2024-12-16 10:42

BRUSSELS, June 4 (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Wednesday Bulgaria can enter the euro zone and become the bloc's 21st member from 2026. European Union countries aspiring to adopt the single currency need to fulfil criteria in four areas: inflation, public finances, the exchange rate and long-term borrowing costs. Sign up here. INFLATION * Inflation in the candidate country needs to be close to that in the three best performing EU members for a period of one year before examination of the country's bid. The upper limit for inflation is calculated as the average of the three best performers, plus 1.5 percentage point. DEFICIT/DEBT * The candidate cannot be under the EU's excessive deficit procedure which is designed to discipline countries that run a budget deficit above the EU limit of 3% of GDP. EXCHANGE RATE * A candidate country's currency must remain stable within a corridor of +/- 15% around a central parity rate against the euro over two years, in what is called the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM-2). The currency can appreciate, but should not devalue in a significant way. LONG-TERM BORROWING COSTS * Yields on long-term government bonds issued by the candidate country should not be more than 2 percentage points above the average of the three European Union countries with the lowest inflation, which were used for setting the price stability criterion. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/criteria-adopt-euro-currency-2025-06-04/

2024-12-16 10:24

MUMBAI, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee declined to its weakest closing level on record on Monday hurt by a rise in U.S. bond yields, weakness in the Chinese yuan and data which showed that India's merchandise trade deficit widened to a record high in November. The rupee closed at 84.8625 against the U.S. dollar, down nearly 0.1% on the day. India's merchandise trade deficit (INTRD=ECI) , opens new tab rose to $37.84 billion in November, according to a Reuters calculation based on export and import data released by the government. Economists had expected the deficit to be $23.9 billion, according to a Reuters poll. In October, the merchandise trade deficit stood at $27.14 billion. A decline in the yuan and elevated U.S. bond yields had weighed on the rupee through the session and the currency declined further after the trade data was released close to the end of the session. The dollar index was slightly higher at 106.9 while the offshore Chinese yuan slipped 0.2% to 7.29 per dollar. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was little changed in Asia trading at 4.38% after rising 7 basis points on Friday while the 1-year Treasury yield rose to 4.27% with investors' focus turning to the Federal Reserve policy decision due on Wednesday. "While there's potential for a short-term pullback in USD due to year-end seasonality and stretched positioning, any dips may be seen as a buying opportunity," Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo, said in a note. The Fed is widely expected to cut rates by 25 basis points this week and investors will keep an eye on any hawkish revisions to policymakers' interest rate projections. Analysts reckon that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's policies may renew inflationary pressures in the world's largest economy and potentially slow the pace of future rate cuts by the Fed. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/rupee-logs-record-closing-low-hurt-by-weak-yuan-elevated-us-bond-yields-2024-12-16/

2024-12-16 10:21

ZURICH, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank will lower the threshold factor where it pays interest on sight deposits to commercial banks lodging money with it overnight, the central bank said on Monday. The SNB will pay interest at its policy rate of 0.5% to banks up to 20 times their minimum reserve requirement from February 1 next year, down from 22 times previously. Sight deposits held above the threshold will be remunerated at a discount rate, which is currently 0%. The SNB said the change in thresholds was to counteract the increase in reserve requirements for lenders that the SNB introduced earlier this year. Sight deposits held by the SNB have ballooned in recent years as a result of the SNB's foreign currency purchases. On Monday, the SNB said it held 456 billion Swiss francs ($512.30 billion) in sight deposits. The move follows the latest cut in the SNB's interest rate, which was lowered by 50 basis points last week to 0.5%, the lowest level since November 2022. Monday's adjustment "has no impact on the current monetary policy stance", the SNB said. ($1 = 0.8901 Swiss francs) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/snb-lowers-threshold-factor-sight-deposit-interest-payments-2024-12-16/

