2025-04-11 12:58
BRASILIA, April 11 (Reuters) - Brazil's economic activity rose more than expected in February, central bank data showed on Friday, despite expectations for a slowdown during one of the world's most aggressive monetary tightening cycles to tame inflation. The IBC-Br index, a key gauge of gross domestic product (GDP), grew 0.4% from January on a seasonally adjusted basis, outpacing the 0.15% rise forecast in a Reuters poll of economists. Sign up here. The index aggregates data from agriculture, industry, and services sectors, along with tax data on production. A breakdown of the data, released for the first time by the central bank, showed the February gain was largely driven by a 5.6% jump in agricultural activity. Excluding that, the index would have shown a 0.2% decline for the month, the central bank said. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the IBC-Br rose 4.1% from February 2024 and climbed 3.8% in the 12-month period. The central bank has said it is closely monitoring economic activity as it presses ahead with its tightening cycle, which has raised the benchmark Selic rate by 375 basis points since September to 14.25%, with another hike already flagged for May. Earlier this month, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad projected that Latin America's largest economy will expand by 2.5% in 2025, down from 3.4% last year. But the projection is still more optimistic than the 1.97% forecast by economists surveyed weekly by the central bank. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-economic-activity-beats-forecasts-february-defies-slowdown-expectations-2025-04-11/
2025-04-11 12:45
LUSAKA, April 11 (Reuters) - Zambia will resume construction of a power line linking it to East Africa, creating one of the largest energy markets in the world, a senior World Bank official said on Friday. Work on the Zambia–Tanzania Interconnector Project is set to resume this month, with estimated completion in 2028, Achim Fock, country manager for Zambia at the World Bank, said on Friday during a signing ceremony. Sign up here. The $320 million project to connect Zambia and Tanzania's power supplies is being financed by the World Bank, the European Union and Britain. The cost of the remaining work is $298 million, of which a World Bank grant will cover $245 million, Acting Finance Minister Chipoka Mulenga said, at the same event. The project was first floated more than a decade ago but has been stalled for various reasons, most recently due to COVID-19 as well as concerns over Zambia's debt default in late 2020. Zambia struck a deal with bondholders last year and is seen as a test case for a debt rework under the Common Framework, a G20 platform to bring together big creditors like China and the group of established creditor nations known as the Paris Club. Fock said an integrated market connecting the Southern and East African power pools would help lower electricity costs and increase energy security, and create new opportunities for trade and investment in the power sector across Africa. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/zambia-resume-work-power-line-link-tanzania-world-bank-official-says-2025-04-11/
2025-04-11 12:32
Trump's tariffs set to inflate prices of German imports U.S. is Germany's biggest trading partner Tariffs risk prolonging Germany's economic recession BERLIN, April 11 (Reuters) - In the Barbie movie, the iconic doll faces a pivotal decision: opt for her trademark but impractical sky-high stilettos or embrace the down-to-earth comfort of the quintessentially German Birkenstock sandal? Now, however, Barbie may have another consideration: price. Sign up here. U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs are poised to inflate the prices U.S. shoppers pay for many German products - from Birkenstock (BIRK.N) , opens new tab sandals to Paulaner beer and Riesling wine. Trump's tariff offensive is testing relations between the two allies, threatening their two-way trade and risking major damage to an already limping German economy. And for German companies, it will test whether U.S. consumers - long willing to pay more for the renowned quality of the country's goods - can stomach even higher prices at a time when U.S. policies threaten to spark a recession. "Both European producers and U.S. consumers will suffer," said Rodger Wegner, president of the Association of Exporting Breweries, which represents German beer brands including Karlsberg, Lowenbrau and Radeberger. Germany, like most of the world, is now subject to a 10% tariff on its exports to the United States. But a 20% rate is still looming despite a 90-day pause. The duties could not come at a worse time for Europe's biggest economy, with economists predicting the trade turmoil could put it on track for a third year of recession for the first time in its history. The U.S. was Germany's biggest trading partner in 2024 with two-way goods trade totalling 253 billion euros ($277.84 billion). 'A BITTER PILL' Birkenstock, like many other companies, may pass the cost onto consumers through price hikes, though it declined to say whether it planned to when asked by Reuters. However, even with higher prices, the brand could still have an advantage as consumers prioritise spending on comfort and quality, said Jessica Ramirez, co-founder of the retail consultancy The Consumer Collective. A weekly survey by industry association Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America found shoe sales since Trump's inauguration were down 9.5% from the same period last year. Birkenstock, however, said it has not seen any noticeable change in demand. It produces 95% of its shoes at its own factories in Germany and said its vertical integration makes it less exposed to tariffs than peers. The company said it was pushing ahead with expansion in the U.S. - a crucial market - despite the current turmoil, with plans to open up to five more of its own new stores there by the end of September, for a total of 15. "We're not going to alter our highly targeted retail expansion plans due to short-term disruptions," a spokesperson said. Whether that strategy pays off will likely come down to consumers like Clay White. The software engineer from North Carolina bought his first Birkenstocks in 2011 and is now on his third pair, but a severe price spike would make him think twice about buying another. "If they're going to be ... say over $200, then I would probably try and find a used pair," White told Reuters. "Or maybe I would purchase them in Europe." Birkenstock's bestselling Arizona leather sandals retail for between $130 and $350. German brewers are in a similar dilemma. The U.S. is the third-biggest market for German beer outside the EU. But production costs have risen sharply in recent years, the Association of Exporting Breweries' Wegner said, and U.S. beer drinkers would inevitably have to shoulder the tariff burden. The U.S. is also the biggest export market for German wines, with the sector earning around 63 million euros there, about a sixth of total export sales, data from the German Wine Association showed. For Dr. Loosen, a winery in the Mosel region known for Riesling, which exports a third of its production to the U.S., the financial implications of Trump's tariffs appear unavoidable. "It will be a bitter pill to swallow," said Thomas Loosen, the company's co-manager. ($1 = 0.9106 euros) https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/german-birkenstocks-beer-riesling-wine-caught-us-tariff-crosshairs-2025-04-11/
