Tausi Insider

Last Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, a watermelon made an appearance at the Ukrainian pavilion at COP27 in Egypt. Handout There is no Russian pavilion at the COP27 climate conference in Egypt. There is a Ukrainian one and it has been a hit, not just because of the environmental message it delivers but for its powerful anti-war message, too. Last Friday, an unusual guest made an appearance at the pavilion: a watermelon. It was brought in to celebrate the liberation of Kherson from Russian occupation and was placed on a chair draped with the Ukrainian flag. The fruit became a symbol of Ukraine’s victory last week when a video of a Ukrainian soldier entering the city while holding up a watermelon, as crowds cheered, went viral. “Ukraine is very good at procuring howitzers and HIMARS missiles – also watermelons in Egypt,” Oleksiy Ryabchin, Ukraine’s chief climate negotiator and former deputy minister of energy and environment, told Tausi Insider. Finding the watermelon was not easy, since they ar...

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (R) and French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne shake hands after delivering a joint press conference at the Chancellery in Berlin on Nov. 25, 2022. JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images Germany and France pledged Friday to provide each other mutual support in preventing a possible energy crisis after supplies from Russia dried up amid the war in Ukraine. As part of a joint agreement signed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, Germany will provide France with electricity while getting much-needed natural gas in return. “Friends help each other in need,” Scholz said after the signing ceremony in Berlin. Borne echoed that sentiment, saying the friendship between the two European heavyweight was crucial. “It has already proved it can withstand tests and master many challenges,” she said. Before Russia launched its war in Ukraine nine months ago, Germany was heavily reliant on Russian gas supplies. Since then, Germany has scr...

International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday the chance of global growth falling below 2 per cent next year was increasing due to continued effects of the war in Ukraine and simultaneous slowdowns in Europe, China and the United States. Georgieva told the Reuters NEXT conference that she was particularly concerned about the slowdown in China because the world’s second-largest economy has been a strong engine of global growth. The IMF will update its economic outlook in January and the picture “has darkened recently on the basis of what we see in consumer sentiment, in investor sentiment,” she said. https://www.tausiinsider.com/imf-chief-sees-higher-chance-of-global-growth-below-2-in-2023/?feed_id=331508&_unique_id=64554966d557c

The Group of Seven nations and Australia joined the European Union on Friday in adopting a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil, a key step as Western sanctions aim to reorder the global oil market to prevent price spikes and starve President Vladimir Putin of funding for his war in Ukraine. Europe needed to set the discounted price that other nations will pay by Monday, when an EU embargo on Russian oil shipped by sea and a ban on insurance for those supplies take effect. The price cap, which was led by the G-7 wealthy democracies, aims to prevent a sudden loss of Russian oil to the world that could lead to a new surge in energy prices and further fuel inflation. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement that the agreement will help restrict Putin’s “primary source of revenue for his illegal war in Ukraine while simultaneously preserving the stability of global energy supplies.” The agreement comes after a last-minute flurry of negotiations. Poland long held up an ...

Russia, the world's second largest oil exporter, will not sell oil that is subject to a Western price cap even if it has to cut production, President Vladimir Putin's point man on energy said. https://www.tausiinsider.com/russia-will-not-export-oil-subject-to-western-cap/?feed_id=330746&_unique_id=644e28396bf30

Major Western measures to limit Russia’s oil profits over the war in Ukraine took effect Monday, bringing with them uncertainty about how much crude could be lost to the world and whether they will unleash the hoped-for hit to a Russian economy that has held up better than many expected under sanctions. In the most far-reaching efforts so far to target one of Moscow’s main sources of income, the European Union is banning most Russian oil and the Group of Seven democracies has imposed a price cap of US$60 per barrel on Russian exports to other countries. The impact of both measures, however, may be blunted because the world’s No. 2 oil producer has so far been able reroute much of its European seaborne shipments to China, India and Turkey, although at steep discounts, and the price cap is near what Russian oil already cost. As it stands, Russia will likely have enough money to not only fund its military but support key industries and social programs, said Chris Weafer, chief executive...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine plunged Europe into its biggest land war since World War Two. As Putin pays up to keep his campaign grinding on, managing its fallout at home and abroad is likely to get ever harder. https://www.tausiinsider.com/russia-faces-economic-pain-and-isolation-in-2023/?feed_id=330460&_unique_id=644b7dee9f46e

