Tag Archives: economy

Washington, United States | AFP | The International Monetary Fund executive board on Tuesday gave final approval to a new loan package for Ukraine and released $1.4 billion for immediate use. The IMF had agreed on the $4 billion, 14-month loan in mid-October but the board was waiting for the …

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | AFP | OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia on Tuesday announced an expansionary budget for 2019 but projected a shortfall for the sixth year in a row due to low oil prices. The new budget comes with the oil-rich kingdom reeling under strong international pressure over the murder …

Vienna, Austria | AFP | OPEC members and 10 other oil producing nations, including Russia, agreed Friday to cut output by 1.2 million barrels a day in a bid to reverse falls in prices in recent months. Energy ministers reached the deal — which takes effect from January 1 but …

Washington, United States | AFP | Job creation slowed unexpectedly in the United States last month as the service sector added fewer workers, but the unemployment rate held steady at a 49-year low, the government reported Friday. The new numbers fell below recent trends and avoided another blow-out result, denying …

Mexico City, Mexico | AFP | Mexico is putting the presidential jet on the auction block, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s team said Sunday, making good on the new president’s campaign pledge on his second day in office. The Boeing 787-8’s last mission took outgoing president Enrique Pena Nieto to the …

Cape Town, South Africa | AFP | An army of humans laid waste to an alien colony as South African video game maker Simon Spreckley enthusiastically controlled the action using his phone’s touch screen. “The penetration of mobile devices in Africa is huge. People often have two or three phones, which …

Buenos Aires, Argentina | AFP | A Sino-US showdown on trade loomed Saturday as G20 leaders wrapped up tense summit talks with a rare show of unity over the death of former president George Bush. There was an implicit contrast in some of the tributes offered at the Buenos Aires …

Buenos Aires, Argentina | AFP |  US President Donald Trump headed to Argentina Thursday for a fractious weekend of G20 summitry, cancelling planned talks with the Russian leader and boasting that his trade war with China was paying off. Rumblings of resistance to Trump’s assault on the international order were …

Paris, France | AFP | Protests by people clad in luminous vests have played havoc with traffic across France and prompted violent clashes in Paris in recent days. But who are the “yellow vest” protesters, and what will become of them? What are these protests about? The movement sprang up …

Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump once again blasted his hand-picked chief of the US central bank Tuesday, saying he was “not even a little bit happy” with his selection of Jerome Powell. The Federal Reserve chairman has presided over three interest rate increases this year, and …