Russia’s central bank announced a half-percent cut in its main interest rates yesterday, its third cut since the end of April to stimulate the crisis-hit economy as the ruble stabilizes.
The bank’s board of directors decided to cut the key refinancing rate, effective today, to 11.5 percent from 12 percent, the central bank said in a statement published on its Web site.
The cut was the second in less than a month after the bank on May 14 cut the refinancing rate to 12 percent from 12.5 percent.
Russia’s economy, dependent on exports of hydrocarbons and raw materials, has been hit badly by the economic slowdown although the government has fought hard to prevent any repeat of the 1998 crisis when it defaulted on debt.
The economy will only start to recover from the crisis by the end of this year or the start of 2010 amid declining consumer demand and investment, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina was quoted as saying on Thursday.
Nabiullina confirmed her ministry was predicting a contraction in the Russian economy this year of between 6 percent and 8 percent, one of the most pessimistic forecasts from any body.
“We hope that there will be a recovery of our economy by the end of this year or the start of next year,” she told the Vedomosti newspaper in an interview to coincide with Russia’s annual economic forum in Saint Petersburg.
“There is some talk that there is a recovery now in the world economy ... but there is no unambiguous understanding of how stable this is. The risks remain for the world economy and we are dependent on it,” she said.
Nabiullina said the forecast of a 6 percent to 8 percent contraction in GDP this year compared with last year was justified given the economy had contracted 9.5 percent in the first quarter year-on-year.
Not only was the global slowdown deeper than originally forecast but Russian consumer demand and investment volumes had “fallen by more than we expected,” she said.
Yet she expressed optimism that Russia would not suffer a second crisis wave owing to the bad debts of banks “even though we have to be ready for any possible development in the situation.”
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
CHINA’s BULLYING: The former British prime minister said that he believes ‘Taiwan can and will’ protect its freedom and democracy, as its people are lovers of liberty Former British prime minister Boris Johnson yesterday said Western nations should have the courage to stand with and deepen their economic partnerships with Taiwan in the face of China’s intensified pressure. He made the remarks at the ninth Ketagalan Forum: 2025 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prospect Foundation in Taipei. Johnson, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time, said he had seen Taiwan’s coastline on a screen on his indoor bicycle, but wanted to learn more about the nation, including its artificial intelligence (AI) development, the key technology of the 21st century. Calling himself an
South Korea yesterday said that it was removing loudspeakers used to blare K-pop and news reports to North Korea, as the new administration in Seoul tries to ease tensions with its bellicose neighbor. The nations, still technically at war, had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. It said in June that Pyongyang stopped transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border that had become a major nuisance for South Korean residents, a day after South Korea’s loudspeakers fell silent. “Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,”
RSS