Tag: Dr Bawumia

While the European Union’s economy grew by an unexpected 4% in the second quarter compared with last year, a slowdown in Germany — its manufacturing heart — could help drag it into reverse. The country accounts for about a quarter of the EU’s gross domestic product.

And the ongoing energy standoff between Europe and Russia means that a recession is still very much on the cards.

While Germany has managed to slash Russia’s share of its gas imports to 35% from 55% before the start of the war in Ukraine, a sudden break could wipe €220 billion ($226 billion) out of its economy over the next two years, according to five of the country’s top economic institutes.

That’s a very real possibility. Russia has already turned off the taps to several European countries and energy companies in recent months. Over the weekend, Moscow cut Latvia off from its supplies for “violating conditions for gas withdrawal,” without providing further details.

Anticipating the worst, Germany has already activated the second phase of its three-stage emergency gas plan, bringing it one step closer to rationing supplies to industry — a move that would deal a big blow to its economy and, by extension, the whole of Europe’s.

 

Source: CNN

“The strong second-quarter results reflect a tight global market environment where demand has recovered to near pre-pandemic levels and supply has attrited,” Exxon CEO Darren Woods told analysts. “The situation was made worse by the events in Ukraine, which have contributed to increases in prices for crude, natural gas and refined products.”

Refining businesses boomed as capacity remained limited, a problem stemming from cash-saving efforts during the early days of the pandemic. The closure rate of refineries during 2020 was three times the rate seen during the 2008 financial crisis, according to Woods.

Exxon will be able to process an additional 250,000 barrels per day in early 2023 once it expands its refinery in Beaumont, Texas.

Oil companies are confident enough in the future to keep lavishing shareholders with rewards. Shell announced $6 billion in share buybacks over the next quarter, while Chevron said it intends to repurchase up to $15 billion in stock annually.

But this past quarter may have been the high point. Oil prices dropped more than 4% in July as global recession fears took hold, which reduced forecasts for demand.

Oil prices fell on Monday after China, the world’s top crude importer, released data showing a weakening manufacturing sector.

Demand for refineries could also pull back as drivers, worried about inflation, consume less gasoline.

Coming up: The Organization of the Oil Exporting Countries, better known as OPEC, meets later this week to decide on its strategy for September. The United States has called for Gulf states including Saudi Arabia to ramp up their crude production, which could drive prices down further. But it’s not clear the group will accede.

“OPEC doesn’t control oil prices, but it practices what is called ‘tuning the markets’ in terms of supply and demand,” Haitham al-Ghais, OPEC’s new secretary general, said in an interview published Sunday by Kuwait’s Alrai newspaper. He said oil markets are currently “very volatile and turbulent.”

First grain ship leaves Ukraine port after safe-passage deal

 

The first grain ship to leave Ukraine’s port of Odesa under a UN-brokered deal to ensure safe passage through the Black Sea departed on Monday morning, raising hopes that much-needed supplies could reach the global market and ease pressure on food prices.

Details, details: Officials from Ukraine and Turkey confirmed the ship — which is carrying more than 26,000 metric tons of corn to Tripoli, Lebanon — has left port. It’s also moving on satellite vessel tracker MarineTraffic.

A total of 5 million metric tons of grain is expected to leave Ukraine each month under an agreement signed in Istanbul last month, which was hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough.

Ukraine is one of the world’s top grain exporters. But Russian troops had been blocking key ports, trapping millions of metric tons inside the country.

Wheat prices hit an all-time high in March shortly after Russia’s invasion. They’ve since fallen more than 40%, in part due to investor anticipation of a safe-passage deal. Corn prices have dropped roughly 12% since the beginning of March.

But questions about whether Russia will stick to the agreement loom as it continues its campaign of military aggression.

“This is such an important step but it is a first step,” the UK’s ambassador to Ukraine tweeted on Monday. “[Russia] now needs to honor their side of this deal and let grain ships pass safely. And they need to stop burning and appropriating [Ukrainian] grain.”

US stocks just had their best month since 2020

 

US stocks just had a blockbuster July, jumping more than 9% to notch their best month since November 2020.

But you’d be forgiven if you didn’t feel like the market was experiencing a huge rally. The CNN Business Fear & Greed Index, which tracks investor sentiment, remains in “fear” territory. Investors are still obsessed with inflation, interest rate hikes from central banks and, crucially, the threat of a recession, both globally and in the United States.