Private businesses in Ukraine are in line to receive $2 billion in financing arranged by the International Finance Corp. to help rebuild the country’s agriculture and fuel import industries and other ventures, which have faced extensive losses because of the war. The IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, provides private sector financing to developing countries. The loans differ from the billions that Ukraine has received in grants and other forms of no-strings-attached aid from donor nations, as they must be paid back. Since Russia invaded in February, at least 5 million jobs have been lost, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy. The National Bank of Ukraine estimates that 11% of businesses had closed as of September and more than half were operating below capacity. Loans to the country’s private sector will become more important in coming years as Ukraine’s finance ministry copes with a widening budget deficit. In addition, grants and other foreign aid are not guaranteed, and...

Wind turbines at the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm, off the coast of the Guerande peninsula in western France, on Sept. 22, 2022. STEPHANE MAHE/The Associated Press Climate change is the global economy’s biggest long-term challenge but one the world is least prepared to tackle because of short-term problems led by a cost-of-living crisis, the World Economic Forum said in a report Wednesday. The group’s Global Risks Report, released ahead of its annual gathering of government leaders and business elites next week in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos, offers a bleak outlook. The report based on a survey of 1,200 risk experts, industry bosses and policy-makers says the biggest challenges over the next decade involve the environment, yet more immediate challenges are distracting world leaders, some of whom will be in Davos for panel discussions and schmoozing at an event that has faced criticism for not producing concrete action. “The coming years will present tough trade-offs for gove...

Poland and Lithuania want to lower the price cap on Russian oil, and target Russia’s nuclear sector under new European Union sanctions against Moscow and Minsk for the war in Ukraine, senior diplomats from the two EU countries said on Friday. As the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion nears, Europe is also starting to roll out €18-billion ($19.4 bln) of support for Kyiv and considering giving it German Leopard 2 tanks. The EU’s leading Russia hawks will propose that the bloc bans more “Russian propaganda” media outlets and cuts more Russian banks from the SWIFT global messaging system, the diplomats said, asking not to be identified. “It is more and more difficult to get the necessary unanimity in the EU for more sanctions. Nonetheless, we will propose an ambitious new package,” one of the diplomats added. They said the 10th EU package of sanctions since Russia attacked Ukraine should be ready in time for the first anniversary of the invasion on Feb. 24. Russia has both condemned ...

A screen displaying Swiss Federal President Alain Berset during the "Davos Alliance" (conference of ministers of culture) on the sideline of the 52nd annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 15. GIAN EHRENZELLER/The Associated Press Food companies making big profits as inflation has surged should face windfall taxes to help cut global inequality, anti-poverty group Oxfam said Monday as the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting gets under way. That’s one of the ideas in a report by Oxfam International, which has sought for a decade to highlight inequality at the conclave of political and business elites in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. The report, which aims to provoke discussions on panels featuring corporate and government leaders this week, said the world has been beset with simultaneous crises, including climate change, the surging cost of living, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the world’s richest have gotte...

Private businesses in Ukraine are in line to receive $2 billion in financing arranged by the International Finance Corp. to help rebuild the country’s agriculture and fuel import industries and other ventures, which have faced extensive losses because of the war. The IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, provides private sector financing to developing countries. The loans differ from the billions that Ukraine has received in grants and other forms of no-strings-attached aid from donor nations, as they must be paid back. Since Russia invaded in February, at least 5 million jobs have been lost, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy. The National Bank of Ukraine estimates that 11% of businesses had closed as of September and more than half were operating below capacity. Loans to the country’s private sector will become more important in coming years as Ukraine’s finance ministry copes with a widening budget deficit. In addition, grants and other foreign aid are not guaranteed, and...