Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Freedom of information data will increase calls for country to be granted debt amnesty
When Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, was in Sudan in January he offered £40m in aid to help its poorest people, who are facing unprecedented food scarcity in a debt-laden country where austerity is deepening.
Sudan, ruled by an unelected military-led transitional government after longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir was deposed in 2019, owes the UK almost £900m. But the Observer can reveal that almost 80% of that was accrued from interest, leading to calls for an unconditional debt amnesty.
Analysis: 12% of global shipping uses the canal with any delays disrupting supply chains, fuelling shortages and hiking prices
World trade’s pre-eminent shortcut – the Suez Canal – is facing “massive” disruption which could cause cargo delays around the globe, shipping experts warned on Friday.
The narrow, 120-mile passage of water linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean allows ships of colossal proportions to navigate a relatively direct route from Asia to Europe, rather than taking a 3,500-mile diversion around Africa.
Former Australian finance minister’s candidacy was dogged by complaints from environmental groups
Australia’s former finance minister Mathias Cormann has won a hard-fought election to become the new chief of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), despite grave concerns voiced by environmental groups over his record on climate change.
Cormann narrowly defeated the Swedish former EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström in the election to lead the 37-member Paris-based organisation, which gives advice to member governments on economic trends, inequality, fighting corruption and trade and is seen as the world’s leading rulemaker on corporate tax.
A letter signed by 29 experts and activist groups says Cormann’s climate record should rule him out of secretary-general’s job
International climate change groups and influential advisers on the global shift from fossil fuels have written to the OECD expressing “grave concerns” over Australian politician Mathias Cormann’s bid to be its next secretary-general.
Former Australian finance minister Cormann’s record in a government that “persistently failed to take effective action” to cut emissions while blocking international action meant he was “not a suitable candidate”, the letter says.
Rishi Sunak is delivering his budget – here is rolling coverage of the main points, updated throughout the speech
The chancellor says he would do “whatever it takes” during the pandemic, and that he has done and will continue to do so. He says there has been acute damage to the economy, with more than 700,000 people losing their jobs, the economy shrinking by 10% – the largest fall in 300 years, and borrowing is highest it has been outside of wartime. “It’s going to take this country, and the whole world, a long time to recover from this extraordinary situation,” he says.
UK FTSE was down 2.5%, its biggest one-day fall in percentage terms since the end of October
Global stock markets ended February deep in the red, as fears of higher inflation prompted a sell-off in government bonds and spread anxiety across financial markets.
The UK’s FTSE 100 index fell 168 points to 6,483, a 2.5% drop – the biggest one-day fall in percentage terms since the end of October.
In Holyhead, traffic has fallen 50% as hauliers stymied by Brexit find their way from Ireland to France without entering the UK
Perched on the shores of Anglesey, the island linked by road bridges to the north-west coast of Wales, Holyhead’s geography has given it a leading role in British-Irish trade since the early 19th century.
About 50 miles directly across the Irish Sea from Dublin, a journey of just three-and-a-quarter hours by ferry, Holyhead was until December the second busiest roll-on roll-off port in the UK after Dover. About 450,000 trucks rumbled through each year on their way to Dublin, with cargoes of meat and agricultural produce, secondhand cars and items destined for the shelves of Irish supermarkets.
The environment, climate change and the protection of nature must be the defining tasks of rich and major developing countries now and in the years to come, the outgoing head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has said, and the institutions that advise governments must take responsibility for keeping them focused on those tasks.
Ángel Gurría said the coronavirus crisis must be dealt with as a matter of urgency, but that the biggest task after that would be tackling the world’s environmental emergencies.
Back to bitcoin... and a senior US central banker has insisted that the cryptocurrency doesn’t present a serious threat to the US dollar’s position.
St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard told CNBC that the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency was safe:
“I just think for Fed policy, it’s going to be a dollar economy as far as the eye can see — a dollar global economy really as far as the eye can see — and whether the gold price goes up or down, or the bitcoin price goes up or down, doesn’t really affect that.
“You don’t want to go to a non-uniform currency where you’re walking into Starbucks and maybe you’ll pay with Ethereum, maybe you’ll pay with Ripple, maybe you’ll pay with bitcoin, maybe you’ll pay with a dollar. That isn’t how we do this. We have a uniform currency that came in at the Civil War time.”
Bitcoin poses no threat to the dollar as the world's currency leader, Fed's Bullard says https://t.co/vc0gwcXYd4
It’s also been an exciting day for Italian government bonds.
Rome sold debt at near record-low interest rates today, as investors flocked to the first bond auction since former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi became prime minister.