“There are still quite a lot of commentators describing this as a bear-market rally,” strategists at the Dutch bank ING noted on Monday.

Still, there are signs some players are willing to put more money on the table. The S&P 500 rose during four out of five trading sessions last week. Bank of America, which tracks fund flows, observed the largest inflows into US stocks in six weeks.

Investors have decided that the Federal Reserve may go less hard on raising interest rates than previously expected. Yet there’s plenty of debate about whether this is the correct read of the Fed’s messaging last week.

“Investors clearly chose to cherry-pick [Fed Chair Jerome] Powell’s dovish comments and ignore his hawkish ones,” Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, wrote in a note to clients.

 

Source: CNN

The Head of Research at the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC-Gh), Benjamin Nsiah, has stated that the reduction of petroleum products on the global market will not reflect on the local market if our cedi keeps depreciating against the dollar.

He said the prices of gasoline or petrol keep declining on the global market at some significant rate.

However, that cannot reflect in the local space due to the cedi depreciation.

He was speaking on Frontline on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm with host Kwabena Agyapong.

He added that the prices would further decline in the second week of August, but the major challenge we face in Ghana is the depreciation of the cedi.

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Abass Ibrahim Tasunti, recently announced that his outfit was expecting further fuel price reductions at the pumps from August 1, 2022, following the reduction in prices of Petrol and Diesel on the World Market.

He indicated that the NPA would monitor the pumps to see if fuel stations would comply with the directive.

But Benjamin Nsiah says the depreciation of the cedi is not helping Ghana to benefit fully, and that has been the challenge. If the cedi appreciates against the dollar, the price of petroleum products will reduce drastically”.

 

Source: Ghanaweb

A cross-section of residents in Kumasi have expressed mixed reactions to the extension of the deadline for the Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card re-registration exercise in the country.

While some are praising the Government for adding another two months to the exercise, others are of the view that it should have ended on July 31, 2022, as scheduled.

Again, some residents are also asking the Government to further extend the additional two months deadline for the re-registration period.

The SIM card registration exercise, which was scheduled to have ended at the close of July this year, was extended for a period of another two months by the Minister for Communications, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, on Sunday, July 31.

This is the second extension of the re-registration exercise, which was started in September 2021.

It was supposed to have ended on March 31, 2022, but the government decided to extend it to July 31, this year to allow for those who had not registered at that time to do so, but many people have still not been able to register their cards.

Some residents that the GNA spoke with said the reason for not being able to re-register their SIM card as to their inability to obtain the Ghana Card, which is the primary document for the re-registration of the SIM card.

Mr Evans Atumfuo, the Ashanti Regional Secretary of the Mobile Service Operators Association, pleaded with the government to further extend the re-registration period.

He told the Ghana News Agency that a lot of people still did not have their Ghana Card to help them in the re-registration exercise.

Mr Alex Kofi Amponsah, a mobile money vendor, at the Asafo market in Kumasi, said telecommunications companies must visit churches and public places to register people to avoid long queues at registration centres.

House-to-house registration could also help to register senior citizens.

Madam Patience Amoah, a nurse at the Kumasi South Hospital (KSH), also told GNA that, it was good that the time had been extended.

She, however, emphasized the need for more education on the new mobile app to help self-registration.

Ms Florence Afriyie Mensah, a Journalist, was of the view that the exercise should not have been extended further because there would always be some people who would remain adamant about registering their SIM cards.

She said the exercise was meant for nation-building and every Ghanaian must take it seriously.

However, Mrs Owusu-Ekuful, announcing the extension of the deadline at a press conference in Accra, said a mobile application was being introduced by the telecommunication operators to enable subscribers to do self-registration.

The SIM card re-registration, according to Mrs Owusu-Ekuful, would help get hold of internet fraudsters and other forms of cybercrimes.

Source: Ghanaweb

The Head of European Union, Europe and Americas Unit of the Ministry of Finance, Ebenezer Nortey, has appealed to development organisations and donors to support the Civil Society Organisation in Research and Innovation for Sustainable Development (CSO-RISE) to help create jobs and address poverty at the local level.

