By Reuters Staff
4 Min Read
BEIRUT, April 2 (Reuters) - Lebanon will run out of money to fund basic imports by the end of May and delays in launching a plan to reduce subsidies are costing $500 million a month, the caretaker finance minister, Ghazi Wazni, said.
As Lebanon’s economy crumbles, the central bank has asked the caretaker cabinet to decide how to gradually lift subsidies to ration remaining foreign currency reserves, Wazni told Reuters on Thursday.
“The government must speed this up. The cost of wasting time is very high. With every delay, it becomes higher,” he said.
Lebanon’s financial meltdown is fuelling hunger and unrest in the country’s gravest crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war.
3 Min Read
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar’s share of currency reserves plunged in the fourth quarter last year to its lowest since 1995, International Monetary Fun (IMF) data showed on Wednesday, but some analysts said the drop was due in part to valuation adjustments.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. one dollar banknotes are seen in front of displayed stock graph in this illustration taken February 8, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/ File Photo
Global reserves, which are reported in U.S. dollars, are assets of central banks held in different currencies used primarily to support their liabilities. Central banks sometimes use reserves to help support their respective currencies.
5 Min Read
BENGALURU/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Battered emerging market currencies will only pare some of their recent steep losses over the coming year, according to analysts polled by Reuters who said a sell-off was likely in the next three months with rising U.S. yields posing a big risk.
FILE PHOTO: Brazilian Real and U.S. dollar notes are pictured at a currency exchange office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in this September 10, 2015 photo illustration. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
Having strengthened over 3% in 2020, an index of emerging market currencies erased nearly half of those gains in the last three months as reflation bets spurred by massive U.S. fiscal stimulus drove the dollar index to a four-month high.
5 Min Read
BENGALURU/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Battered emerging market currencies will only pare some of their recent steep losses over the coming year, according to analysts polled by Reuters who said a sell-off was likely in the next three months with rising U.S. yields posing a big risk.
FILE PHOTO: Brazilian Real and U.S. dollar notes are pictured at a currency exchange office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in this September 10, 2015 photo illustration. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
Having strengthened over 3% in 2020, an index of emerging market currencies erased nearly half of those gains in the last three months as reflation bets spurred by massive U.S. fiscal stimulus drove the dollar index to a four-month high.
(Corrects that president of Regional Freight Chamber said service stations, not PDVSA, were limiting supply, paragraph 8)
VALENCIA, Venezuela/MARACAY, Venezuela, March 7 (Reuters) - V enezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela has begun rationing diesel to truckers, four transport sector sources told Reuters, as low domestic refining output and scarce imports amid U.S. sanctions squeeze fuel supplies.
Frustrated truckers blocked a highway in the central state of Maracay in protest over the shortages on Friday, social media images showed. Industry groups said the unprecedented rationing would create delays delivering goods to markets in the OPEC nation, reeling from a prolonged economic crisis.