Archives for March 2016

Previously, the ministry expected Russian GDP to contract 0.8 percent this year. In the improved forecast, it will contract 0.3 percent, according to the report, obtained by Vedomosti business daily.

Worst of crisis over for Russia, but country needs to adjust to life with cheap crude – Putin

Inflation in 2016 is expected to hit seven percent, compared to the 8.5 percent forecast. In the next two years inflation is projected to go down to 5.5 and 5.2 percent, respectively.

The Ministry of Economic Development also expects a gradual increase in oil prices – from $40 per barrel this year to $50 in 2018 and 2019.

Estimates on capital outflow from Russia have also been reassessed. The ministry expects that $40 billion will leave the country this year instead of $50 billion. In the best-case scenario this number will fall to $25 billion by 2018.

Real wages are due to contract 2.9 percent this year and return to growth in 2017. The ruble is forecast to gradually grow against the US dollar, trading at 57.1 to the greenback in 2018.

One of the main reasons for the improved forecast is stabilizing oil prices. After the January lows of $27, crude rebounded, trading at $41.45 at the rally’s peak on March 22. Since then, oil prices slid to $38.81 for a barrel of Brent and $37.64 for WTI as of Thursday.

The oil market is now waiting for the world’s leading crude producers, headed by Russia and Saudi Arabia, to meet on April 17 in Qatar to discuss an output freeze, which could be crucial for prices.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/337847-russia-economic-forecast-2016-2018/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Kiev announces 44% inflation in 2015

“There was a high inflation rate [in Ukraine –Ed.] of about 80 percent during 2013-2015, primarily due to the aggression [from Russia – Ed.] and the loss of industrial capacity,” he said at a government meeting on Wednesday.

At the same time, the minister said Ukraine’s government had managed “to fulfill only 13 percent of the country’s social obligations”. He, therefore, called for more minimum social standards in the 2017 draft budget to compensate the people for losses from inflation.

Russian officials have repeatedly refuted allegations of conducting any military operations in the Donbass area, calling the allegations “fake propaganda.”

Russia’s OSCE representative Andrey Kelin said all Kiev’s attempts to call Russia “the aggressor” has been made to get Western money and arms.

Inflation in Ukraine has been growing since the events of Maidan at the end of 2013, which resulted in the overthrow of Viktor Yanukovich’s government.

READ MORE: IMF stopped funding Ukraine over lack of reform – MP

While inflation in 2013 was only 0.5 percent, it skyrocketed to 24.9 percent in 2014 and more than 50 percent in 2015.

The main reasons for the slowing economy and rising inflation are the military conflict in Eastern Ukraine and the collapse in trade with Russia.

Last month, Ukraine Member of Parliament Sergey Sobolev said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had stopped paying the country after the government failed to implement reforms and made scant progress in stamping out corruption.

READ MORE: Ukraine’s economy hits rock bottom

In 2015 Kiev received $6.7 billion from the fund’s $17.5 billion bailout package, and was looking to get another two tranches of $1.7 billion. But the funding has been postponed.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/337770-ukraine-inflation-russia-fault/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Saudi Arabia to move from oil, earn more from Hajj

“We want to increase the number of arrivals from Russia from 40,000 to 200,000 per year over three years,” said Haddad, pointing out that Russia offered Morocco big opportunities.

Tourism from Europe has declined significantly in recent years due to the turmoil in traditional holiday destinations in the Middle East. Instability in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia since the Arab Spring as well as recent terrorist attacks in Turkey are keeping European travelers away.

“We know that Morocco remains a very safe and secure country, but we need to do more to get that message across,” said the minister, adding that tourists do not probably distinguish Morocco from Tunisia or Egypt.

Morocco hopes to increase arrivals to expand the tourism sector which accounts for as much as 10 percent of the country’s $105 billion economy and employs 400,000 people.

Tourism revenue dropped 1.3 percent last year to $6.1 billion, with the number of visitors falling one percent from 2014.

The number of tourists from France decreased seven percent with the number of holiday makers from Italy, Spain and Belgium also down. However visits from UK an US increased, according to the ministry.

Morocco is talking with airlines including Russia’s Aeroflot and Royal Air Maroc to set up new routes from Marrakesh and Agadir to Moscow and St. Petersburg, the minister said. Plans for direct flights from China to Morocco announced two years ago haven’t yet been initiated.

Last week, Morocco and Russia signed 12 new tourism agreements during the visit of Morocco’s King Mohammed VI to Moscow. Morocco hopes to attract 85,000 Russian visitors this year.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/337767-morocco-seeks-russian-travelers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Carlsberg to stay committed to Russian beer market

Bud has made significant gains in the Russian market becoming the country’s third most popular beer last year. At the same time, American brews are currently struggling in their home market.

