Tag:

‘delicate’

Russia calls prisoner swap talks delicate, accuses U.S. of leaks

by Reuters December 22, 2023

written by Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A top Russian diplomat said Moscow and Washington were still engaged in sensitive negotiations over a prisoner exchange, but accused the U.S. side of leaking details to the media.

The United States said on Dec. 5 that Russia had rejected a “new and significant” proposal for the release of Paul Whelan, a former U.S. marine serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for spying, and U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich, awaiting trial in Moscow on espionage charges. Both men deny they are spies and the U.S. has designated them as “wrongfully detained” by Russia.

Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Interfax news agency in an interview published on Friday: “The issue of exchanges of citizens serving prison terms in Russia and the United States is extremely delicate. Decisions in this area are often hampered by being actively discussed in public.”

He said that contacts about possible exchanges were conducted by the intelligence services of both countries.

“It is interesting that the participants in these contacts on the American side insist on their complete confidentiality. We also adhere to this line, but then certain twists occur when the White House regularly arranges ‘leaks’ and begins to discuss sensitive issues in the public space.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Moscow hoped to reach an agreement but that Washington needed to listen to Russia’s conditions, which he did not specify.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Washington was very actively pursuing the release of Whelan and Gershkovich and would “leave no stone unturned” to find a way of getting them home.

The two countries have agreed high-profile prisoner swaps in the past – most recently in December 2022 when Moscow traded Brittney Griner, a U.S. basketball star convicted of a drugs offence in Russia – for Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout.

The Wall Street Journal has vehemently denied that its reporter Gershkovich is a spy. He was detained in March and accused of trying to obtain military secrets.

Whelan, arrested in 2018, was quoted by the BBC this week as saying he felt “abandoned” by the United States and his life was “draining away” in a Russian penal colony.

The White House said on Thursday it was “very concerned” about reports that Whelan felt under physical threat in prison.

(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

December 22, 2023 0 comments

Business News

Singapore seen holding monetary policy in delicate balancing act

by Reuters October 3, 2023

written by Reuters

By Chen Lin

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore is likely to leave monetary policy unchanged this month, as the city-state grapples with a weak economic outlook and persistent price pressures.

All 15 analysts polled by Reuters expect the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to hold off making changes to its policy in the scheduled review.

“Keeping all three policy parameters unchanged would enable the MAS to balance between being vigilant on upside inflation risks and soft economic growth,” said analysts at DBS.

This month’s MAS decision comes as major central banks elsewhere debate how much more policy tightening might be needed to bring inflation under control amid some signs price pressures have been moderating.

Instead of using interest rates, the MAS manages monetary policy by letting the local dollar rise or fall against the currencies of its main trading partners within an undisclosed band, known as the Singapore dollar Nominal Effective Exchange Rate, or S$NEER.

It adjusts its policy via three levers: the slope, mid-point and width of the policy band.

According to DBS’ model, current MAS policy means the S$NEER is appreciating 3% a year. Maintaining the current slope would mean the MAS keeps monetary policy tight for longer, they added.

Meanwhile, HSBC analysts don’t expect the MAS to loosen monetary policy until April 2024.

“While inflation has been consistently cooling, it still takes a long time for core to fall back to the MAS’ comfort zone,” analysts at HSBC said.

Alex Holmes, a lead economist at Oxford Economics, expects the MAS to slightly reduce the slope of the policy band in an out-of-cycle move in January 2024.

The central bank is expected to release its next semi-annual monetary policy statement no later than Oct. 13.

INFLATION AND ECONOMY

Singapore has seen inflation ease in recent months, though it still remains above the pre-pandemic average, official data showed.

Headline and core inflation ranges are officially projected to average 4.5% to 5.5% and 3.5% to 4.5% in 2023, respectively.

Meanwhile, the trade-reliant nation’s industrial output and non-oil exports have contracted for an 11th consecutive month, as global demand falters.

Singapore is often seen as a bellwether for global growth as its international trade dwarfs its domestic economy.

The MAS left monetary policy unchanged in April this year, reflecting growth concerns, having tightened policy at five consecutive reviews prior to that.

It typically holds two policy reviews each year though conducted two additional out-of-cycle decisions last year as consumer prices surged.

In August, Singapore narrowed its 2023 GDP growth forecast to 0.5% to 1.5% from 0.5% to 2.5% previously. The economy grew 3.6% in 2022.

(Reporting by Chen Lin in Singapore. Editing by Sam Holmes)

October 3, 2023 0 comments

Business News

Soaring vegetable prices may tip India’s delicate inflation balance -economists

by Reuters July 10, 2023

written by Reuters

MUMBAI (Reuters) – A steeper-than-expected surge in the prices of vegetables, especially tomatoes, over the past few weeks could push India’s retail inflation towards 5.5% in the July-September quarter, at least three economists said.