According to him, the CSO-RISE was helping to address poverty and helping to address unemployment at the local level and additional donor and development organisations support would help expand the project to all the regions of the country.

The 9-million Euro project which started in 2019 which is expected to end in 2023 is jointly being funded by the European Union (EU) and the Government of Ghana.

It is being implemented in the Northern, Middle and Coastal Regions of the country.

Being implemented by the four Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), namely ActionAid, Cerath Development Organisation, Centre for Local Governance Advocacy (CLGA), and Cooperazione Internationale Sud Sud, the project is meant to address poverty and create jobs for the youth.

Mr Nortey in remarks made on his behalf by Mercy Akuyea Ashong, Schedule Officer for the CSO-RISE Programme, at a media workshop in Accra on Thursday, said the project was impacting the lives of people in the rural areas and helping them to eke a better living.

The workshop was to brief and update the media on the successes as well as the impact of the project.

Mr Nortey said ActionAid was implementing the Northern Ghana Integrated Development Project (NGIDP) in the Upper East, Upper West and Northern regions to promote opportunities for sustainable agriculture.

He said the Centre for Local Governance Advocacy (CLGA) is promoting access to Indigenous People to Decent Work and Social Protection in the Bono East areas on ginger and fish production, and Cooperazione Internationale Sud Sud is implementing the Sustainable Livelihoods to promote sustainable agriculture and organic waste management to social protection and decent work in the savannah Ecological Zone.

Mr Nortey said the Ministry of Finance was providing technical assistance to the project and selection of the grantees for the project.

He said the Ministry of Finance had been monitoring the programmes to ensure that it was in line with government policies and development objectives.

“Personally, I have been on the field and I saw what the people benefiting from the project. So I will recommend other donors to come on board to support the programme and expand it to other regions,” Mr Nortey, said.

He commended the donors and the CSOs implementing the project for the good work done.

The Team Leader of Technical Assistant Team of the CSO-RISE project, Mrs Mary Tobbin Osei in an interview said the lessons and data gathered through the project could help influence policy and development policies of the government.

Particularly, she said, the process was used to select the beneficiaries for the Promoting Access to Indigenous People to Decent Work and Social Protection the Bono East areas, which involved the extreme poor, could be used for the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty Programme.

Mrs Osei indicated that the project had helped to create thousands of jobs at the local level to lift people out of poverty, saying the ginger and fisheries had created more than 200 jobs and beneficiaries had been given entrepreneurial training and trained good agronomic and farming practices.

Source: Ghanaweb

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said work on the Boankra Inland Port project in the Ashanti region will commence this month (August) 2022.

He said the contractor is currently on site and he is expected to start work soon.

President Akufo-Addo cut sod for the construction of the US$ 330 million project on November 5, 2020.

Work has since not commenced and concerns have been raised by the residents and opinion leaders in the region.

But speaking at the commissioning of 100km rehabilitation and auxiliary infrastructure of the Kumasi Inner Ring and Adjacent streets project at Nsenie today, Monday, 1 August 2022, he said the project will commence within this month.

The Vice President also said President Akufo-Addo will commission the Kumasi International Airport next month.

Source: Ghanaweb

Amazon and Apple posted better than expected sales, reassuring investors that the tech giants will be able to weather slowdowns in global economies.

Amazon forecast in a trading update that higher fees for its Prime membership would boost its bottom line, while Apple said demand for its all important iPhone remained strong.

Both firms said they were making progress controlling running costs, despite prices rising at rapid rates.

The updates sent shares soaring.

The quarterly updates from Apple and Amazon are closely watched as indicators of how customers are reacting to the economic climate.

On Thursday, official figures revealed the US economy shrank for the second quarter in a row, a milestone that in many countries would be considered an economic recession, but not in the US, which uses additional data to make that call.

“Our June quarter results continued to demonstrate our ability to manage our business effectively despite the challenging operating environment,” said Apple’s chief operating officer Luca Maestri, adding the company expected growth to pick up again in the months ahead.

However, both companies have seen sales growth slow sharply from last year and profits fall.

Apple’s profits dropped almost 11% from a year ago to $19.4bn (£15.9bn), as it wrestled with Covid-19 lockdowns in China, while Amazon lost $2bn, hit by changes to the value of its investment in electric carmaker Rivian Automotive.