“Bud is a truly premium brand in Russia in terms of both pricing and user perception,” Dmitry Shpakov, the head of the company’s branch in Russia, told Bloomberg.

Bud has boosted its popularity among younger Russian beer drinkers. ABInbev managed to escape the impact of a weakening Russian currency by producing locally.

The company has been ramping up production at its factory near Moscow since 2010.

A bottle of Bud costs about 61 rubles ($0.87), that is less than half the price of ABInbev’s imported Spaten brand, but still 30 percent higher than the brewer’s bestselling brand Klinskoe.

“Several years ago, production of Klinskoe used to be several times higher than Bud in Russia,” Shpakov said, adding that the brand has caught up since then and currently the difference is not that big.

Bud’s growth owes much to increased sponsorship of sporting events after Russia eased advertising regulations for beer producers in 2015.

The brand is currently sponsoring the 2017 Football Confederation Cup and the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

READ MORE: Carlsberg profits down on weak sales in key Russian market

International brewers have suffered big losses in Russia in recent years amid Western sanctions, due to the falling ruble, declining economy and tougher regulations on alcohol consumption. Brewing output in the country has declined over 30 percent in the last eight years, according to Bloomberg estimates.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/337724-russia-budweiser-sales-soar/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

The company is expected to shed 4,000 jobs by June with “hundreds of executives and managers” going, according to the newspaper which has obtained an internal Boeing document. That figure may be only half of the total cuts this year, the media reports.

Boeing to cut hundreds of jobs as shutdown of EXIM Bank starts to bite

The job cuts will be achieved through normal attrition and a voluntary buyout packages for about 1,600 employees, the document states.

The workforce reduction is part of a major cost-saving push along with squeezing supplier costs, increasing productivity, shrinking inventory and cutting travel, overtime, services and contractor expenses.

Last month, Boeing’s airplane business CEO Ray Conner said the company needed to drastically reduce costs and thus airplane pricing because of fierce sales competition from Airbus.

“Their biggest weapon that they’re using in the competitions today is price,” Conner told employees as cited by the media. “They are attacking us with price in every single campaign. And as a result of that, you know, we’re being pushed to the wall.”

In 2015, Boeing was beaten by its European rival in terms of future orders.

Airbus has claimed 57 percent of the overall market by units ordered, with 1,036 aircraft. The company has enjoyed strong sales in recent years, particularly for the latest iteration of its popular A320 narrow-body jet.

READ MORE: Airbus opens first US assembly line in Alabama after heavy state, local incentives

Meanwhile, in terms of production Boeing was ahead of Airbus. It delivered 762 planes last year making $125 billion compared with Airbus’s 635 aircraft, earning the firm $91.6 billion.

While talking to employees in February, Boeing’s CEO said Airbus winning 63 percent of single-aisle sales last year with its A320 going against Boeing’s 737 was “alarming … because the 737 is the biggest contributor to the earnings of the Boeing Company.”

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/337719-boeing-jobs-cut-competition/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

The contract will be signed before the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. “Ahead of the Summit I will sign a cooperation agreement to supply uranium to Ukraine for use in power generation. This complements similar agreements Australia has with countries including Canada, China, France, India, Japan, ROK, Russia, the UK and the USA,” Bishop said in a statement.

Ukraine nuclear power plants ‘dangerously’ without power as towers feeding energy to Crimea blown up

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said Kiev is going to increase the share nuclear has in the country’s energy sector.

“Just a year ago, nuclear power accounted for 48 percent and was steadily falling. In less than a year we have increased it to 56 percent,” he said in January.

Ukraine is heavily dependent on nuclear energy, with 15 reactors generating more than half of its electricity. Kiev gets most of its nuclear services and nuclear fuel from Russia.

Germany’s Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks has warned Ukraine against expanding nuclear energy, saying it should understand the dangers. Germany is planning to shut down its last nuclear plant by 2022.

According to Ukrainian energy expert Aleksey Pasyuk, the planned service life of the majority of the nuclear power plants in Ukraine is over, but they are still being used. Some of them are running experimental fuel in reactors, he said. Pasyuk added that such experiments could lead to a catastrophe.

“Rather than focus on projects that could produce alternative types of generation, the government has plans to invest in costly projects to support the operation of nuclear power units on the verge of operational capabilities,” Pasyuk told Korrespondent.net.

“Their operation is already an experiment. Furthermore, the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant is using Westinghouse fuel. So many experiments at the same time is too much,” said the expert.

Ukraine’s 1986 Chernobyl meltdown was one of the worst nuclear power plant disasters of all time. More than 300,000 people were evacuated from the town of Pripyat near to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant because of nuclear contamination.

Article source: https://www.rt.com/business/337716-australia-ukraine-uranium-nuclear-station/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS