was on a tear even before the Russian invasion as hedge funds and other investors bet on rising demand for electric vehicles. The price topped $20,000 a ton this year after hovering between $10,000 and $15,000 a ton for much of the past five years. At the same time, less nickel was being produced because of the pandemic.After Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the price rose above $30,000 in a little over a week. Then came March 8. Word spread on the trading desks of brokerage firms and hedge funds in London that a company, which turned out to be the Tsingshan Holding Group of China, had made a huge bet that the price of nickel would drop. When the price rose, Tsingshan owed billions of dollars, a situation known on Wall Street as a short squeeze.The price shot up to a little over $100,000 a ton, threatening the existence of many other companies that had bet wrong and prompting the London Metal Exchange to halt trading.The Russia-Ukraine War and the Global EconomyCard 1 of 6Rising concerns. More

Thinking of retiring? Aren’t we all — a survey out this week suggested that more than 20 per cent of those of us in work are thinking about it. And of course an awful lot of us have already given in to the giving up urge. Numbers out from the Office for National Statistics suggest that close to half a million 50 to 70-year-olds have left the workforce since March 2020 and not returned. Not all of that will have been voluntary, of course, but the most common reason given for it by the leavers is retirement. Three-quarters of those over 60 also said that the shift was being financed by a private pension. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? But I wonder how many of the 500,000 are beginning to consider logging back on to LinkedIn and putting out a few feelers for some work. A toxic mixture of the stock market falling and inflation rising will be making them feel very nervous. A lot of the 60-plus group will have a defined benefit (DB) pension. These are wonderful — you automatically get a percentage of your old salary, inflation-linked, forever. But they aren’t perfect. Public sector pensions will rise by 3.1 per cent from April 2022, in line with the rise in the consumer prices index from September 2020 to September 2021. That would be fine if inflation was going to rise at 3.1 per cent in this year too. It isn’t — even the Bank of England now expects CPI to top out at close to three times that.

Private sector DB pensions often come with a nasty inflation sting in the tail too, in the form of an inflation cap. I have on my desk the details of one scheme (not mine, alas) which stipulates that it will rise at the “lesser of the increase of the retail price index or 2.5 per cent”. Given that RPI (which is always higher than CPI) is going to cruise past double figures this year, holders of this type of pension are going to take a genuinely unpleasant real income hit.That said, the misery of those with DB pensions will be nothing, and I mean nothing, next to that of those with defined contribution (DC) pensions — the stock market-reliant ones the rest of us have. Look at your pension account today (if you dare) and you will almost certainly be 10 per cent down from your peak, or possibly more given that the top holdings in most big global funds — the ones your pension provider will be holding for you — will be heavily weighted to giant US technology companies. The top 10 holdings in Nest, one of the UK’s big pension fund managers, were down an average of 16.9 per cent from the beginning of the year to March 10, for example. Matters may not improve much. NDR, a research group, points out that so-called “misery indices”, which track the sum of CPI inflation growth and unemployment in different countries, are rising, with 87 per cent above their five-year highs. The misery index is a shorthand for just how hard life is for populations — the higher they go the worse life probably feels, and in most cases is. In the UK we are now at 8.72 per cent against a five-year average of 6.28 per cent and a record high of 16.5 per cent in 1990. Historically, rising misery indices — and the stagflation they suggest is coming — have been awful for global equities. Look at the forecasts for returns over the next few years from US fund manager GMO and I’m afraid you will not be much cheered. GMO sees US stocks falling just over 4 per cent annually over the next seven years in real terms and global stocks overall barely budging. If you retired in 2021 because you felt rich after two stunning years of stock market returns this might make you feel a little shell shocked. It also highlights the problem with the UK pension system. It is fantastic in some ways. Auto-enrolment means most people in work for 30 years should end up with a pretty good pot. But it also leaves us at the mercy of markets: a year ago our pension accounts might have been telling us to kick back and take it easy. Now they are telling us the opposite.On to the consolations. First, everyone’s wealth is falling, so in terms of your global wealth ranking nothing much has changed. This is only good news for those of you who think in relative not absolute terms, but it is all I have. Second, your medium-term financial position has not changed as much as you might think: the S&P 500 is still up 10 per cent over the past year and the FTSE 100 is still up 8 per cent. If you were basing your retirement on the prices of a small group of tech stocks in late 2021 you’re in trouble (Netflix is down 42 per cent since). If you weren’t, you probably aren’t. Third, while it may seem as if there is little within the market carnage you can control, there are a few things that you can. You can control the fees you pay: half a percentage point here or there might not seem like much when you are losing 10 per cent in a matter of months, but it adds up over time to make a real difference.

