The News Journal

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif fears that all hell will break loose if a debt deal is not reached to aid the flood-stricken country as the threat of epidemics looms large. More than 1,400 people have been killed and 33 million affected by record flooding and monsoon rains which battered the country in recent months, and also caused devastation in neighbouring Afghanistan. Recovery is estimated to cost at least $30 billion. In an interview with Bloomberg in New York, where he was scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on Friday, Mr Sharif said he had spoken to European leaders and creditor nations to secure a moratorium on debt, some of which is due in the next two months. “Unless we get substantial relief, how can the world expect from us to stand on our own feet?" he said. "It is simply impossible." Thousands of doctors have been sent to Pakistan's worst-hit province of Sindh to battle against the spread of waterborne diseases. More than 134,000 ...

Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s strategic investment arm, and EQT Private Equity have agreed to acquire Envirotainer, a global temperature-controlled supply chain solutions company for the biopharmaceutical industry. The financial details of the deal were not provided. However, the enterprise value of Envirotainer is about €2.8 billion ($2.99bn), Mubadala said on Tuesday. The two partners will support Envirotainer in its next phase of growth, accelerating its expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. The investment will also help the company to maintain stable growth in its other core markets, leveraging on EQT’s “local with locals” approach and Mubadala’s global network. Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/economy/2022/06/07/mubadala-and-eqt-to-buy-global-pharmaceutical-supply-chain-solutions-company-envirotainer/

Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, described the challenges facing the US economy as akin to a “hurricane” down the road and urged the Federal Reserve to take forceful measures to avoid tipping the world’s biggest economy into a recession. Mr Dimon’s comments come a day after US President Joe Biden met Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to discuss inflation, which is hovering at 40-year highs. “It is a hurricane" and the current situation is unprecedented, Mr Dimon told a banking conference. Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/economy/2022/06/02/jp-morgans-jamie-dimon-warns-us-is-approaching-economic-hurricane/

The global economy is "teetering on the brink of recession" as the war in Ukraine, Covid-19 lockdowns in China and a hawkish US Federal Reserve weigh on activity worldwide, the Institute of International Finance said in a report. In its latest forecast, the IIF estimates global gross domestic product to grow 2.2 per cent this year, with activities slowing to 0.5 per cent in the fourth quarter. The Euro area as well as emerging markets, excluding China, are anticipated to go into a recession by the end of the year. "Since the statistical carryover from 2021 is 2.3 per cent, this is a de facto flatlining of global GDP," the report said. The IIF's estimates are below the latest prediction from the International Monetary Fund, which has also lowered its growth forecast this year, due to the Ukraine war and inflation stoked by soaring commodity prices. The IMF projects global growth at 3.6 per cent this year and next, down 0.8 and 0.2 percentage points from its Janua...

Saudi Arabia’s oil revenue is expected to jump about 66 per cent this year to about $249 billion amid surging crude prices that will enable the Arab world’s biggest economy to boost spending, according to Jadwa Investment. Brent, the benchmark for two thirds of the world's oil, rose 69 per cent year on year in the first quarter of this year to an average of $103 per barrel, and that rise was reflected in a “substantial jump in royalties and income tax received by the Ministry of Finance", Asad Khan, chief economist and head of research at Jadwa, said in a research note on Wednesday. “As oil prices remain elevated, and Saudi crude oil production rises in line with the Opec+ agreement, we expect government oil revenue to continue showing sizeable yearly rises.” Both Brent and West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark for US crude, have surged more than 60 per cent since the beginning of the year. Brent climbed to a notch under $140 per barrel in March, its highest since 2008, befor...

McDonald’s said Monday that it has started the process of selling its Russian business, which includes 850 restaurants that employ 62,000 people, making it the latest major Western corporation to exit Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February. The fast food giant pointed to the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, saying holding on to its business in Russia “is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values.” The Chicago-based company announced in early March that it was temporarily closing its stores in Russia but would continue to pay employees. On Monday, it said it would seek to have a Russian buyer hire those workers and pay them until the sale closes. It did not identify a prospective buyer. CEO Chris Kempczinski said the “dedication and loyalty to McDonald’s” of employees and hundreds of Russian suppliers made it a difficult decision to leave. “However, we have a commitment to our global community and must remain steadfast in our values,” Kempczinski said in ...

