OPEC+ likely to agree 432,000 bpd increase in June



OPEC says Chinese lockdowns hitting demand



Formal talks start at 1100 GMT



Updates with analyst



By Maha El Dahan, Ahmad Ghaddar and Alex Lawler



LONDON, May 5 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;OPEC+ is likely stick to its plan for modest oil output increases on Thursday, arguing that the producer group cannot be blamed for global supply disruptions and saying China&#8217;s coronavirus lockdowns threaten the outlook for demand.



Five OPEC+ delegates said the group was set to agree to increase its June output target by 432,000 barrels per day, in line with its existing plan to unwind output curbs made during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.



The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, which together make up OPEC+, hold formal ministerial talks at 1130 GMT after a meeting of the advisory Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee.



The meeting comes against a backdrop of surging oil prices, which hit their highest since 2008 at more than $139 a barrel in March after Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine exacerbated supply concerns that were already fuelling a price rally.



&#8220;I do not think a new decision will be made,&#8221; one of the delegates said. Another said it was &#8220;highly expected&#8221; that the meeting would be short and stick to the plan.



The OPEC+ meeting comes a day after the European Union proposed a phased embargo on Russian oil in its toughest measures yet over the war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a &#8220;special military operation&#8221;.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2WW23E&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The embargo will likely force Russia to reroute flows to Asia and cut production steeply, while the EU will compete for the remaining available supply &#8211; both factors likely to support elevated crude prices.



&#8220;OPEC+ continues to view this as a problem of the West’s own making and not a fundamental supply issue that it should respond to,&#8221; said Callum Macpherson from Investec.



He said only Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had capacity to lift supply significantly, adding: &#8220;If they were to do so, the ensuing falling out with Russia could bring an end to OPEC+.&#8221;



OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said on Wednesday it was not possible for other producers to replace Russian exports of more than 7 million bpd. &#8220;The spare capacity just does not exist,&#8221; he said.



The Brent crude oil benchmark rose on Thursday to trade above $111.&nbsp;O/R



The United States has repeatedly asked OPEC to raise production, but the Saudi-led organisation has resisted the calls amid strained relations with Washington.



The West&#8217;s energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency, agreed last month to release record volumes of oil stocks to help to cool prices and offset supply disruptions from Russia.



(Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar, Alex Lawler, Maha El Dahan and Rowena Edwards; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by David Goodman and Edmund Blair)

Silhouette of oil pump jack on rig

OPEC+ set to stick to modest oil output rise amid price rally

KEY POINTS



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>The Federal Reserve increased its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point, in line with market expectations.</li><li>In addition, the central bank outlined a program in which it eventually will reduce its bond holdings by $95 billion a month.</li><li>The rate move is the largest since 2000 and is in response to burgeoning inflation pressures.</li><li>Fed Chairman Jerome Powell underlined the commitment to bringing inflation down but indicated that raising rates by 75 basis points at a time “is not something the committee is actively considering.”</li></ul>



WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point, the most aggressive step yet in its fight against a 40-year high in inflation.



“Inflation is much too high and we understand the hardship it is causing. We’re moving expeditiously to bring it back down,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said during a news conference, which he opened with an unusual direct address to “the American people.” He noted the burden of inflation on lower-income people, saying, “we’re strongly committed to restoring price stability.”



That likely will mean, according to the chairman’s comments, multiple 50-basis point rate hikes ahead, though likely nothing more aggressive than that.



The federal funds rate sets how much banks charge each other for short-term lending, but also is tied to a variety of adjustable-rate consumer debt.



Along with the move higher in rates, the central bank indicated it will begin reducing asset holdings on its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/20220428" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$9 trillion balance sheet</a>. The Fed had been buying bonds to keep interest rates low and money flowing through the economy during the pandemic, but the surge in prices has forced a dramatic rethink in monetary policy.



Markets&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/02/fears-of-a-fed-mistake-grow-as-this-weeks-anticipated-interest-rate-hike-looms.html">were prepared for both moves</a>&nbsp;but nonetheless have been volatile throughout the year. Investors have relied on the Fed as an active partner in making sure markets function well, but the inflation surge has necessitated tightening.