Apple boss Tim Cook said the company was seeing a “mixed bag” of economic signals, with iPhone demand holding steady but areas like digital advertising slipping.

“When you think about the number of challenges in the quarter, we feel really good about the growth that we put up,” he said.

Image source, Getty Images

Overall, sales of Apple products and services rose 2% year-on-year between April and June to $83bn. Sales of iPhones continued to power the company’s gains, as supply constraints held back sales of other products.

Its services business, which includes Apple Pay and its streaming music and television services, also grew 12%.

Meanwhile, Amazon said its revenues were up 7% to $121.2bn, despite its e-commerce business being hit in recent months. Online sales shrank 4%, the second quarter in a row of decline.

But the company continues to be shielded by the strength of its clouding computing division, AWS, which saw sales soar by 33%.

In spring Amazon spooked investors, as its online sales softened and it warned it had spent too heavily to hire and add warehouses in a bet that pandemic-era shopping patterns would continue.

But it provided a more optimistic outlook this time.

“Despite continued inflationary pressures in fuel, energy, and transportation costs, we’re making progress on the more controllable costs we referenced last quarter, particularly improving the productivity of our fulfilment network,” said chief executive Andy Jassy.

Amazon said its e-commerce sales were poised to look especially weak because Prime Day, when discounts typically drive a surge of buying, was moved from June to July.

“Big tech’s been a mixed bag this earnings season, but Amazon proved that the strong can survive even the toughest environments,” said Laura Hoy, equity analyst from Hargreaves Lansdown.

Apple and Amazon are too big not to be affected by signs of slowdown in the global economy, said Scott Kessler, global sector lead at Third Bridge.

But their size gives them somewhat unique power to navigate those challenges, particularly when it comes to negotiating prices.

“Apple’s done an excellent job of managing those costs – it doesn’t hurt that they’re typically one of the biggest purchasers,” he said.

However, Christie Pitts, a general partner at tech fund Backstage Capital, told the BBC that Amazon saw some pressure on its results, in part due to the impact of inflation, “as consumers have less discretionary money to spend on impulsive purchases”.

Source: BBC

Several Chinese property developers have said they would accept food as payment for homes in recent months, as they attempt to attract buyers.

The companies advertised deals to let people use produce – including peaches, water melons and garlic – as down payments on new homes.

However, some of these unusual offers have now reportedly been pulled.

Home sales in China have fallen for 11 months in a row, while this week a major developer defaulted on its debts.

Last week, a property company in the eastern city of Wuxi said it would allow peaches be used to offset as much as 188,888 Chinese yuan ($28,218; £23,289) in down payments for homes.

Another developer in nearby Nanjing said it would accept as much as 5,000kg of watermelon from farmers. It valued the produce at 100,000 Chinese yuan – several times what it would cost at local markets.

However, the promotion that was meant to run until next Friday has been suspended, the state-run Global Times newspaper reported.

“We were told to delete all promotional posters on the social media platforms,” the paper quoted a representative of the company as saying, without giving further details.

In May, property firm Central China Management ran a 16-day campaign in which it accepted garlic as down payments for homes in China’s Qi county, a major garlic-producing region.

Image source, Central China Management

“We are helping farmers with love, and making it easier for them to buy homes,” the firm said in a WeChat post.

Under the deal, one catty of garlic, which is equivalent to 500g in mainland China, was valued at five Chinese yuan, which is around three times its market price.

The company said it had accepted 860,000 catties of garlic in deals involving 30 homes.

However, it has since removed an advert for a similar a deal involving wheat, which was launched on WeChat last month. The company did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.

Experts have said the deals are a way for developers to get around local authority rules that limit the size of discounts they are allowed to offer.

Official figures for May show that sales of residential properties in China fell by 41.7% from a year earlier, the 11th consecutive month of declines.

On Sunday, major Chinese developer Shimao Group said it had missed interest and principal payments on $1bn (£825m) of offshore bonds due that same day.

In a filing to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, the company said it had seen a “noticeable decline” in sales with “significant changes to the macro environment of the property sector in China since the second half of 2021 and the impact of Covid-19”.

Meanwhile, embattled Chinese real estate giant Evergrande is in the process of restructuring its business after defaulting on its debts late last year.

Source: BBC