January-April purchases jumped by 21% compared to the same period in 2023 China’s imports of natural gas jumped by nearly 21% in the first four months of this year compared to the same period in 2023, according to customs data released on Thursday. This comes as part of an overall increase in the country’s exports and imports in April after a contraction the previous month. The world’s largest economy by purchasing power parity (PPP) imported 43 million tonnes of natural gas in January-April 2024, a year-on-year increase of 20.7%, Chinese customs reported. April alone saw imports of 10.3mn ton ..read more

The bloc wants to seize proceeds from some $200 billion of Moscow’s immobilized funds The European Union has agreed on the expropriation of profits from frozen Russian assets to continue funding and arming Kiev, Brussels announced on Wednesday. The bloc’s ambassadors agreed on the course of action “in principle,” but the legal text is still to be ratified by the EU Council. The proposal targets proceeds from some €191 billion ($205 billion) in Russian funds currently held immobilized in the Belgian clearing house Euroclear. In total, Western states froze an estimated $300 billion of Moscow’s s ..read more

Major changes aim to boost GDP by 2030, Andrey Belousov has said Russia has worked out a plan to transform the country’s economy by 2030, acting First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov said on Wednesday. Speaking at a panel session at the international exhibition-forum ‘Russia’ called ‘Efficient and competitive economy’, Belousov laid out the roadmap for implementing the long-term economic strategy announced by President Vladimir Putin earlier in the day. The key, according to him, will be a transition from a demand-driven economy to a supply-driven one. “We need to create conditions in wh ..read more

US-China trade tensions are dampening the prospects for the global economy, according to a top official Growing fragmentation into US-led Western and China-aligned economic blocs threatens trade cooperation and overall global growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. According to IMF Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath, who delivered a speech at Stanford University on Tuesday, events such as the pandemic and the Ukraine conflict have hindered world trade in ways not seen since the end of the Cold War. “Increasingly, countries around the world are guided by economic security ..read more

Washington is doing nothing about its deteriorating finances because there is nothing it can do without risking major upheaval It can appear puzzling why at certain times in history a government facing a looming crisis simply does not address it. The problems accumulate in plain view while little is done to actually solve them. The human imagination being what it is, this inaction is inevitably attributed to some mix of corruption, malfeasance, and incompetence. And certainly the road to any system-level crisis is strewn with missteps and short-sighted policies. But there comes a point when th ..read more

The G7 has reportedly ruled out the total confiscation of the funds EU clearinghouse Euroclear accrued €1.6 billion ($1.7 billion) in interest from frozen Russian assets in just three months of this year, its CEO Valerie Urbain has revealed. She warned however, that tapping the funds would have a severe impact on global financial markets.    The EU is expected to make a decision granting Kiev €2-3 billion in revenue generated by the Russian assets “in the coming weeks,” Urbain said in an interview with the Belgian news outlet L’Echo. Brussels previously suggested seizing the profits ..read more

The social media platform is challenging a potential ban on First Amendment grounds TikTok is suing the US government in an attempt to stop the enforcement of a bill passed by Congress last month that seeks to force the platform’s China-based owner ByteDance to sell the app or face a complete ban. In April, US President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that gives ByteDance 270 days to divest from its US business. If it fails to comply, TikTok will be banned from app stores serving American customers. In the lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, TikT ..read more

The facility in St. Petersburg has been given to the domestic luxury car brand Aurus A St. Petersburg-based plant formerly belonging to Japanese automaker Toyota has been handed over to Russian high-end carmaker Aurus, Russia’s acting Minister of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov, said on Tuesday. The brand is best known for producing limos for the Russian president. Production at the plant will start before the end of the current year, Manturov added. Toyota shut down the plant in 2022 and left the Russian market amid Ukraine-related sanctions against Moscow. The facility, which produced the ..read more

Members of the bloc can opt out of Brussels’ plan to use the frozen assets to buy weapons for Kiev, the outlet reports The EU will reportedly allow neutral member states to opt out of its plan to use the revenue generated from frozen Russian central bank reserves to buy weapons for Ukraine and limit themselves to providing non-military aid to the country. The proposal comes as the bloc seeks ways to unlock funding for Kiev, Politico reported on Monday, citing EU diplomats. Earlier this year, Brussels suggested seizing the interest earned from the assets to acquire weapons for Ukraine rather th ..read more

The leader has held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen amid growing tensions Chinese President Xi Jinping met with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Monday to resolve economic disagreements between Brussels and Beijing. Xi arrived in France on Sunday for a two-day state visit, embarking on his first trip to Europe in five years. The Chinese leader will next head to Serbia and Hungary.  “The world today has entered a new period of turbulence and change,” Xi stated at the start of th ..read more