The country’s inflation eased to between 4% and 5% in April and May, inching towards the central bank’s 4% target, and likely held below 5% in June as well, partly due to a supportive base, data due Wednesday is expected to show.

However, if the spike in vegetable prices sustains, it could push July inflation towards 6%, said Gaura Sen Gupta, an economist at IDFC First Bank.

Vegetable prices, on a consumer price index (CPI)-weighted basis, are up 34% so far in July, after rising 18% in June, said Sen Gupta, based on data provided by the National Horticulture Board.

Tomato prices, in particular, surged 160% month-on-month in the first week of July, IDFC First Bank Economic Research data showed, due to unseasonal rains and crop damage in certain parts of the country.

Even McDonald’s has stopped using tomatoes due to quality and price concerns.

Even if prices start to cool off, inflation could hit 5.5% over July to September, Kaushik Das, Deutsche Bank’s chief India economist, said in a note on Friday.

That is marginally higher than the 5.2% forecast by the Reserve Bank of India.

“While tomato prices have already increased sharply due to weather disruptions, other food items are also on the rise and the cumulative impact of these may be felt more in July than June,” Das wrote.

Nomura’s economists expect inflation to average around 5.5% over July and August and while that will not force a rate hike, they expect it will keep monetary policy tight.

“Monetary policy is likely to focus more on underlying inflation than an outlier,” economists Sonal Varma and Aurodeep Nandi said in a note last week.

“But a vegetable price-driven surge in the headline CPI could increase the policy trade-offs and risks delaying the first cut.”

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has maintained that the pause in rate hikes over the past two meetings should not be seen as a pivot as the disinflation process will be protracted.

(Reporting by Ira Dugal; Editing by Savio D’Souza)

July 10, 2023 0 comments

US and World News

U.S. Senator Booker sees delicate path forward for police reform

by Reuters February 5, 2023

written by Reuters

By Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. Senator Cory Booker on Sunday said he believes a policing reform bill could pass the current Congress, although he acknowledged that it will be an uphill battle given disinterest in the Republican-led House of Representatives.

“I’m sobered about the belief that we can get a big comprehensive bill done. But can we get something done? I believe we can,” Booker said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“I’m putting all my effort into that right now,” he added.

Booker led the last significant congressional negotiations over police reform, which occurred in 2021, after a white Minneapolis police officer was found guilty of murdering George Floyd, a Black man, in an incident that sparked widespread protest.

That legislation would have made it easier for the Justice Department to bring charges related to police misconduct and granted more funds for police training, among other measures.

Those talks collapsed later in the year as Republicans resisted changes to qualified immunity, a U.S. legal doctrine that makes it extremely difficult to bring civil cases against police.

Booker in the Sunday interview said he had been meeting with Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham on the issue of qualified immunity, which he considered a positive step. Graham has stated that while he believes qualified immunity should protect individual officers, police departments should receive no such protection.

Talk of police reform in the United States has gained some momentum since the killing of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police officers in January.

Booker noted, however, that any bill passed through the Democrat-controlled Senate would still need to pass through the Republican-controlled House.

“I met with Lindsey Graham last week. So when you hear encouraging things from people like him, that gives me the sense that we could do something possibly in the Senate,” Booker said.

“But remember passing a bill in the Senate – as we found out with immigration reform about 10 years ago – doesn’t mean it’ll pass in the house,” he said.

Many Republicans have expressed skepticism that a significant police reform package could pass this Congress given its divided composition and likely disinterest in the matter among House Republican leaders.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Mark Porter)

February 5, 2023 0 comments

US and World News

Singapore GDP growth to ease in Q3, keeps MAS in delicate balancing act: Reuters Poll

by Reuters October 12, 2022

written by Reuters

By Chen Lin

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s economy is expected to have expanded at a slower pace in the third quarter, underlining the central bank’s challenge as it balances the urgency of tackling inflation without triggering a steep recession by over-tightening policy.

Advance data on Friday is expected to show gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 3.4% in July-September from a year ago, according to the median forecast of 19 economists in a Reuters poll.

The manufacturing industry, the Asian financial hub’s main growth engine, has underperformed due to slowing global economic activity, though the services sector outlook has improved after the removal of most COVID-19 curbs and the return of international conferences and events in the past month.

The city-state’s economy expanded 4.4% year-on-year in the second quarter this year, though it had contracted 0.2% on a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis.

That raises the risk of a technical recession, broadly defined as two consecutive quarters of quarter-on-quarter contractions.

Maybank economist Chua Hak Bin said there is a “rising risk of a technical recession”, and added that he isn’t expecting the central bank to tighten monetary policy aggressively given the growth concerns.

The Singapore government had downgrade its 2022 GDP growth forecast range to 3% to 4% from 3% to 5% in August, citing the weakening external demand outlook.

As with many other countries, stubbornly high inflation remains the key risk this year. The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday warned of recession risks for a third of the global economy.

Economists are watching to see whether Singapore’s official inflation forecast would be revised when the central bank releases its monetary policy statement, which is also due on Friday.