Wednesday’s rate hike will push the federal funds rate to a range of 0.75%-1%, and current market pricing has the rate rising to 2.75%-3% by year’s end, according to CME Group data.



Stocks leaped higher following the announcement while Treasury yields backed off their earlier highs.



Markets now expect the central bank&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/03/the-fed-is-expected-to-raise-rates-by-a-half-point-investors-wonder-if-it-will-get-more-aggressive.html">to continue raising rates aggressively</a>&nbsp;in the coming months. Powell, said only that moves of 50 basis points “should be on the table at the next couple of meetings” but he seemed to discount the likelihood of the Fed getting more hawkish.



“Seventy-five basis points is not something the committee is actively considering,” Powell said, despite market pricing that had leaned heavily towards the Fed hiking by three-quarters of a percentage point in June.



“The American economy is very strong and well-positioned to handle tighter monetary policy,” he said, adding that he foresees a “soft or softish” landing for the economy despite tighter monetary policy.WATCH NOWVIDEO03:04A 75 basis point increase is not something we’re actively considering, says Fed Chair Powell



The plan outlined Wednesday will see the balance sheet reduction happen in phases, with the Fed allowing a capped level of proceeds from maturing bonds to roll off each month while reinvesting the rest. Starting June 1, the plan will see $30 billion of Treasurys and $17.5 billion on mortgage-backed securities roll off. After three months, the cap for Treasurys will increase to $60 billion and $35 billion for mortgages.



Those numbers were mostly in line with discussions at the last Fed meeting, as described in minutes from the session, though there were some expectations that the increase in the caps would be more gradual.



Wednesday’s statement noted that economic activity “edged down in the first quarter” but noted that “household spending and business fixed investment remained strong.” Inflation “remains elevated,” the Fed statement said.



Finally, the statement addressed the Covid outbreak in China and the government’s attempts to address the situation.



“In addition, Covid-related lockdowns in China are likely to exacerbate supply chain disruptions. The Committee is highly attentive to inflation risks,” the statement said.



“No surprises on our end,” said Collin Martin, fixed income strategist at Charles Schwab. “We’re a little bit less aggressive on our expectations than the markets are. Do think another 50 basis point increase in June seems likely. … We think inflation is close to peaking. If that shows some signs of peaking and declines later in the year, that gives the Fed a little leeway to slow down on such an aggressive pace.”



Though some Federal Open Market Committee members had pushed for bigger rate increases, Wednesday’s move received unanimous support.



The 50-basis-point increase is the biggest increase the rate-setting FOMC has instituted since May 2000. Back then, the Fed was fighting the excesses of the early dotcom era and the internet bubble. This time around, the circumstances are quite a bit different.



As the pandemic crisis hit in early 2020, the Fed slashed its benchmark funds rate to a range of 0%-0.25% and instituted an aggressive program of bond buying that more than doubled the size of its balance sheet. At the same time, Congress approved a series of bills that injected more than $5 trillion of fiscal spending into the economy.



Those policy moves were followed by clogged supply chains and surging demand as economies reopened. Inflation over a 12-month period&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/12/consumer-prices-rose-8point5percent-in-march-slightly-hotter-than-expected.html">rose 8.5% in March</a>, as gauged by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index.



Fed officials for months dismissed the inflation surge as “transitory” then had to rethink that position as the price pressures did not relent.



For the first time in more than three years, the FOMC in March&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/16/federal-reserve-meeting.html">approved a 25-basis-point increase</a>, indicating then that the funds rate could rise to just 1.9% this year. Since then, though, multiple statements from central bankers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/05/feds-brainard-sees-balance-sheet-reduction-soon-and-at-a-rapid-pace.html">pointed to a rate well north of that</a>. Wednesday’s move marked the first time the Fed has boosted rates at consecutive meetings since June 2006.