2024-12-16 07:24

Country's biggest fossil fuel company a vital fuel source Pollution from coal-to-liquid plants blamed for health woes Sasol repeatedly gets waivers from SO2 emissions standards SASOLBURG, South Africa, Dec 16 (Reuters) - From the moment Mpho Putsoenyane's daughter Hlompho was born in Zamdela, a South African township beside the smokestacks and gas flares of Sasol's (SOLJ.J) , opens new tab oldest coal-to-liquid refinery, the baby struggled to breathe. Last year, when she was four months old, she turned purple and started gasping. Her parents rushed the baby to hospital, where medics only just revived her heart with a defibrillator, Putsoenyane recalls. "We were terrified," she told Reuters at her brick bungalow, pausing to wipe away tears. "We thought she was going to die." Sasolburg, as the petrochemical giant's refinery town north of Zamdela is called, has been identified by government officials as one of several areas of South Africa in urgent need of cutting harmful air pollution from burning coal. It also encapsulates a dilemma facing many coal-dependent nations: how to reduce emissions of toxic air pollutants without hurting strategic industries or killing low-skilled jobs. Coal keeps 90,000 people in work and produces 80% of South Africa's electricity and a third of its liquid fuel, a carbon-intensive and highly polluting process that Sasol pioneered during white minority rule. When Reuters visited the town 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Johannesburg last month, it was cloaked in smog and pervaded by the stink of sulphur. Putsoenyane was among four families that Reuters spoke to with breathing problems they blamed on the air. When Hlompho's parents took her to a lung specialist in the nearest big city, Bloemfontein, the girl immediately improved. As soon as they got home, though, she was rasping again. The doctor blamed air pollution and said she wouldn't recover unless they moved, Putsoenyane said. "But we can't move," Putsoenyane said. Her husband Joseph works for a firm providing services to Sasol. It has paid for their school fees, TV, stereo and microwave, among other trappings of modern life. "So I took her to my father's house in (neighbouring) Lesotho. Ever since, she's been fine," Putsoenyane said. "But I only see her every six months." HEALTH PROBLEMS IN THE COAL BELT A recently published government-sponsored study examined 700 school children aged 9 to 14 who had been exposed to high levels of pollution in the Highveld coal belt west of Johannesburg, where Sasol has a separate plant and where several coal-fired power stations also operate. The study found "airway inflammation, abnormal lung function, and asthma symptoms". To attempt to address the problem, the government in 2010 set tougher, legally-binding minimum emissions standards for pollutants like sulphur dioxide. "The Highveld and Sasolburg are among South Africa's most polluted regions ... to address this, the government declared these as priority areas to improve the air people breathe," environment department spokesperson Peter Mbelengwa said. But Sasol and other big air polluters have repeatedly - and successfully - sought temporary exemptions from pollution rules. The company lobbied, in private letters to the environment department in October 2022 and March last year, for "less stringent emissions standards for older facilities" because of the cost of trying to retrofit pollution filters. A Sasol spokesperson referred Reuters to an August 2023 statement saying that "various (clean air) technologies ... were found to be practically infeasible to install in Sasol's existing plants". The spokesperson did not respond to a further request for comment on the specific case of Hlompho and her family. The private letters, seen by Reuters, were obtained by shareholder activist group Just Share under freedom of information laws. The national air quality officer initially rejected Sasol's plea, government documents show. But in April, then environment minister Barbara Creecy overruled the decision to grant Sasol its exemption. "While Sasol ... (has) been granted temporary reprieve from meeting certain emission limits, they must still implement pollution control measures" to meet license terms, Mbelengwa said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/south-africas-smoggy-sasolburg-illustrates-conflict-between-economy-clean-air-2024-12-16/

2024-12-16 06:56

HAMBURG, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The Mosel in west Germany was partially reopened to cargo shipping on Monday after a temporary lock was installed over the weekend, but the number of vessels able to sail will be limited, navigation authorities said. The river, an important transit route for grains and rapeseed between Germany and France, was closed to inland waterways shipping last week after an accident which damaged a lock at Mueden south of Koblenz and repairs are likely to last until spring 2025. But a temporary lock was installed over the weekend and tested successfully, the German navigation agency WSA said. The first trapped ship transited the temporary lock system on Monday without problems and sailed towards the Rhine, the WSA said. The 80 metre long vessel was carrying malting barley, it said. But only about five or six ships a day will be able to pass initially. Some 74 ships are blocked because of the damage, many operating for grain and rapeseed shipments to and from the French port of Metz. European rapeseed futures rose last week after trading platform Euronext's said it will suspend physical delivery to river ports in eastern France for the February contract, following the blockage of the Mosel. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/mosel-river-germany-partially-reopen-shipping-sailings-limited-2024-12-16/

2024-12-16 06:43

Hundreds, possibly thousands, feared dead from Cyclone Chido Establishing full damage and deaths will take days Impoverished French islands are home to 321,000 people Wreckage of destroyed houses strewn on hillsides PARIS/MORONI, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Emergency workers searched for survivors on Monday and battled to restore services in Mayotte, France's poorest overseas territory, where hundreds, or even thousands, are feared dead from the worst cyclone to hit the Indian Ocean islands in nearly a century. Cyclone Chido devastated large parts of the archipelago off east Africa over the weekend with winds of more than 200 kph (124 mph), strewing homes over hillsides, and cutting off phones, power and drinking water. With areas still inaccessible, France's acting Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said it would take days to ascertain the full extent of damage and deaths, stressing he feared the toll would be "heavy, too heavy". "I wouldn't be able... to give you any figures, not for the moment anyway. It's clear that the island is totally devastated," Retailleau said during a press conference. After holding an emergency meeting about Mayotte with his cabinet, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would visit the archipelago in the "coming days", adding that he would declare a day of national mourning. "At the meeting of the crisis unit, I ensured that all emergency measures to help the people of Mayotte were taken and that the continuity of the state be guaranteed," Macron said in a post on X. Residents queued outside grocery stores in search of water and other basics. "It really is a war landscape. I don't recognise anything any more. There's not even a tree left, the hills, there's not a blade of grass, it's extraordinary," Mayotte resident Camille Cozon Abdourazak told Reuters by video call after her power was restored. "I found a shop open that had water. There were still a few tins of milk left, so I was able to buy a tin of milk for my baby and one for my friend's baby next door," she added. Teacher Hamada Ali described streets that were covered in mud and trees. People were sheltering in schools and bottled water was being used for cooking, he said. "Houses with sheet metal roofs were swept away by the cyclone," he added. Communications were down in large parts of the territory, leaving relatives outside desperately enquiring on social media. "I need an update from Chiconi please, my brother, my sister-in-law and my niece are there and I'm without any news since Saturday," said one. Acting health minister Genevieve Darrieussecq said the main hospital in the capital Mamoudzou was maintaining operations after floodwaters damaged surgical and intensive care units and a field clinic would be set up and 100 additional medics deployed. More than three-quarters of Mayotte's 321,000 people live in relative poverty. According to 2021 figures from statistics agency INSEE, Mayotte has an annual median disposable income of just over 3,000 euros ($3,150) per inhabitant, roughly eight times less than the Ile-de-France region around Paris. BIGGEST STORM IN 90 YEARS The islands, close to the Comoros archipelago, first came under France's control in 1841. Mayotte is made up of two main islands over an area about twice the size of Washington, DC. It has been grappling with unrest in recent years, with many residents angry at undocumented immigration and inflation. The territory has become a stronghold for the far-right National Rally with 60% voting for Marine Le Pen in the 2022 presidential election runoff. Chido was the strongest storm to strike Mayotte in more than 90 years, French weather service Meteo France said. Extreme weather events have become more common around the globe, in keeping with climate change. Poorer nations often say they are bearing the brunt of the environmental crisis despite historically emitting far less CO2 than richer countries. "It was evident that ... when a cyclone hit ... we would find ourselves in a situation," left-wing lawmaker Eric Coquerel told French broadcaster LCI, saying the destruction in Mayotte laid bare a failure to prepare for the impact of climate change. Around the territory, hundreds of makeshift houses were smashed and scattered, images from local media and the French gendarmerie showed. Coconut trees crashed through building roofs, boats were upended, rubble covered cars and people cowered under tables when the cyclone hit. "I was screaming because I could see the end coming for me," John Balloz, who lives in Mamoudzou, told Reuters. After hitting Mayotte, Chido made landfall in north Mozambique, where it quickly weakened and was reclassified as a tropical storm on Sunday but still destroyed several houses, authorities said. The prefect of Mayotte, Francois-Xavier Bieuville, said at the weekend that deaths would definitely be in the hundreds and possibly several thousand. Maritime and aerial operations were underway to transport relief supplies and equipment, including from Reunion Island, another French overseas territory, French authorities said. Mayotte's main airport, however, remained closed to civilian flights on Monday morning, said Jean-Paul Bosland, the president of France's national firefighters' federation. ($1 = 0.9525 euros) Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/french-military-aid-starts-arrive-cylcone-battered-mayotte-2024-12-16/