Energy price cap

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The invasion in Ukraine was supposed to be long over by now – by Kremlin’s count. After the first three days, Russia’s “short victorious war” would end with a Quisling government in and a parade through Kyiv which would have cemented Russian President Vladimir Putin’s legacy and the Russian empire redux of Eastern Orthodox Slavs: Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, or as the czarist lingo went, “the Great, Little and White Russia”. Instead, Russia’s invasion has floundered in the greatest display of military incompetence since Saddam’s Iraqi army collapse in 2003, but here it was not a superpower defeating a regional army starved with sanctions. It was a regional army defeating “the second most powerful army in the world”. The totality of Russia’s geostrategic and economic failures are enormous: mass emigration (about 1,000,000 of the most skilled and entrepreneurial Russians; economic dislocation and sanctions; … [Read more...] about Europe Is Winning The Energy War Against Russia

Semiconductor manufacturing at the GlobalFoundries facility in Malta, New York. Photographer: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg A new age of great-power rivalry is redrawing the map of the world economy and forcing business chiefs to navigate around a growing number of global flashpoints. With a hot war raging in Europe and a cold one escalating between the US and China, the rest of the world is under pressure to pick sides. Political leaders are imposing new economic priorities, as they battle to avert shortfalls of vital commodities — from natural gas to semiconductors — and use the ones they control as leverage. For the titans of commerce gathering in Davos this week, all of this marks a shift away from the era of ever-closer global ties, when big business thought it had succeeded in making the world flat. Now it’s in for a bumpier ride. Debate at the World Economic Forum will revolve around these emerging geo-economic risks. Some center on key goods or markets - like the … [Read more...] about Energy, Chips, Taiwan: Flashpoints for 2023 in a fractured world

A significant drop in international oil prices as well as the efforts of the Philippine government to beef up domestic food supplies may be reining in inflation in the country with greater impact than previously expected, according to Goldman Sachs. The economic research team at the United States-based financial services giant said in a commentary they have lowered their forecast for inflation in the Philippines for full-year 2023 to 5 percent from 5.2 percent. This was higher than the Bloomberg consensus forecast of 4.5 percent, which agrees with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) own latest forecast. Still, Goldman Sachs’ revised prediction is lower than the mean forecast of 5.1 percent from analysts that the BSP surveyed. The American firm similarly lowered inflation forecasts for 2023 across most other economies in Southeast Asia, mainly on account of downward adjustments in global energy forecasts. “We think that headline inflation has likely already peaked in all … [Read more...] about Cheaper energy expected to tame 2023 PH inflation

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Key takeaways Supercore inflation purposefully ignores highly volatile areas of the economy, like housing, food and energy, to give a clearer picture of inflation Food inflation increased 10.4% year-over-year in December, while energy inflation eased to 7.3% Shelter inflation is up 7.5% year-over-year We all see the headline inflation number, but it doesn't tell the whole story. This is because the CPI report includes many items that can have volatile price swings that distort the overall inflation number. This is why core inflation is also reported. However, some economists believe this isn’t good enough and we should focus on supercore inflation. Here is what supercore inflation is and how some of the areas it excludes have been impacting overall inflation. Plus, here’s how Q.ai can help in inflationary times. What is Supercore inflation? Supercore inflation is an economic measurement that strips … [Read more...] about Supercore Inflation Excludes Food, Energy And Housing

It’s been a tough year for businesses functioning on a small scale, needing to be more resilient than ever before. Post-pandemic economic recovery has stalled due to the prolonged, intense Russo-Ukrainian War, and it’s expected that economic activity will remain depressed throughout the following year. Amid a slower growth environment , it’s become crucial for small businesses to understand consumers’ spending power and shifts in behavior to build effective pricing strategies. The past year has brought about significant challenges for the private sector; difficult as it may have been, it wasn’t impossible. The Three Challenges That Have Impacted Small Businesses the Most In 2022 #1 Cost Of Living Crisis The cost of living has climbed at an exceptionally high rate in 2022 across the world, reaching levels not seen in the past decades. Rising costs include mortgage rates, energy bills, and food, to name but a few. After decades of low inflation, consumers and companies alike are … [Read more...] about Small Businesses Have Faced No End of Challenges This Year

