2025-01-17 12:28
GABORONE, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Botswana's economy is expected to grow 3% to 4% in 2025 after a contraction last year, a senior government official said at a budget workshop on Friday, as the global diamond market is anticipated to recover. The Southern African country's economy shrunk 3.3% in the first three quarters of 2024, raising government expectation of a bigger contraction than the 1.7% forecast in December. An updated contraction estimate was not given. "The domestic economy is anticipated to rebound in 2025 to a growth of 3-4%, reflecting a combination of base effects, the global recovery in the major diamond export markets and continued growth in the non-mining sector," director of macroeconomic policy in the finance ministry, Walter Matekane, said. Botswana's economy is largely dependent on the export of diamonds, and declining earnings from the precious stone have limited government spending. Diamond sales remained weak throughout 2024 and Debswana, a joint venture between Botswana and De Beers, lowered its production guidance for last year by about 6 million carats to 17.9 million carats. Botswana expects a recovery in mineral revenues to narrow the budget deficit to 3.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025/26 from 6.75% of GDP forecast for the 2024/2025 fiscal year, a presentation by Matekane showed. Botswana's finance minister Ndaba Gaolathe is expected to deliver the 2025/26 national budget in February. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/botswana-expects-2025-economic-growth-rebound-better-diamond-market-2025-01-17/
2025-01-17 12:04
MUMBAI, Jan 17 (Reuters) - India's foreign exchange reserves (INFXR=ECI) , opens new tab extended their losing streak for a sixth straight week and stood at a 10-month low of $625.87 billion as of Jan. 10, data from the Reserve Bank of India showed on Friday. The reserves declined by $8.72 billion in the reported week, the most in two months. They have fallen by a cumulative $23.5 billion in the prior five weeks, and are down by $79 billion from their all-time high of $704.89 billion hit in late September. Changes in foreign currency assets are caused by the central bank's intervention in the forex market as well as the appreciation or depreciation of foreign assets held in the reserves. The RBI intervenes on both sides of the forex market to curb undue volatility in the rupee. The currency has faced persistent headwinds over recent weeks from a surging U.S. dollar and weak capital flows. The central bank's routine interventions via state-run banks have, however, helped limit the rupee's losses. The RBI will be more judicious in its use of foreign exchange reserves to mitigate domestic currency market volatility amid strong global headwinds, Reuters reported this week. In the week of Jan. 10, the rupee had hit its then record low of 85.97 and logged its tenth consecutive weekly loss. The currency settled at 86.61 to the dollar on Friday, and fell 0.6% this week, its steepest weekly decline in 18 months. The forex reserves also include India's reserve tranche position in the International Monetary Fund. FOREIGN EXCHANGE RESERVES (in million U.S. dollars) --------------------------------------------------------- Jan 10 Jan 03 2025 2025 --------------------------------------------------------- Foreign currency assets 536,011 545,480 Gold 67,883 67,092 SDRs 17,781 17,815 Reserve Tranche Position 4,195 4,199 ---------------------------------------------------------- Total 625,871 634,585 ---------------------------------------------------------- Source text: (https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx , opens new tab) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-forex-reserves-slump-10-month-low-amid-sliding-rupee-2025-01-17/
2025-01-17 12:03
MILAN, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Italy's natural gas consumption fell to its lowest level in more than 15 years to 61.7 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2024, the country's power market manager GME said on Friday. An overall 2.5% annual drop was mainly due to a decrease in the use of gas in power generation, while consumption by companies and households was marginally higher compared to 2023, according to GME. On the supply side, gas imports fell last year to 58.7 bcm, touching their lowest level since 2015, GME said in its newsletter. Despite a drop of nearly 9% in the year in flows to Italy, Algeria remained the country's biggest gas provider with 21.1 bcm supplied in 2024. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports fell more than 9% to nearly 15 bcm, ranking as the second supply source for the country. Gas coming through pipelines from Azerbaijan was in third position at 10.3 bcm. Flows coming from Russia and other European countries via the TAG pipeline rose to 5.4 bcm. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italys-gas-consumption-lowest-more-than-15-years-2024-gme-says-2025-01-17/
2025-01-17 11:59
NEW DELHI, Jan 17 (Reuters) - India's federal cabinet has approved a financial plan of 114.40 billion rupees ($1.32 billion) to revive debt-laden steel producer Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), a minister said on Friday. The revival plan, which includes an equity capital infusion of 103 billion rupees, will help state-owned RINL revive blast furnaces to full capacity within six months, Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu Kinjarapu told reporters in New Delhi. ($1 = 86.5640 Indian rupees) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-approves-132-billion-revival-plan-debt-laden-rinl-minister-says-2025-01-17/
2025-01-17 11:52
Jan 17 (Reuters) - The pound dropped against the dollar and euro on Friday, after data showed that British retail sales fell unexpectedly in December, adding to an already-gloomy economic outlook. Retail sales, adjusted for the inclusion of the Black Friday sales at the start of the month, fell by 0.3% month-on-month in December after a downwardly revised 0.1% expansion in November, the Office for National Statistics said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a monthly increase in retail sales of 0.4%. The pound fell 0.3% against the dollar to $1.2197, not far from the 14-month low it touched on Monday. Traders added to their bets on Bank of England rate cuts after the figures, and now price in 66 basis points in cuts during 2025. This compares to the 42 bps of rate cuts investors expect from the U.S. Federal Reserve this year. A strong U.S. economic outlook, along with investor views that policies expected of President-elect Donald Trump could increase price pressures, has boosted the greenback against other major currencies. Concerns about the UK's fiscal outlook put additional pressure on the British pound and bond prices last week. The pound, last year's best performing G10 currency against the dollar, has lost 2.4% so far this year. The euro, on the other hand, has only fallen 0.5% against the dollar, and gained 2% over the pound, even as investors price in over 95 bps in rate cuts from the European Central Bank in 2025. While yields on UK government bonds, so-called gilts, have since fallen back from their recent highs, the challenges facing British finance minister Rachel Reeves linger. "Fundamentally, the UK continues to grapple with a stagnating economy, along with sticky price pressures – a grim combination...," said Michael Brown, strategist at Pepperstone. The British economy grew more slowly than expected in November, data showed on Thursday. Investors are hunkering down for a stretch of losses as ructions in the pound, government bonds and stocks feed on each other and put Britain at risk of a wave of hedge fund attacks. "It's difficult to see really how things are going to turn around from here," said Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index, highlighting that a large proportion of retailers were looking to pass on costs from a higher tax burden. Two-thirds of British retailers will raise prices this year in response to higher employer social security costs introduced in the new Labour government's first budget, a survey of finance chiefs showed on Wednesday. "We're looking really at this stagflationary outlook... And we're seeing that reflected in the weak pound," Cincotta said. The euro rose 0.3% against the pound on Friday to 84.42 pence. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/sterling-drops-weak-retail-sales-add-stagnation-woes-2025-01-17/
2025-01-17 11:51
MOSCOW, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday he believed their two countries could finalise agreements on the construction of a nuclear power plant in Iran. The two were meeting in the Kremlin before the planned signing of a strategic cooperation treaty. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/iran-russia-can-finalise-nuclear-plant-agreements-pezeshkian-tells-putin-2025-01-17/