You can also control the extent to which you are diversified. Merrill Lynch has recently produced a report suggested that we redefine the Faangs. Until now the letters have stood for the fastest growing large tech stocks in the US (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google and so on) and all too many fund managers appear to have been under the impression that diversification means holding more than one of them. They should, says Merrill Lynch, now stand for the sectors that have been long neglected but are bounding back into favour — fuels, aerospace, agriculture, nuclear and renewables and gold/metals and minerals. How clever is that? The best of our young don’t go into the City for nothing. All these sectors have done well this year so far, for obvious reasons. But there is every reason to think they will continue to do so in the medium term. If you feel the need to do something you should check that your portfolio includes them. Finally, you can control your non-investment income — to a degree at least. In times of high inflation and volatile markets you need the insurance of having as many sources of income as possible. If you haven’t retired yet, maybe don’t.Merryn Somerset Webb is editor-in-chief of MoneyWeek. The views expressed are personal; [email protected]; Twitter: @MerrynSW More

In northern Italy, the supermarkets have been cleared of pasta. Pharmacies in Norway are sold out of iodine tablets. And in Germany, trade groups are warning against Hamsterkäufe — “hamster shopping”, or panic buying.Two years on from the early pandemic shortages that sent consumers rushing to stock up on toilet paper, Russia’s war in Ukraine has sparked a fresh wave of hoarding in parts of Europe. “I bought 20 packs of pasta and several kilos of flour last week in preparation for shortages,” said Sabrina Di Leto, 50, from Lecco, north of Milan. “We’re also looking at converting our backyard into a vegetable garden and a henhouse in order to be self-sufficient in case we go to war and food supplies become scarce,” she added.Shoppers schooled in supply chain economics after witnessing the effects of coronavirus on global trade are now stocking up based on cold war anxieties or anticipated shortages from the now embattled bread basket of Europe.Ukraine and Russia are critical global suppliers of wheat, as well as sunflower, rapeseed, flaxseed and soy used for cooking oils and in animal feed. Half of global sunflower oil exports come from Ukraine and a further 21 per cent from Russia.Nearly 90 per cent of flaxseed processed in the EU is imported, according to the Association of the Oilseed Processing Industry in Germany. It said that the war in Ukraine was likely to cause shortages in cooking oils and animal feed that would be “very difficult to substitute” in the short term. Prices of bread, pasta, and meat are already rising in Italy, which imports much of its wheat from eastern Europe and 80 per cent of its sunflower oil from Ukraine, as well as large amounts of corn used to feed animals.A loaf currently costs up to €8 per kilo in Milan. It would have cost an average of €4.25 in November, according to Coldiretti, the national agriculture trade organisation.Prices of bread, pasta and meat are already rising in Italy, which imports much of its wheat from eastern Europe © Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg“Its ridiculous that bread, which has always been poor people’s food, has become a luxury item,” complained Di Leto, saying that she had stockpiled flour to bake her own and save money.German grocers have been forced to ration sales of cooking oil in an effort to prevent another round of Hamsterkäufe. The national slang for hoarding became popular during the pandemic, and comes from the rodent’s habit of stuffing its cheeks with food.Otherwise well-stocked markets have bare shelves where flour and cooking oils are normally stored. “Please show solidarity and think of your neighbours — refrain from stocking up unnecessarily!” read a sign outside a Penny supermarket in Frankfurt.Lieselotte, an 85-year-old shopper, said she had been allowed to buy just a single bottle of sunflower oil. As part of Germany’s dwindling band of second world war Kriegskinder, or “war children”, she believed that she was better prepared to accept shortages than the younger generation. “We know this from our childhood. But today’s youth are used to having everything,” she said.Panic buying looks different in the Nordics, where fighting close to Ukraine’s Chernobyl plant and President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear posturing have revived cold war anxieties.In Norway, there has been a run on iodine pills used to combat the effect of radiation. More than 1.7mn tablets have been sold in recent weeks, according to local media, and pharmacies will have no more available until next month.Not all of Europe has been gripped by panic buying. Retailer Carrefour, which has a large presence in France, Spain and Italy, said it had not experienced the shortages that accompanied the start of the pandemic.“There’s been some people stocking up in France, and a bit more in Spain where we’ve sold out of sunflower oil in some places, but overall this behaviour remains marginal and the market is functioning pretty much as normal,” it said. Serious supply shortages will hit poorer countries that are dependent on wheat from Ukraine and Russia harder than Europe. Jan Egeland, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned that Somalia imported 90 per cent of wheat from Ukraine and Russia.“With wheat prices soaring and drought worsening, the number of people that cannot be fed will explode,” he wrote on Twitter.Middle East grain importers are bracing for havoc on budgets in places such as Egypt, which subsidises bread for 70mn people. Flour shelves have been emptied in Lebanon and Tunisia, with locals accusing shopkeepers of hoarding basic goods to sell later at high prices. Supermarkets in Turkey, where households are already struggling with soaring inflation, sold out of sunflower oil after news headlines warned that the country could face shortages.In Spain, a government minister suggested that, rather than panic buying sunflower oil, the nation should grease its pans with olive oil — a product his country has exported for more than two millennia.“The sunflower oil issue is not really a problem because we have other vegetable fats and we have olive oil,” said Luis Planas, Spain’s agriculture minister. He noted that shares in some big olive oil producers had shot up more than 20 per cent in recent weeks.Another winner — which some critics suspect is benefiting unfairly — may be petrol providers. Germany this week warned that it would watch suppliers for price gouging after crude prices dropped but petrol costs stayed high, at €2.26 per litre, compared with €1.81 before the invasion.For German shoppers such as Monika, 75, perusing the aisles of the Penny supermarket, the costs are an important reminder that in a global economy, no one can escape the cost of war. “We all have to pay the price for what is happening in Ukraine,” she said.Additional reporting by Laura Pitel in Ankara, Daniel Dombey in Madrid, Leila Abboud in Paris and Heba Saleh in Cairo More

Russian oil exports to India have quadrupled this month in a sign of the vast reshaping of global energy flows since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. India, the world’s third-largest energy consuming country, has snapped up multiple cargoes of Russian oil from traders as buyers in Europe shunned the country’s vast commodities market following western sanctions on Moscow. Russia has exported 360,000 barrels a day of oil to India in March so far, nearly four times the 2021 average. The country is on track to hit 203,000 b/d for the whole month based on current shipment schedules, according to Kpler, a commodities data and analytics firm. Export data represent cargoes that have been loaded on to tankers and are en route to India.Alex Booth, head of research at Kpler, said India typically buys CPC, a blend of predominantly Kazakh and Russian crude, but the big increase in March was for Russia’s flagship Urals crude, suggesting Indian buyers weighed up significant discounts against public opinion.“Already committed oil cargoes from Russia that can’t find buyers in Europe are being bought by India,” he said. “Exports to India surged in March before any official announcement by New Delhi.”On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki warned that India would be on the wrong side of history if it bought Russian oil, although she acknowledged the purchases would not violate US sanctions.Historically, Russian crude oil has constituted below 5 per cent of India’s total imports, which were 4.2mn b/d last year. “Indian companies weren’t sourcing much from Russia given high shipping costs,” said Vivekanand Subbaraman, research analyst at Ambit Capital. “This appears to be changing now.”Lars Barstad, chief executive of Frontline, a New York-listed tanker company, said that the discount on Russian Urals was about $25-30 a barrel, whereas freight rates would only add $3-4 per barrel, making the trade economic. Frontline and other tanker companies have been avoiding trading Russian oil because of the complexity of complying with sanctions, but many oil majors and traders are legally bound under contracts to keep lifting Russian barrels.India and Russia have a longstanding partnership, from defence to trade, and Putin visited India last December — only his second overseas trip since the pandemic. New Delhi has so far abstained on UN votes condemning Russian aggression.With 85 per cent of India’s crude needs covered by imports, higher oil prices act as a drag on its treasury.Subbaraman said: “I think that all three state-owned refiners will purchase oil from Russia given how import dependent and politically sensitive energy is for Indians.”Speaking to Indian lawmakers this week, Indian oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri stressed that energy prices in India have not soared as much as they have in Europe and the US, rising only 5 per cent. India would act in the interest of local consumers within “the margin of persuasion”, he added.Russia’s deputy prime minister Alexander Novak and Singh Puri spoke by phone last week. “We are interested in further attracting Indian investment to the Russian oil and gas sector and expanding Russian companies’ sales networks in India,” Novak said. Indian officials have said that the central bank and government are looking at establishing a rupee-rouble trading mechanism, which would facilitate trade after western restrictions on international payments to and from Russia. The two countries have several joint energy interests. Rosneft owns 49 per cent of Nayara Energy, which runs India’s second largest refinery. India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Indian Oil Corporation and Nayara Energy did not respond to requests for comment. More

From anti-ageing creams to cosmetic “tweakments”, there are plenty of ways we can to try to wind back the years. But if it were possible to turn back the clock, would you really want to be a 20-something right now?The escalating cost of living crisis is squeezing the youngest generation of workers especially hard. As a cohort, they are saddled with high and rising student debt, weak earnings growth and impossibly high property prices. Never mind saving enough to buy a home. I fear the high cost of renting means many will be more likely to be living inside somebody’s pension than be able to afford to pay into their own.As “Awful April” looms, higher national insurance and the frozen student loans repayment threshold will take a bite out of pay packets, just as the cost of everything from energy bills to transport costs shoots up. Yet by ’Orrible October, the average annual energy bill is predicted to exceed £3,000 as the war in Ukraine intensifies inflationary pressures, including the cost of the weekly shop. The Bank of England this week warned it expected inflation to hit 8 per cent by June.This will be financially catastrophic for millions of Britons on low incomes, and chancellor Rishi Sunak is coming under huge pressure to do more to cushion the blow at the Spring Statement next week. I do not hold out much hope, but the Treasury also needs to acknowledge the struggle for younger generations and show them it is listening. While young professionals at the outset of their careers won’t be facing poverty, their financial horizons are shrinking fast. As the FT launches the third series of the Money Clinic podcast, I’ve been hearing what our 20- and 30-something listeners have to say about the real-life impact. This week’s guest, 22-year-old graduate Lil, finds that managing her money is consuming more and more of her time. “I can’t wait for the day where I don’t have to have the constant pressure of being careful,” she says. She’s not talking about a big blowout — just the luxury of an occasional treat as anything barring essentials is expunged from her day-to-day budget to cover rising bills.As Lil says on the podcast, what worries her the most is that saving for a rainy day is something she can no longer afford to do. She’s increasingly having to turn to her savings for small emergencies, but cannot replenish them at the same rate. She hasn’t considered opting out of her workplace pension yet — but come the autumn, I wonder how many might be tempted?As a young renter living in a house share, her efforts to budget through the crisis could be undone if other flatmates are not so careful. If one can’t make the monthly rent or bills, the rest will have to cover the loss or see their credit scores plunge (this could also come back on parents who have signed up as rental guarantors).Could digital nudges help manage this? NatWest has just launched a new app called Housemate (although customers of any bank can use it). Powered by Open Banking, the free service enables renters to split bills and send “who owes what” payment requests and reminders. While young renters like Lil are understandably anxious about how much more expensive life could yet become, the fear is more acute for those with even less slack in their budgets — those on the lowest incomes.Even though Sunak has the scope for a big fiscal giveaway next week, most economists think that — other than a temporary cut to fuel duty — he will keep his power dry for the autumn Budget, and instead focus on measures to help businesses in the hope this will stave off a future recession.

As the government waits to see how the energy crisis will unfold between now and the next price cap increase in October, they will hope April’s £150 council tax rebate will be enough to keep voters happy — for now. There is huge pressure for this to be increased for the worst affected households, and for October’s £200 “heat now, pay later” scheme to be converted into a non-repayable grant. I fear both are about as likely as the chances of a U-turn on national insurance or the £20 universal credit uplift.But if the chancellor does nothing to help those on the lowest incomes, by October, problem debt will become the only certainty for millions of people — from the lowest earners to young renters and many others besides. Christians Against Poverty, one of the UK’s biggest debt charities, is calling on the Treasury to consider pulling other levers to reduce levels of personal indebtedness. “The government is effectively the largest debt collector in the country, and also the most forceful because of the tools they have available to make deductions from universal credit without conducting affordability checks,” says Gareth McNab, the charity’s director of external affairs. “Many people don’t know this, but up to 25 per cent of someone’s standard universal credit allowance can be deducted to repay the initial five week advance or collect historic tax credit debts, many of which were run up as a result of faults in the system,” he says. As more people claim universal credit, CAP says it’s becoming easier to find people and automatically deduct these historic debts. “Banks and financial services companies have to work with you to ensure all of the debt is yours and find an affordable repayment plan — but the government doesn’t have to, and this is causing significant distress for the poorest households,” he says.CAP is campaigning for the same affordability assessments used for debts owed to banks and credit card lenders to be applied to debts owed to the state — something I am sure many FT readers will be staggered to learn is not already the case. This would go some way to alleviating the cost of living crisis for the poorest, but looking at the scale of the price rises to come in October, it’s not going to be enough.If it were possible to measure levels of financial anxiety, I am sure they would look as dramatic as charts showing the huge spikes in global commodities prices — something the chancellor needs to recognise at the despatch box next week. Given this precarious outlook, would you want to trade places with someone in their 20s? As a 40-something with a property and pension savings that have been hugely boosted by the asset bubble, I’m not only prepared to live with the wrinkles, but higher taxes to help soften the blow on those with the least.Claer Barrett is the FT’s consumer editor: [email protected]; Twitter @Claerb; Instagram @Claerb More