 Two of the Saudi-listed major insurers have reported losses in the first quarter of 2022, driven by higher claims, revealed their earning announcements on Monday. The Co. for Cooperative Insurance, also known as Tawuinya, saw its first-quarter profit drop by 49 percent to SR41 million ($11 million) from SR80.81 million the same period in 2021, while Al-Etihad Cooperative Insurance Co. profit plunged 95 percent to SR689,910 in the first quarter compared to SR14.55 million in the first quarter of 2021, according to their bourse filings. Although both companies attributed the drop in their bottom lines to an increase in claims, Tawuinya added that a decrease in earnings from policyholders and shareholders also a major factor.

 Sri Lanka, which is grappling with ballooning liabilities and soaring inflation amid its worst economic crisis in decades, needs to restructure its debt, analysts have said. The South Asian country's debt is unsustainable, making restructuring necessary even if it secures an International Monetary Fund-backed loan programme in impending talks, Patrick Curran, senior economist at Tellimer Research, said in a note on March 29. "A debt restructuring is inevitable even if Sri Lanka secures an IMF programme, as it will be unable to credibly place debt on a sustainable path without restructuring (and thus will have to restructure its debt to unlock IMF support, given its policy against lending to countries with an unsustainable debt burden)," Mr Curran said. Protesters have taken to the streets across the Sri Lanka against the severe economic crisis, leading President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to declare a state of emergency and impose a nationwide curfew. The debt-laden country is f...

 A fire erupted at an oil depot in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Friday, ahead of the F1 Grand Prix race scheduled to take place there - with Yemen's Houthis rebels acknowledging that they had launched a series of attacks on the kingdom. Saudi Arabia and the state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco did not immediately acknowledge the blaze, though it appeared to be on the same fuel depot that the Houthis attacked in recent days. The fire seems to be centred on the same North Jeddah Bulk Plant, the Associated Press news agency reported. The North Jeddah Bulk Plant stores diesel, gasoline and jet fuel for use in Jeddah, the kingdom's second-largest city. It accounts for over a quarter of all of Saudi Arabia's supplies and is crucial to running a regional desalination plant. The purported attack comes as Saudi Arabia continues to lead a coalition fighting Yemen's Houthi rebels who seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2014, sparking a civil war that forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour H...

 Sri Lanka faces “solvency” issues because of risks stemming from unsustainable debt levels that jeopardise the nation’s economy, the International Monetary Fund has said. “Based on staff analysis, the fiscal consolidation necessary to bring debt down to safe levels would require excessive adjustment over the coming years, pointing to a clear solvency problem,” the IMF said in its Article IV consultation report, released in Washington on Friday. The full report provides further analysis of the South Asian island nation’s debt and finances. A summary of the document released earlier this month said Sri Lanka faced unsustainable debt levels and needed a “credible and coherent” strategy to restore stability. The country’s “debt overhang”, along with persistent fiscal and balance-of-payments shortfalls, “will constrain growth and jeopardise macroeconomic stability in both the near and medium term”, the report said. “Rollover risk is very high,” the IMF said. “[Foreign] debt service nee...

 Britain’s government borrowing was higher than expected in February as the gap between spending and tax receipts hit £13.1 billion, while rising inflation caused interest payments to surge by more than half. Public sector net borrowing in February was the second highest borrowing for the month, said the Office for National Statistics, and well above the £8.1bn expected by analysts. “This was £2.4bn less than in February 2021 but still £71.9bn more than in February 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic,” the ONS said. Borrowing for the first 11 months of the 2021/2022 financial year hit £138.4bn ― less than half of the level seen April 2020 to February 2021, when the public finances were hit by the extensive economic support dished out during the pandemic. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak said the ongoing uncertainty caused by global shocks means it is more important than ever to take a responsible approach to the public finances. “With inflation and interest rates still on...