Russia and China issued stark warnings yesterday about the impact of the crisis on their recently booming economies next year, with Moscow saying the downturn could spark unrest in the streets.
A top Kremlin economic aide said there would be a budget deficit next year for the first time for a decade as Russia — the world’s second-biggest producer of crude oil after Saudi Arabia — reels from the global crisis.
“The deficit is caused by the fall in oil prices, above all,” Arkady Dvorkovich was quoted as saying in reference to the plunge in prices from record highs of above US$147 per barrel in July to under US$40 now.
With oil prices heading towards the year end at their lowest level for four years, the price of Brent North Sea crude for February sank to US$38.63 per barrel on London’s InterContinental Exchange amid weakening demand.
Russian Deputy Interior Minister Mikhail Sukhodolsky, warned that unpaid wages, the threat of layoffs and unpopular government anti-crisis measures “may aggravate the protest mood.”
China’s top economic planner also warned of “great challenges” ahead.
National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zhang Ping (張平) said “grave risks” lay ahead for goals of fast growth and high employment if the government did not manage to stimulate demand and maintain export growth.
Economists have warned that the global downturn could mean that China will end this year with its weakest economic growth for nearly two decades.
Meanwhile, Germany prepared to pump billions of euros into the economy in a new rescue plan.
Newspaper reports said the government was planning a second stimulus program for next year that could see the government pump 40 billion euros (US$56 billion) into the economy.
In a sign of the times, poodles, terriers and sheepdogs lined up in east Berlin for rations in the country’s first soup kitchen for pets, housed in a disused school.
The soup kitchen was opened in October and offers free food for pets belonging to pensioners and the unemployed.
Julia Raasch, who heads the soup kitchen, said: “We’ve already signed up nearly 400 people. And our stocks are dwindling fast.”
Also See: Japan passes record-high budget bill
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique