Fri, Oct 15, 2021 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  ENERGY

  CNG cuts gas to utilities

  Glencore-backed UK gas shipper CNG Group is no longer to provide gas to its utility clients. CNG supplies wholesale gas to utilities that then sell it to households. The UK energy market is already in crisis and the exit threatens to unleash a new wave of turmoil. CNG is advising its clients to seek alternative shipping arrangements “quickly.” The company still has about 18 utility clients on its books that would now need a new supplier, it said on Wednesday. Weeks of record gas prices have already pushed 12 retail suppliers out of business since August in the UK.

  TURKEY

  President fires policymakers

  President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fired monetary policymakers wary of cutting interest rates further, driving the lira to record lows against the US dollar with his midnight decree. The firing of central bank deputy governors Semih Tumen and Ugur Namik Kucuk, along with Monetary Policy Committee member Abdullah Yavas, followed a meeting between the president and committee head Sahap Kavcioglu on Wednesday. The two discussed changes to the committee and economic policy, people familiar with the discussion told Bloomberg. The lira fell as much as 1.1 percent to a new record. It was 0.7 percent weaker at 9.1550 per US dollar at 9:42am in Istanbul.

  FINANCES

  Digital cash policies endorsed

  G7 finance officials on Wednesday endorsed 13 public policy principles for central bank digital currencies, saying such currencies should be grounded in transparency, the rule of law and sound economic governance, the US Department of the Treasury said. “Innovation in digital money and payments has the potential to bring significant benefits, but also raises considerable public policy and regulatory issues,” G7 finance ministers and central bankers said in a joint statement. “Strong international coordination and cooperation on these issues helps to ensure that public and private sector innovation will deliver domestic and cross-border benefits while being safe for users and the wider financial system.”

  AUSTRALIA

  Banks mandate vaccines

  The nation’s two biggest banks yesterday moved to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for all staff working at their offices and branches across the nation. Westpac Banking Corp and Commonwealth Bank of Australia said that they would require all employees entering a workplace in the eastern states of New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory to be fully vaccinated by the start of December. The same would apply to staff in other states by February next year. National Australia Bank and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group are following state guidelines, meaning staff in the state of Victoria, for example, must be fully vaccinated to attend a work site.

  SOCIAL MEDIA

  Facebook updates rules

  Facebook Inc is to count rights advocates and journalists as “involuntary” public figures and so increase protections against harassment and bullying targeted at these groups, the social media firm’s head of global safety said in an interview this week. Facebook, which allows more critical commentary of public figures than of private individuals, is changing its approach on the harassment of journalists and “human rights defenders,” who it says are in the public eye due to their work rather than their public personas.
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