2025-09-15 07:53
Palm oil imports rise 15.8% m/m to 990,528 tons Soyoil imports fall 25.3% m/m to 367,917 tons Sunflower oil imports rise 28.5% m/m to 257,080 tons MUMBAI, Sept 15 (Reuters) - India's palm oil imports jumped in August to their highest level in more than a year, as competitive pricing relative to soyoil prompted refiners to step up purchases ahead of the festive season, a leading trade body said on Monday. Higher palm oil imports by India, the world's largest buyer of vegetable oils, are expected to help top producers Indonesia and Malaysia reduce inventories and support benchmark Malaysian palm oil futures . Sign up here. India's palm oil imports in August rose 15.76% to 990,528 metric tons, reaching their highest point since July 2024, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) said. Imports of soyoil decreased 25.27% to 367,917 tons, the lowest level in four months, and sunflower oil imports rose 28.53% to a seven-month high of 257,080 tons, the industry trade body said. In August, India imported 6,000 tons of canola oil for the first time in nearly five years, the SEA said. Higher imports of palm oil and sunflower oil lifted India's total edible oil imports in August by 4.7% to 1.62 million tons month-on-month, the highest level since July 2024, the SEA said. Refiners are gearing up for the upcoming festive season, and imports are expected to stay above 800,000 tons in September, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house. Demand for edible oil, particularly palm oil, in India typically rises during the festival season due to increased consumption of sweets and fried foods. India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia, while it imports soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine. India imported 589,283 tons of duty-free edible oils from Nepal in the first nine months of the marketing year ending October, under a regional trade pact, the SEA said. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-august-palm-oil-imports-hit-1-year-high-festive-demand-price-advantage-2025-09-15/
2025-09-15 07:35
Sept 15 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's satellite internet service Starlink was back online for most users after a brief outage on Monday, according to tracking website Downdetector.com. The number of U.S. users reporting issues fell below 1,000 as of 1:15 a.m. ET (0515 GMT), down from a peak of more than 43,000, Downdetector said. The platform tracks outages by collating status reports from multiple sources. Sign up here. Starlink's website reported an outage early on Monday, without providing further details. "Starlink is currently experiencing a service outage. Our team is investigating," it said. The message has since been removed. The commander of Ukraine's drone forces Robert Brovdi reported that the Starlink outage affected the entire frontline of the war with Russia starting at 07:28 local time (0428 GMT). "Another global outage at SpaceX," he wrote on the Telegram messaging app, adding that the service started coming back around half an hour later. Ukraine's forces are heavily reliant on SpaceX's Starlink terminals for battlefield communications and some drone operations. More than 50,000 terminals are currently in operation in Ukraine, according to officials. Starlink, operated by Musk's SpaceX, provides internet services via a constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites and is widely used in remote areas and conflict zones. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment. https://www.reuters.com/technology/musks-starlink-service-back-up-after-brief-outage-affects-thousands-users-2025-09-15/
2025-09-15 07:08
Sept 15 (Reuters) - In the lush highlands of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, coffee crops are rotting and withering as an escalation in the decades-long conflict in the region has kept farmers from tending to their land this year. Fighting between the government and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels escalated at the start of the year as rebels seized major cities in North and South Kivu provinces, prime coffee-growing areas known for their high-quality Arabica beans. Sign up here. The latest hostilities have killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more, including farmers. They have also blocked export routes, threatening to curtail what had been a remarkable recovery for the nation's coffee industry following years of decline. Coffee bean production in Congo topped 100,000 metric tons a year in the late 1980s, according to U.N. data, but fell sharply in the 1990s as DRC forces and other armed groups fought in devastating wars rooted in Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Output climbed again in the past decade, reaching just over 62,000 tons in 2023, the U.N. data shows. Cooperatives like SOPACDI in South Kivu province were getting international recognition for their quality beans, and improvements had been made in production methods and in deepening global market connections. Now those gains are under threat. At the state-run coffee factory in Bukavu, the South Kivu capital, rows of drying beds laid empty during a Reuters visit earlier this month. François Kambale Nzanzu, the director of the state agriculture office that oversees exports, said that while coffee trees flowered abundantly this year, fighting and banking disruptions have hit exports. "We had a lot of coffee, but there weren't many exporters this year," Nzanzu said. In Muganzo, also in South Kivu, farmer Mudekereza Kashugushu Celestin surveyed the sorry state of his plantation, where fallen trees and shrivelled beans littered the ground. "There's nothing left of the coffee I had. Even those that remain are already rotten and dry," he said. The damage has left him struggling to support his family and pay his children's school fees. "I used to harvest $300 worth of coffee each year, but this year I only got $50," he said. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/congo-coffee-farmers-fear-war-will-undo-recent-gains-2025-09-15/
2025-09-15 07:07
NAIROBI, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Borrowing costs for governments and businesses in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya have risen in the last five years due to policy weaknesses, unfavourable market conditions and inflation, according to a study by Moody's Ratings published on Monday. Although economies in the region face ever-rising funding needs to keep development and growth on track, they have to contend with high interest rates compared with their advanced counterparts, which is compounded by limited sources of capital. Sign up here. "Borrowing costs are high across the board," Moody's Senior Vice President Lucie Villa said in the report based on a study of credit conditions in the three markets. "Debt costs for banks, non-financial companies and sovereigns have increased in all three markets alongside higher policy rates during the past five years." While borrowing from development partners, which typically lend at low interest rates, has helped to lower foreign currency debt costs, it has not fully offset high local and foreign capital market interest rates, the report found. The costs of borrowing on international markets for the three countries have come down, with interest spreads over U.S. Treasuries easing for lower-rated Kenya and Nigeria since 2022, but they still stand at around 500 basis points, it said. South Africa enjoys lower interest rates due to being an emerging economy with deeper domestic capital markets and an effective monetary policy structure, but its costs are considered high relative to many of its emerging market peers due to fiscal constraints. "Without improvements, South Africa risks continuing a negative spiral in which high interest rates aimed at attracting inflows amid subdued growth limit domestic investment and further hinder economic prospects," the report said. Moody's blamed overborrowing by the Kenyan government and shallow local markets for limiting access to credit for businesses, while high inflation and low savings curb availability of low interest credit for Nigerian companies. Redressing the imbalances that keep financing costs high, including the creation of effective policy structures, will take time, Moody's said. https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sub-saharan-africas-major-economies-hit-by-high-finance-costs-moodys-says-2025-09-15/
2025-09-15 06:59
MUMBAI, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee treaded water on Monday and the dollar-rupee forward premiums lingered near a four-month high, buoyed by expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will resume cutting interest rates this week after a 9-month hiatus. The rupee was at 88.25 against the U.S. dollar as of 11:05 a.m. IST, little changed from its close of 88.2750 in the previous session. Sign up here. Asian currency trends were mixed with the Korean won up about 0.4% while the Indonesian rupiah and Thai baht slipped. The dollar was steady against major peers as investors braced for a week dominated by central bank policy decisions from Washington to Tokyo. While the Bank of Japan and Bank of England are expected to keep rates unchanged in their policy decisions due on Friday and Thursday, respectively, the Fed is widely expected to cut rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday. "A 25bp cut is unlikely to be unanimous, with several dissents possible. At least one official is expected to vote for 50 bps, and it is possible at least one other may vote for no change," analysts at ANZ said in a note. The focus will also be on the Fed's updated economic projections. ANZ expects policymakers to lower its future interest rate projections by 50 bps. Traders reckon that weakness in the dollar, on the back of dovish commentary from the Fed, could support the rupee but worries over the impact of steep U.S. tariffs on export and portfolio flows are likely to remain a dampener against sharp gains. Meanwhile, dollar-rupee forward premiums were steady on Monday with the 1-year implied yield at 2.33%, hovering near its highest level since May and up 14 basis points on the month so far. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/fed-cut-hopes-soothe-rupee-buoy-forward-premiums-four-month-high-2025-09-15/
2025-09-15 06:55
Prime minister to address baht strength after meeting industries Cabinet line-up to be submitted for royal approval this week Industry federation says baht should trade at 34-35 per dollar BANGKOK, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Monday that the strength of the baht currency needs to be urgently addressed and that it would be discussed later in the day. Speaking after a meeting with the Federation of Thai Industries, Anutin said he would also seek royal approval for his new cabinet line-up later this week. Sign up here. Anutin , opens new tab, who won , opens new tab a parliamentary vote this month with an overwhelming majority, has only four months in power before he calls an election, as per an agreement between him and the largest party in parliament that backed his premiership bid. He faces a an uphill task of turning around an economy grappling with U.S. tariffs , opens new tab, high household debt , opens new tab and weak consumption. Anutin's incoming cabinet includes senior finance ministry official Ekniti Nitithanprapas as Finance Minister and economy czar. Other members are Auttapol Rerkpiboon, the former head of the state-owned energy giant PTT Group (PTT.BK) , opens new tab who will oversee energy, and Suphajee Suthumpun, former chief executive of hotel operator Dusit Thani (DUSIT.BK) , opens new tab, who will serve as Commerce Minister. Speaking about his meeting with the industry federation, the prime minister said, "We had a long discussion and listened to their needs and urgent matters." Incoming Finance Minister Ekniti will discuss the strength of the baht further with the federation later on Monday, Anutin added. The baht traded at 31.74 per U.S. dollar at 0623 GMT, after hitting a more than four-year high of 31.57 last week. It has appreciated by 7.9% so far this year, making it the second-best performing currency in Asia after Taiwan's dollar . Businesses including rice traders , opens new tab have expressed concerns about the baht's strength and have urged policymakers to take urgent action to address the issue. The industry federation said on Monday that a rate of 34-35 baht per dollar would be more appropriate for the Thai economy. Southeast Asia's second-largest economy , opens new tab is projected to expand by 1.8% to 2.3% this year, according to the state planning agency, and is expected to slow down sharply in the second of 2025 due to the impact of U.S. tariffs. Thailand's growth of 2.5% last year lagged its peers. Anutin's government is expected to be supported by further cuts in interest rates later this year, under a new governor , opens new tab. The central bank last month cut , opens new tab its key rate to a near three-year low of 1.50%. The next rate meeting is on October 8. The central bank is expected to lower the key rate by a further 50 basis points, bringing it to a terminal rate of 1% by the end of 2026, BMI said in a report. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/thailands-pm-tackle-baht-strength-currency-soars-2025-09-15/