WASHINGTON — The House voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to strip Russia of its preferential trade status with the United States, moving to further penalize the country’s economy in response to the invasion of Ukraine.The lopsided 424-to-8 vote came after President Biden announced last week that the United States and its European allies would take new steps to isolate Russia from the global trading system. All of the lawmakers who opposed the measure were Republicans.The bill, which would allow the United States to impose higher tariffs on Russian goods, is the latest in a series of measures that lawmakers have approved to support Ukraine and punish Russia for its invasion. Others include a ban on Russian oil and gas products and a $13.6 billion military and humanitarian aid package.The trade measure still needs Senate approval. Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said he would work to move it through the chamber quickly.The House vote came a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine delivered a searing speech to Congress via video link in which he urged lawmakers to do more to help his country and penalize Russia. His address, as well as a wrenching video he showed of Russian-inflicted carnage in Ukraine, hung heavily over the House floor on Thursday as lawmakers debated the trade bill.Mr. Zelensky “showed us the absolute horrors that Russia is inflicting on the Ukrainian people in full view of the world,” said Representative Richard E. Neal, Democrat of Massachusetts and the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. “And he pleaded for us to do more. With the legislation that stands before us at this hour, we intend to answer his call.”Top lawmakers in the House proposed nearly a month ago to strip Russia of its trading status and begin a process to expel the country from the World Trade Organization. But last week, as the House worked to advance the legislation in tandem with a measure to ban the importation of Russian oil and gas products, Democrats stripped out the trade provision at the request of the Biden administration, which sought more time to confer with European allies about the move.“Folks, I know I’ve occasionally frustrated you,” Mr. Biden said to House Democrats at their retreat in Philadelphia last week. “But more important than us moving when we want to is making sure all of NATO is together — is together. They have different vulnerabilities than we do.”The move by the United States to strip Russia of its preferential trade status — known as “permanent normal trade relations” — carries symbolic weight, but trade experts have said it would have a limited economic effect compared with other sanctions that have already been imposed.The legislation passed by the House would also suspend normal trade relations with Belarus, in recognition of its role in aiding Russia’s attack on Ukraine.Stripping Russia of its trading status would be the latest in a growing list of economic penalties imposed on the country, whose economy is facing collapse.Russia-Ukraine War: Key Things to KnowCard 1 of 4A key vote. More

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.Companies have been forced to close factories in north-eastern Japan after a powerful earthquake struck off the coast, killing two people and reviving memories of the devastating 2011 tsunami that left 20,000 dead. Transportation links to the region were severed and thousands of homes were without electricity following the 7.4-magnitude earthquake late on Wednesday evening. Carmakers Toyota and Nissan and chipmaker Renesas suspended operations at their factories in the area, as residents swept shattered glass from the streets and authorities surveyed towns for damage. “We will take all possible measures to respond to the disaster,” prime minister Fumio Kishida said, adding that Japan could be hit again by aftershocks in the coming days.The quake hit Japan as the country debates whether to restart nuclear power plants. Kishida believes it is crucial to resume operations. Fresh concerns over nuclear safety will weaken his case and weigh down utilities stocks, writes Lex. Do you support nuclear power plants in Japan? Tell me what you think in our latest poll.

