World

Bitcoin has leapt since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, bolstered by people in those countries looking to store and move money in anonymous and decentralised crypto. Bitcoin trading denominated in the Russian rouble went into overdrive when the invasion began on Thursday, with daily volumes rising 259per cent from a day earlier to 1.3 billion rouble ($13.1 million), according to data from CryptoCompare. In Ukraine, meanwhile, crypto exchange Kuna saw its daily trading volume more than treble to 150 million hryvnias ($5 million). Bea O'Carroll, managing director at Radkl, a digital asset investment firm, said the war and Western sanctions had seen a trend emerge of bitcoin being used to transfer value. "Basically, having a currency that is not controlled by the government, that is not aff...

COLOMBO: The International Monetary Fund warned crisis-hit Sri Lanka on Thursday (Mar 3) that its foreign debt was "unsustainable", and called for devaluation and higher taxes to revive the almost bankrupt economy. The pandemic pushed the South Asian island's tourism sector - a key foreign-exchange earner - off a cliff, and the government in March 2020 imposed a broad import ban to try to shore up foreign currency. But more than two years on, Sri Lanka is grappling with food and fuel shortages, which this week saw its public transport crippled as buses ran out of diesel and the state imposed blackouts. Following its annual review of the cash-strapped country, the IMF said its fast-dwindling foreign reserves were inadequate to service the country's current foreign debt of US$51 billion. ...

Bridgestone Corp. said Monday it will suspend operations at a factory in Russia later this week while halting exports of tires to the country immediately as the situation remains uncertain following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine last month. The major Japanese tire-maker said it will suspend production at its passenger car tire plant in Ulyanovsk in western Russia from Friday and freeze all new capital investment. Bridgestone said it has only one factory in Russia, and sales from the country account for around 2% of the group's total revenue. In a statement, the company said it reached the decision "after examining the latest situations thoroughly and comprehensively." Bridgestone also said it will donate a total of around ¥500 million ($4.2 million) to the Office of the U.N. High Commis...

A majority (up to 85%) of the emissions from a barrel of oil come when transportation, such as your car, is driven, according to Carbon Tracker. It's a stark example of how difficult the net-zero goal will be for companies, but far from the only one. SMEs account for 95% of businesses globally, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Many of them play interconnected roles in the creation of the products and services of large corporations. Though the burning of fossil fuels is the chief driver of the climate crisis, the world is set to become even more dependent on energy sources such as oil and gas in the coming decades. That comes even as world leaders and CEOs repeatedly tout their commitment to the so-called "energy transition." The carbon calculator ...

US trade officials on Monday said they will launch an investigation that could result in tariffs on solar panels imported from four Southeast Asian nations, a blow to clean energy project developers that rely on cheap imports to keep costs down. The Commerce Department's decision regarding imports from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia was a victory for Auxin Solar. The San Jose, California-based solar manufacturer this year requested the probe, arguing that Chinese manufacturers shifted production to those nations to avoid paying U.S. duties in place for nearly a decade on Chinese-made solar goods. Auxin's petition is the latest in a string of efforts by US solar producers to stem the flow of cheap Asian panels that they argue make their products unable to compete in the market. ...

China’s support for Russia in the war in Ukraine is showing its limits as the domestic costs for President Xi Jinping start to outweigh the benefits of confronting the U.S. Whether a trade war or a real one like in Ukraine, China has shown that it will try to prevent its geopolitical struggles with the U.S. from hurting the domestic economy. A rapidly worsening COVID-19 situation and the need to maintain stability in a pivotal year for Xi make it less likely the Chinese leader would allow Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to blow back at home. Signs of domestic pressure were evident Tuesday, as U.S. warnings against Chinese financial and military support for Russia deepened investor concerns that the world’s two largest economies might decouple. An index of Hong Kong-listed Chinese sh...

MILAN :KKR remains interested in taking over Telecom Italia (TIM) and also wants to discuss the phone group's own plans to combine its fixed line assets with those of state-backed rival Open Fiber, two sources said on Thursday. KKR submitted a non-binding 10.8 billion euro ($11.9 billion) takeover proposal for TIM in November, having already invested 1.8 billion euros for a 37.5per cent stake in the group's last-mile fixed-line network last year. Italy's largest telecoms company left the New York-based fund waiting for nearly four months without an answer before TIM's board agreed earlier in March to engage in talks. TIM shares rose as much as 12per cent on Thursday to trade at just under 0.34 euros, as KKR remained in the game and other private equity firms circle with a view to invest...

PHNOM PENH: A Cambodian court handed out jail terms Thursday (Mar 17) to 20 opposition figures including exiled leader Sam Rainsy, who condemned the judgment as a fresh bid by strongman ruler Hun Sen to quash dissent. Rainsy has lived in France since 2015 to avoid jail on a number of convictions he says are politically motivated, including a 25-year sentence passed in March last year. The court jailed Rainsy and six other senior opposition figures for 10 years, and 13 more activists for five years. One other activist was given a suspended five-year sentence. "The justice system has again been used as a blunt political tool in an attempt to quash opposition to Hun Sen's dictatorship. Opposing dictators is a duty, not a crime," Rainsy wrote on his Twitter account. There were scuffles out...

MANILA :The Philippine central bank left key interest rates steady on Thursday to shore up a domestic economy facing risks from global uncertainties, but it raised inflation forecasts and highlighted its readiness to temper increasing price pressures. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) kept the rate on the overnight reverse repurchase facility at 2.0per cent for an eleventh straight policy meeting, as predicted by all 17 economists in a March 15-21 Reuters poll. The interest rates on the overnight deposit and lending facilities were likewise kept at 1.5per cent and 2.5per cent, respectively. "The Monetary Board sees scope to maintain the BSP's policy settings in order to safeguard the momentum of economic recovery amid increased uncertainty, even as it continues to develop its plans ...

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