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin China is increasingly looking like the top beneficiary of President Joe Biden’s decision to sell down the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to lower domestic fuel prices. Chinese-owned companies have lapped up oil from America’s emergency stockpile since the Biden administration decided to sell 180 million barrels last year to lower prices ahead of the midterm elections. The SPR, which has a capacity of around 700 million barrels, currently has about 372 million barrels stored in salt caverns along Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts. That’s down from 594 million barrels, or nearly 40 percent, from a year ago. The SPR was created to protect the United States from oil shortages and price spikes caused by supply disruptions, but Biden’s historic drawdown for political reasons sacrificed national energy security at a time when Russia’s war with Ukraine could have induced just that sort of supply emergency. And while … [Read more...] about Biden’s SPR Drawdown Big Win For Beijing

(Representative image: Reuters) Russia is expected to retain the position of top supplier of crude oil to India in the medium term, according to energy experts. Energy tracker Vortexa said Russia was the top exporter of crude oil to the country in December, supplying 1.17 million barrels per day (bpd) during the month, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Due to multiple sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union and the West, Moscow has been exporting its crude oil to countries including India and China at discounted rates. According to the experts, this trend will continue as far as India is concerned unless it faces some regulatory pressure. “India will probably continue to import as much as it can from Russia because there are very few export destinations that Russia has with the price cap and other restrictions imposed on free trade of Russian oil in the market. Unless there is regulatory pressure, it is likely that India would continue to import as much as … [Read more...] about Russia expected to remain top crude oil supplier to India in medium term: Experts

Oil India's import of crude oil from Russia increased further in December 2022, topping 1 million barrels per day for the first time ever as Moscow remained its top oil supper for the third month in a row, according to data from energy cargo tracker Vortexa. Russia, which made up for just 0.2 per cent of all crude oil India imported in the year to March 31, 2022, supplied 1.19 million bpd in December. This was higher than 909,403 bpd crude oil India imported from Russia in November and 935,556 bpd in October 2022. The previous record for most crude oil imports from Russia was in June 2022 when India bought 942,694 bpd, according to Vortexa. Russia, which in October 2022 for the first time surpassed traditional sellers Iraq and Saudi Arabia to take the No.1 spot, now makes up for 25 per cent of all oil imported by India. The imports peaked as a price cap was agreed upon by the EU on Russian seaborne oil. Russian oil is available at much lower than USD 60 per barrel cap … [Read more...] about India’s Russian oil imports top 1 million barrels a day in December

India imported just 36,255 bpd of crude from Russia in Dec 2021 (Representative image/Reuters) India, the world's third-largest importer of crude, bought around 1.2 million barrels per day of oil from the sanctions-hit Russia in December 2022, as per the data shared by energy cargo tracker Vortexa. The numbers mark a jump of 33 times as against the year-ago period. As compared to November, India's Russia oil imports climbed by 29 percent in December. Moscow, months earlier, emerged as the biggest source of India's oil imports, overtaking traditional suppliers like Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Indian refiners have been lapping up cheap Russian crude since the invasion of Ukraine caused many buyers to shun the shipments. The sharp increase in December is possibly the result of deepening discounts due to additional sanctions from the G-7 and European Union including a $60-a-barrel price cap. Also Read | India saved over Rs 35,000 crore with discounted Russian crude, may continue … [Read more...] about India’s Russian oil imports jump 33 times in December compared to year-ago, tops 1 million bpd

LONDON  – The lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in China is set to boost global oil demand this year to a new record high, the International Energy Agency ( IEA ) said on Wednesday, while price cap sanctions on Russia could dent supply. “Two wild cards dominate the 2023 oil market outlook: Russia and China,” the Paris-based energy watchdog said in its monthly oil report. “Russian supply slows under the full impact of sanctions (while) China will drive nearly half this global demand growth even as the shape and speed of its reopening remains uncertain.” Weak industrial activity and mild weather helped cut oil demand by nearly a million barrels per day in the OECD developed countries in the last quarter of 2022. But despite possible but likely mild recessions in Europe and the United States, China’s expected reopening is set to fuel rebounds in nearby Asian economies and see it take the lead from India as the world’s leader in oil demand growth. “The preeminent driver of 2023 … [Read more...] about China’s COVID-19 reopening set to push 2023 oil demand to new high -IEA