Thanks for reading FirstFT Asia. Send your feedback on this newsletter to [email protected]. Now for the rest of today’s news — EmilyThe war in Ukraine: The latest: The US secretary of state has poured cold water on hopes of a diplomatic settlement to the war in Ukraine as he attacked Moscow for its increasingly gruesome assaults on civilian targets.Debt: JPMorgan has processed interest payments sent by the Russian government for two of the country’s bonds, boosting investor expectations that Moscow will avoid defaulting on its debt for the first time since 1998. Trade: India’s central bank is in initial consultations on a rupee-rouble trade arrangement with Moscow that would enable exports to Russia to continue after western sanctions restricted international payment mechanisms.Economic impact: From price surges to panic buying, tough sanctions on Moscow have sparked fears of shortages and soaring costs. In Free Lunch, Martin Sandbu explains what we know about the economic impact of the war.Russia-China ties: Listen to our Twitter Spaces discussing how China is positioning itself in the war, featuring FT’s Demetri Sevastopulo, Kathrin Hille and Marc Filippino.Big Read: Ukraine — a divided country, deeply cynical about its government — has discovered a new sense of national identity while under fire.Follow our live blog and updated maps for the latest on the conflictFive more stories in the news1. US and European stocks rise after central banks tighten policy US and European stocks rose on Thursday in choppy trading, following sharp rallies in the previous session, as traders weighed developments in Ukraine and central banks’ moves to tighten monetary policy.2. Sri Lanka forced into IMF U-turn after protests The country has begun talks with the IMF over a debt relief package after protests over a deepening economic crisis forced Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government into a policy U-turn. It previously insisted that Sri Lanka would be able to navigate the crisis without IMF assistance.

Demonstrators in Sri Lanka have demanded the resignation of the government over its handling of the economy © AFP via Getty Images

3. Amazon closes deal to acquire film studio MGM The $8.45bn acquisition, which includes debt, is Amazon’s largest in the media space and its biggest of any kind since the $13.7bn purchase of Whole Foods in 2017. Amazon closed its deal after US and European competition regulators declined to block the move, despite growing concern over the ecommerce giant’s size.4. Spotify draws up plans to join NFT craze Spotify is drawing up plans to add blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens to its streaming service. Two recent job advertisements show Spotify is recruiting people to work on early-stage projects related to Web3.5. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe released from Iran UK-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has arrived back in Britain after being detained by Tehran almost six years ago, in a move that could boost western diplomatic efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear accord.Coronavirus digest Corporate chiefs at some of Japan’s biggest companies have called on the government to lift some of Asia’s strictest pandemic restrictions to help unleash two years of pent-up demand for cross-border mergers and acquisitions.Ping An, one of the world’s biggest insurers by market value, suffered its biggest profit fall in more than a decade last year owing to Covid-related weakness in demand and a hit from soured property developments.AstraZeneca’s head of research and development has said the UK drugmaker would consider not submitting its Covid-19 vaccine for approval in the US if it finds it is “banging its head against a brick wall indefinitely” with regulators.The days aheadBiden-Xi call US president Joe Biden will hold a phone call with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine, among other issues.Quadruple Witching Day Today is the day stock index futures, stock index options, stock options and single-stock futures expire, creating a flood of trading volume and arbitrage opportunities. (FT, Investopedia) South Australian elections Voters go to the polls on Saturday for state parliamentary elections in South Australia, where a Labor victory appears likely. (The Conversation) What else we’re reading The fastest growing companies in Asia-Pacific The fourth annual ranking of high-growth companies in Asia-Pacific is our most competitive to date. An ecommerce business from the Philippines tops the list, while Japan is home to the most growth champions.China Inc unconvinced Xi’s regulatory storm is over Vice premier Liu He’s pledge that Beijing would support the economy and financial markets had immediate effect in stemming a market rout on Wednesday. Yet analysts and insiders have warned that Liu’s comments might not mean the end of Beijing’s punishing regulatory overhaul and unpredictable policymaking.Mukesh Ambani vs Jeff Bezos: The battle for India retail The long-running saga has pitted two of the world’s richest people against each other for the future of Indian retail. It highlights the difficulties for overseas ecommerce companies seeking to expand in a country that has 1.4bn consumers, but where regulations give local players an advantage.Maths skills oil the wheels of financial literacy The biggest service we could do for future financial literacy is to embed mathematical skills for today’s pupils, writes Hilary Cooper. This article is the latest part of the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign.WellnessAt some point in the past couple of years, the practice of missing meals has grown so common as to be unremarkable. But when does it become dangerous? Jamie Waters explores the truth about fasting. More

The Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) Trust Company Americas (DBTCA) increased the rate to 3.50% from 3.25%, effective Thursday, the bank said.On Wednesday, Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) & Co, JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) each lifted their base rates to 3.5% from 3.25%.The U.S. central bank, looking to counter economic risks posed by excessive inflation, raised its benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday.Banks, which make money on the difference between what they earn from lending and pay out on deposits and other funds, typically thrive in a high interest rate environment. More