2025-04-11 12:19
BUDAPEST, April 11 (Reuters) - Hungary's parliament will hold a confirmation hearing of former government debt agency leader Zoltan Kurali for central bank Deputy Governor next Tuesday, the agenda of the meeting showed on Friday. Prime Minister Viktor Orban's former finance minister, Mihaly Varga, took over as Governor last month amid strengthening risks to Hungary's economic growth and inflation outlook ahead of a 2026 parliamentary election. Sign up here. The National Bank of Hungary left its benchmark interest rate steady at the European Union's joint-highest level of 6.5% at Varga's first policy meeting last month and ruled out rate cuts for the foreseeable future as inflation rebounds. Earlier this week the bank said U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs could lop 0.5 to 0.6 percentage points off Hungary's growth, denting recovery prospects after two years of near-stagnation amid an inflation surge to the EU's highest levels. An economist, Kurali had worked at several commercial and investment banks, including Citi and Deutsche Bank, where he held various management and senior investment banking positions before taking over at government debt agency AKK in 2019. Central bank Deputy Governor Mihaly Patai's six-year term is due to expire later this month, while Csaba Kandracs's six-year mandate as Deputy Governor expires in October. Kurali's confirmation is expected to be a formality given Orban's commanding majority in parliament. If appointed, Kurali could attend his first policy meeting on April 29. After leaving its base rate steady in a unanimous decision last month, the central bank raised its 2025 inflation forecast to between 4.5% and 5.1% and said tariff hikes and buoyant services and food prices posed upside risks to that projection. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/former-debt-agency-leader-kurali-tapped-hungary-central-bank-deputy-governor-2025-04-11/
2025-04-11 11:43
ABU DHABI, April 11 (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Friday that the United States could stop its oil exports to Iran as part of President Donald Trump's plan to pressure Tehran over its nuclear programme. The January return to the White House of Trump, who in his first term withdrew the United States from a 2015 power accord with Tehran and clamped down on its oil exports, has again brought a tougher approach to the Middle Eastern power over its nuclear work. Sign up here. Wright, speaking to Reuters during a visit to Abu Dhabi, said he thought the Gulf allies of the United States were extremely concerned about a nuclear-powered Iran and shared the U.S. resolve that this is an outcome that is in no one's best interest. Iranian oil exports recovered under Joe Biden, who became president after Trump's first term, and so far in 2025 have yet to show a decline, according to industry data. China, which opposes unilateral sanctions, buys the bulk of Iran's shipments. "That's actually very doable. President Trump actually did it in the first term," Wright said when asked how the United States can enforce its maximum pressure policy on Tehran. "We can follow the ships leaving Iran. We know where they go. We can stop Iran's export of oil. "I’m not going to talk about the specific methodology of how that’s going to happen. But can we turn the screws on Iran 100%," he said when asked if the United States would stop Iranian ships at sea. Iran said on Friday that it was giving high-level nuclear talks with the United States on Saturday "a genuine chance" after Trump threatened bombing if discussions failed. Wright also predicted that there would be a positive outlook for oil demand and supply in the next few years under Trump's policies, and the concern of markets about economic growth will be proven wrong. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-energy-secretary-says-we-can-stop-irans-oil-exports-2025-04-11/
2025-04-11 11:42
BEIJING/MADRID, April 11 (Reuters) - China has signed two agricultural trade protocols with Spain covering pork and cherries as the world's second largest economy acts to bolster ties with the European Union amid an escalating trade war between Beijing and the U.S. The deal, announced Friday by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Beijing, came after U.S. President Donald Trump hiked tariffs on Chinese imports to 145%, prompting China to raise its own duties on U.S. goods to 125%. Sign up here. "In a context of enormous international commercial turbulence, derived from the tariff crisis, we welcome with optimism and hope this new gesture from the Asian giant, which is opening up new options for the supply of pork products," said the National Association of Spanish Meat Industries (ANICE). The new deal includes pork stomach exports - a product widely consumed in China but not previously authorised, according to Daniel de Miguel, international manager of Interporc, Spain's pork producers association. Analysts regard the deal as a signal Beijing might ease its anti-dumping inquiry into EU pork , opens new tab, launched last year in retaliation for EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. The investigation could badly impact countries like Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark because a large portion of the EU's pork shipments to China are pig ears, noses, feet and offal - products rarely consumed in Europe but popular in China. "This is great news for Spain's pig farmers," said Even Rogers Pay, agriculture analyst at Trivium China. "It suggests regulators may delay or ease the pork investigation, as they recently did with brandy." China has extended its investigation into EU brandy by three months and is in talks with the 27-nation EU to set minimum prices for Chinese EVs. "This is part of a pattern of Beijing seeking to stabilise and improve its trade relationships with multiple key trade partners, including the EU," Pay added. Trump's announcement on Wednesday of a 90-day tariff pause for dozens of countries prompted the EU to hold off on retaliatory levies on about 21 billion euros ($23.85 billion) of U.S. imports set to take effect on April 15. The bloc is still assessing how to respond to U.S. car tariffs and the broader 10% levies that remain in place. China imported $4.8 billion worth of pork, including offal, in 2024 - over half of it from the EU, with Spain leading the bloc in exports by volume. China's pork inquiry is due to conclude by June 17, but could be extended. ($1 = 0.8804 euros) https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-expands-access-spanish-pork-trade-tensions-with-us-mount-2025-04-11/