Rome is set to raise a total of €14bn ($17bn) from the sale of a 10-year nominal bond and a 30-year inflation-linked note, one of the banks managing the issue said, adding demand had totalled more than €82bn.
The final size of the order book is well below the record €134bn in demand the two bonds had initially attracted, with many investors dropping out after Italy cut the return on the issues.
Draghi sells! #Italy attracted >€110bn of investor bids for a new 10y bond it’s offering in a publicly-syndicated sale which is the first since Mario Draghi took over as PM. (via BBG) pic.twitter.com/j7s1YfM5oT
FTSE 100 posts biggest daily gain for over a month as investors buoyed up by vaccine and US economy hopes
The pound has hit its highest level against the dollar for almost three years as global markets were buoyed up by hopes for a faster economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Sterling rose by 0.5% to hit a 33-month high against the dollar on Monday, trading above $1.39 on the global currency markets for the first time since 2018, while also rising to a nine-month high against the euro of almost €1.15.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, set to be named director general, joins as global trading system facing make-or-break moment
Even for an economist, there are lots of very large numbers in the life of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. As the chair of Gavi, the vaccine alliance, she has overseen the annual immunisation of millions of children. When managing director of the World Bank, she oversaw $81bn (£58bn) worth of operations. In her stints in charge of Nigeria’s finances, she tackled Africa’s most populous country’s $30bn debt. And she has 1.5 million followers on Twitter.
There are lots of smaller numbers too: the 20 non-profit organisations that have appointed Okonjo-Iweala to their advisory boards, the major banks and corporations she has advised, the 10 honorary degrees in addition to her own doctorate, 20 or so awards, dozens of major reports authored, and the books.
Exclusive: just 12% of spending on economic rescue packages is going towards low-carbon projects, research finds
Efforts by governments around the world to forge a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic are so far failing even to reach the levels of green spending seen in the stimulus that followed the 2008 financial crisis, new analysis has shown.
Only about 12% of the spending on economic rescue packages around the world is going towards low-carbon projects, such as renewable energy and clean technology, according to a report by Vivid Economics, published on Friday.
Departure to cost EU 0.5% of GDP but UK 2.25% by end 2022, according to first official estimate since deal was agreed
The economic blow dealt by Brexit will be four times greater in the UK than the EU, according to the latest forecasts by Brussels.
A month into the new relationship, the European commission said the UK’s exit on the terms agreed by Boris Johnson’s government would generate a loss in gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of 2022 of about 2.25% in the UK compared with continued membership. In contrast, the hit for the EU is estimated to be about 0.5% over the same period.
Many of us are living for the buzz of the doorbell – spending billions we can’t afford on stuff we don’t need. Here is how to recognise the problem and regain control
In the past fortnight, I have bought the following items online: a hideous cat tree that takes up most of my living room, a lavender pillow spray, two scarves, a pair of gloves, two candles, a sheet mask, a pair of fleece-lined jogging bottoms (so comfy!), a card-holder and an under-eye brightening cream. None of these purchases were essential. Many I haven’t even taken out of the packaging, leaving them in a pile by the front door.
Ten months into the pandemic, I know the rhythms of the courier networks better than I know my menstrual cycle. Royal Mail in the morning; DPD and Hermes in the afternoon. Amazon comes any time, including late at night. DPD couriers insist on taking a photo of you with the package, mortifyingly. I wonder where these photos go: me in a food-stained tracksuit, dirty-haired, holding an armful of packages I can’t remember ordering with an abashed smile. I pray they never see the light of day.
Exporters badly hit already but KPMG says ‘biggest headaches’ have yet to come’ for importers
British firms are warning of further Brexit red tape as the government prepares to introduce a long list of new controls on imports from the European Union in April and July.
In the coming months further checks are due to be phased in at the UK border, controlling everything from the import of sausages and live mussels to horses and trees, as well as the locations these checks can take place.
The Covid crisis has turbo-charged profits and share prices. But are the big six now too powerful for regulators to ignore?
The coronavirus pandemic has wrought economic disruption on a global scale, but one sector has marched on throughout the chaos: big tech.
Further evidence of the industry’s relentless progress has come in recent weeks with the news that Apple and Amazon both raked in sales of $100bn (£72bn) over the past three months – 25% more than Tesco brings in over a full year.
Called on to lead Italy’s government in crisis, the former central banker will need all the skills he honed saving the European currency
“Whatever it takes.” Three simple words that tamed the financial markets, saved the euro from possible collapse and turned Mario Draghi from an Italian technocrat into the central banker of his generation.
And an obvious choice to head a new coalition government in Rome at a time when the country is facing the triple whammy of Covid-19, economic collapse and political chaos.