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Luxembourg today signed an agreement to back a UN Environment-convened network that helps the world’s major financial centres to increase green and sustainable finance. The International Network of Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S) has 22 members from Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America – each of them committed to shifting their investments to support the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement. Home to Europe’s largest investment fund center with a 62 per cent global market share in cross-border funds, along with136 international banks from ...

Economy Minister Giovanni Tria expects Italy’s growth to pick up in the second half of 2019 as government measures to revive a virtually stagnant economy take effect. Italian gross domestic product fell 0.1 percent in the third and fourth quarters of last year, putting the euro zone’s third largest economy into a technical recession of two straight quarters of declining GDP. But an unexpected rise in industrial output in February suggested Italy may already have exited the shallow recession it fell into, economists said. Tria said on Sunday in an ...

The United States repeated its opposition to increasing overall funding and shareholding quotas for the International Monetary Fund, putting it at odds with other stakeholders on the need to boost the global lender’s resources and update its governance. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Trump administration opposes any changes now, likely meaning the effort to lift IMF funding and reshuffle voting rights was a dead issue as global finance leaders gathered in Washington this week for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. The voting quotas were last altered ...

India and Indonesia should set up a shipping chamber to promote shipping cooperation between the two countries as a part of the initiative to establish connectivity in the Indian Ocean, a maritime expert said. As a business-to-business entity, the chamber could be a sub-unit of exiting trade and industry chamber of the two countries or a separate one, Siswanto Rusdi, founder and director of Indonesia’s National Maritime Institute, said. “It is good to start a shipping chamber as soon as possible,” he said, calling for a couple of conferences as ...

In January-March 2019, seaports of Russia handled 201.8 million tonnes of cargo (up 4.7%, year-on-year), says press center of the Association of Commercial Sea Ports. Transshipment of dry cargo totaled 87.1 million tonnes (-1.3%) including 39.0 million tonnes of coal (+10.3%), 13.4 million tonnes of containerized cargo (+7.5%), 8.7 million tonnes of grain (-30.0%), 7.7 million tonnes of ferrous metal (-2.4%), 4.4 million tonnes of mineral fertilizers (+1.2%) and 2.0 million tonnes of ore (+25.3%). Transshipment of liquid bulk cargo totaled 114.7 million tonnes (+9.7%) including 66.9 million tonnes of ...

Dominion Terminal Associates loaded and exported 164,700 st of coal on four coal carriers at its Newport News, Virginia, pier in the week ended April 12, compared with three that exported 213,161 st a week earlier, company data showed Friday. The terminal, which is owned by Contura Energy (65%) and Arch Coal (35%) and served by CSX, loaded the HL Baltimore with 55,858 st of coal on Saturday, the DTA data showed. The ship is expected to arrive in Dangjin, South Korea, on June 6, according to Platts cFlow trade-flow ...

Crude oil and gas condensate loading from Iranian oil terminals, namely Kharg in the Persian Gulf, increased 12% to 1.70 million barrels per day in March, the highest since last October. “Major buyers are picking bigger volumes before the latest US sanctions waivers expire in early May,” ISNA quoted shipping sources as saying. According to the news agency, oil exports plunged under the US restrictions announced last May. Nonetheless, levels recovered to some extent in March. The National Iranian Oil Company exported close to 2.6 million bpd last May. Exports ...

China’s copper concentrate imports fell 8 percent in March from the previous month, when imports were unusually strong due to restocking ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, customs data showed. March arrivals of copper concentrate, or partially processed copper ore, were at 1.77 million tonnes, according to the General Administration of Customs data. That is up 10.6 percent from the same month last year. The shipments were down compared to February’s 1.93 million tonnes, which tied the record hit in September 2018 despite having only 28 days and including ...

Indian iron-ore production during last financial year has been provisionally pegged at an eight-year high, but the domestic market is plagued by the dichotomous dynamics of rising imports and unsold stockpiles across the regions. According to preliminary industry estimates, iron-ore production during 2018/19 was around 208-million tons, surpassing the previous eight financial years. Despite being the fourth-largest producer of the steelmaking raw material, imports surged 157% between April and December, at 11-million tons, as per the latest inward shipment data available. The impact of the skewed demand-supply dynamics surfacing in ...

Exxon Mobil Corp. is the latest company to raise concerns that a stockpile of U.S. government crude is tainted with poisonous gas. The American energy giant said some of the oil it purchased last year from the Energy Department’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, contained “extremely high levels” of hydrogen sulfide, according to emails obtained by Bloomberg under the Freedom of Information Act. In some cases, the gas level was 250 times higher than government safety standards allow. “The Department of Energy takes safety, security and environmental impacts involving SPR ...

Crude can’t crank higher unless it stays above the key $60 level, says expert technician Louise Yamada. Tightening global supplies have proved bullish for the commodity this year, with U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude prices currently hovering near five-month highs. But the upward action has also been quite volatile, as economic and geopolitical factors have wielded increasing influence over prices. And if you ask Yamada, who runs Yamada Technical Research Advisors, oil prices are facing some serious resistance that can’t be topped without similarly strong support. “Right here, $60, $60-61, ...

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Saturday the U.S. and China are continuing to make progress on trade talks and “getting close to the final round of concluding issues.” Mr. Mnuchin said he and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer would have two telephone calls this coming week with their Chinese counterparts to work on a narrowing set of issues. He added that the officials are “discussing whether more in-person meetings are necessary.” Speaking to reporters at the conclusion of the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in ...

The idea of a second Brexit referendum is very likely to be put before Britain’s parliament again although the government remains opposed to any new plebiscite, the British finance minister said. Philip Hammond said he hoped parliament would break the Brexit impasse by passing a deal by the end of June, potentially ending the calls for a new referendum, and there was a “good chance” of a breakthrough in talks with the opposition Labour Party. “I remain optimistic that over the next couple of months we will get a deal ...

China is confident that it will meet its 2019 economic growth target of six percent to 6.5 percent, premier Li Keqiang said. Speaking at a summit between China and Central and Eastern European countries in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, Li listed several positive indicators of economic activity and pledged to continue policies to help support growth. Li said China would maintain the direction of its macroeconomic policies but would not move toward quantitative easing or flood the economy with bank bills. A Reuters poll on Friday showed China’s economic ...

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang discussed boosting business with leaders from eastern and central Europe in Croatia on Friday, pledging that his country was ready to open up its economy and would respect European Union standards. The coastal city of Dubrovnik hosted the eighth annual “16+1” cooperation, which became “17+1” as Greece joined the economic platform for Beijing’s investments in 12 European Union states and five Western Balkan countries. The grouping has been eyed cautiously in western European capitals as an attempt to “divide and rule” the bloc, a goal that ...