Analysts are expecting the Singapore labour market to remain tight, and prices to continue climbing.

Sixteen economists forecast the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to tighten its policy, but are divided on how aggressive it will be and which of its settings will change.

Instead of interest rates, the MAS manages policy by letting the local dollar rise or fall against currencies of its main trading partners within an undisclosed band, known as the Singapore dollar Nominal Effective Exchange Rate, or S$NEER.

It adjusts its policy via three levers: the slope, mid-point and width of the policy band.

Economists, including Maybank’s Chua, who expect MAS to tighten only via one lever largely cited the weak growth outlook.

The MAS has tightened monetary policy four times in a row, with the latest in July in an out-of-cycle move.

(Reporting by Chen Lin in Singapore; Polling by Veronica Khongwir and Anant Chandak; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

October 12, 2022 0 comments

Top Headlines US and World News

Back from Europe, Biden turns to diplomatically delicate Saudi Arabia trip

by Reuters July 5, 2022

written by Reuters

By Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON – U.S. President Joe Biden turns his attention this month to a sensitive trip to the Middle East that will test his ability to reset relations with Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince after Biden denounced him as a pariah.

So far, Biden has been pointedly unclear on whether he will have face-to-face talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi de facto leader who the U.S. intelligence community concluded was behind the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist and political opponent Jamal Khashoggi.

While Biden is expected to meet Saudi King Salman and the crown prince while there, Biden says his visit to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is about participating in a summit of Gulf nations, not about meeting the crown prince.

“It’s in Saudi Arabia, but it’s not about Saudi Arabia,” Biden said. “And so there’s no commitment that is being made or — I’m not even sure; I guess I will see the king and the crown prince, but that’s — that’s not the meeting I’m going to. They’ll be part of a much larger meeting,” he told reporters at the NATO summit in Madrid last Thursday.

Biden’s dancing around on the issue has led to some consternation among Saudi officials who back the crown prince and see the president’s comments as insulting, said a source familiar with the dynamics.

“Every time he says ‘I’m not meeting with him’ it causes problems,” the source said. “You can’t ask them for a favor and keep denying you’re even meeting with them.”

Biden had denounced bin Salman, known by the initials MbS, as a “pariah” over the Khashoggi death and declared early in his presidency that he would focus U.S. relations on King Salman, not his son.

But facing a host of other problems related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden was persuaded by aides to embark on an improvement in relations.

He needs oil-rich Saudi Arabia’s help at a time of high gasoline prices and as he encourages efforts to end the war in Yemen after the Saudis recently extended a ceasefire there. There are also the U.S. priorities of curbing Iran’s influence in the Middle East and China’s global influence.

Biden was initially opposed to the Saudi visit, seeing it as a boost for MbS and counter to his condemnation of the kingdom’s human rights record, according to one U.S. official.

The president went back and forth on the issue for weeks before aides swayed him by arguing that high oil prices and the regional threat from Iran had made the trip necessary, the official said on condition of anonymity.

His final decision was further spurred by encouragement from Israel, which hopes the Saudi visit will secure Saudi support for Israeli-Arab rapprochement. Biden noted in Madrid that the Israelis “have come out so strongly for my going to Saudi.”

Biden will first stop in Israel on his July 13-16 trip.

PUSH ON HUMAN RIGHTS

The president has attempted to straddle the line between placating those who support a strategic improvement in relations and human rights advocates who say the visit is at odds with his promise to put human rights at the heart of U.S. foreign policy.

Four veteran Democratic senators – Jeff Merkley, Patrick Leahy, Ron Wyden and Richard Blumenthal – sent a letter to Biden urging him to use the trip to center the conversation around human rights concerns in the region.

“For too long, we’ve allowed the exigencies of geopolitics to dictate our policies toward the Kingdom. Today, as we once again face multiple crises, let us not allow the urgency of the moment distract from what you have called the defining challenge of our time – defending democracy and human rights,” they wrote.

Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Biden’s trip is necessary to recalibrate relations with a key ally but that, “Politically there is no upside for the president.”

Biden is expected to use his talks with the Saudis to coax Riyadh toward security and diplomatic contacts with Israel as part of an effort to strengthen the regional bulwark against Iran, according to a person in Washington familiar with the matter.

The source stressed, however, that while the administration expects to make progress during Biden’s trip, full normalization of relations between the two Middle East powers is still a long way off.

Saudi Arabia has signaled its backing for the Abraham Accords under which the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain forged relations with Israel two years ago, but it has stopped short of recognizing Israel.

People familiar with Biden’s stance expect him to bring up human rights when he visits Saudi Arabia, but what form that takes is unclear.

“I have every confidence that human rights will be on the agenda and something he will raise in every meeting,” said a former Biden senior administration official. “He is not someone who has ever shied away.”

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Mary Milliken and Chizu Nomiyama)

July 5, 2022 0 comments