Stocks have tumbled through this year, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average off nearly 9% and bond prices falling sharply as well. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield, which moves opposite price, was around 3% Wednesday, a level it hasn’t seen since late 2018.



When the Fed was last this aggressive with rate hikes, it took the funds rate to 6.5% in early 2000, but was forced to retreat just seven months later. With the combination of a recession already underway plus the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Fed rapidly cut, eventually slashing the funds rate all the way down to 1% by mid-2003, shortly after the Iraq invasion.



Some economists worry the Fed could face the same predicament this time — failing to act on inflation when it was surging, then tightening in the face of slowing growth. GDP fell 1.4% in the first quarter, though it was held back by factors such as rising Covid cases and a slowing inventory build that are expected to ease through the year.

106999520-16419153682022-01-11t153007z_1471999278_rc23xr9k3c5b_rtrmadp_0_usa-fed-senate-powell

Fed raises rates by half a percentage point — the biggest hike in two decades — to fight inflation

<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49668784568_cc4a0dd9f1_b.jpg" alt="White House Press Briefing | Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director … | Flickr" width="840" height="560"/><figcaption>Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House Coronavirus Taskforce, addresses his remarks at a coronavirus update briefing, March 2020,| Via Flckr</figcaption></figure>



The world is on high alert due to the new omicron Covid strain — but delta is still responsible for most of the current infections globally, the World Health Organization pointed out on Monday.



“Over 99% of cases around the world are due to the delta variant and more deaths are occurring in the unvaccinated,” WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan told CNBC’s “<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/asia-squawk-box/">Squawk Box Asia</a>” on Monday. “I think that’s our priority while we wait to find out more about [the omicron] variant.”



Last week, the global health agency recognized the omicron variant, first referred to as lineage B.1.1.529, as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/26/who-labels-newly-identified-covid-strain-as-omicron-says-its-a-variant-of-concern.html">a variant of concern</a>. That means it could be more contagious, more virulent or more skilled at evading public health measures, vaccines and therapeutics. The strain was first identified by South African scientists.



Delta, on the other hand, was first detected in India.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-are-health-experts-worried"><a></a>Why are health experts worried?</h2>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/26/covid-variant-emerges-in-south-africa-heres-what-we-know-so-far.html">Health experts are concerned</a>&nbsp;about the omicron variant’s transmissibility given its unusual constellation of mutations and profile that differs from previous variants of concern.It’s really important that everybody out there who’s still unvaccinated, or has received only one dose, must get a full course of vaccination.Soumya SwaminathanCHIEF SCIENTIST, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION



“The profile of the mutations strongly suggest that it’s going to have an advantage in transmissibility and that it might evade immune protection that you would get, for example, from a monoclonal antibody or from the convalescent serum after a person’s been infected, and possibly even against some of the vaccine-induced antibodies,” U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/news/meet-press-november-28-2021-n1284846" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday</a>.



“So it’s not necessarily that that’s going to happen, but it’s a strong indication that we really need to be prepared for that,” Fauci added.



WHO’s Swaminathan told CNBC that scientists need time to conduct experiments and collect data that would help them answer some of the fundamental questions surrounding the new variant.



“What we would like to know is, is this variant more transmissible, even more than delta? We would like to know if there is a different clinical pattern, is it less severe, more severe when it causes disease?” she said, adding, “And thirdly, and very importantly, is this variant able to evade immune responses either after natural infection or after vaccines.”



She also called on countries where the omicron variant has been detected to share their clinical data and genomic sequence data through WHO’s platforms for scientists to study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a></a>How fast is the variant spreading?</h2>



The omicron variant has now been detected in multiple places, including the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/27/the-world-is-on-alert-as-the-uk-reports-cases-of-omicron-covid-variant.html">United Kingdom</a>, Israel, Belgium,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/suspected-omicron-case-found-germany-regional-minister-2021-11-27/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Germany</a>, Italy, Hong Kong,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/28/netherlands-australia-find-omicron-variant-cases-as-travel-restrictions-spread.html">the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia</a>. Many countries have stepped up restrictions on travel from southern Africa to try and contain the spread of the new strain.



Covid vaccine makers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/PFE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pfizer</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/BNTX" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BioNTech</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/MRNA" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Moderna</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/JNJ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Johnson &amp; Johnson</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/AZN-GB" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AstraZeneca</a>&nbsp;said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/26/pfizer-biontech-investigating-new-covid-variant-jj-testing-vaccine-against-it.html">they are investigating and testing the omicron variant</a>.



WHO’s Swaminathan said that for the moment, it should be assumed that the existing vaccines will provide some protection, if not full protection against the new strain.



“It’s really important that everybody out there who’s still unvaccinated, or who has received only one dose, must get a full course of vaccination,” she said.



“I think we still have a huge number of people around the world who haven’t had their first course of vaccines and we also know that at the moment, it’s the delta variant that’s the major cause of the pandemic around the world,” Swaminathan added.



<a href="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&amp;amp;facet=none&amp;amp;pickerSort=asc&amp;amp;pickerMetric=location&amp;amp;Interval=7-day+rolling+average&amp;amp;Relative+to+Population=true&amp;amp;Align+outbreaks=false&amp;amp;country=~OWID_WRL&amp;amp;Metric=People+vaccinated+%28by+dose%29" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Information compiled by Our World In Data</a>&nbsp;showed around 43% of the world population has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. But only a small percentage of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/27/vaccine-inequality-could-cost-the-global-economy-trillions-report.html">The WHO has repeatedly criticized global vaccine inequity</a>&nbsp;as most shots have been administered in affluent or middle-income countries, including booster doses.

49668784568_cc4a0dd9f1_b (1)

Delta variant is still the ‘major cause of the pandemic’ despite worries about omicron, WHO says

<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/106977055-1637184524134-gettyimages-466577752-84347905.jpeg?v=1637184751&amp;w=929&amp;h=523" alt="An oil pump at sunset in China"/><figcaption>An oil pump at sunset in Daqing, Heilongjiang province, China, on July 13, 2006. Lucas Schifres | Getty Images</figcaption></figure>



The Biden administration has asked some of the world’s largest oil-consuming nations to consider releasing some of their crude reserves in a coordinated effort to lower prices and stimulate the economic recovery, according to several people familiar with the matter.



Global oil prices touched seven-year highs in late October as oil demand has rebounded nearly to pre-pandemic levels, faster than the pace of supply. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, have been adding 400,000 barrels per day to the market on a monthly basis. They resisted calls this month from U.S. President Joe Biden for steeper boosts.



In recent weeks, Biden and top aides have raised the issue with close allies including Japan, South Korea and India, as well as with China, the sources said.



Several people familiar with the matter cautioned that such negotiations have not been finalized nor has any final decision been made about whether to pursue this or any other course of action on oil prices.



The White House declined to comment on the detailed content of specific conversations with other countries. “No decisions have been made,” said a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council.



The spokesperson added that the White House has said for weeks that it is “talking with other energy consumers to ensure global energy supply and prices do not imperil the global economic recovery. There is nothing to report beyond ongoing conversations and we consider a range of tools for if and when action is needed.”



OPEC and allies have been wary of boosting output dramatically, concerned the rebound in demand could be fragile and additional supply could overwhelm markets.



“The surplus is already beginning in December,” OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said on Tuesday, when asked if he was sure there would be an excess in oil supply next year.



“These are signals that we have to be very, very careful,” he told reporters.



Rising oil prices have been an increasingly concerning political problem for Biden, a Democrat who took office in January. U.S. gasoline prices are $3.41 per gallon now, according to AAA, more than 60% higher than a year ago as the economy has rebounded from the Covid-19 pandemic.

U.S. asks Japan, China, others to consider tapping oil reserves, sources say

<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/MZRRFP7THBIUVAC2PF3TRCVGD4.jpg" alt="World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus waits for the arrival of Swiss Interior and Health Minister Alain Berset before a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the opening of the 74th World Health Assembly at the WHO headquarters, in Geneva, Switzerland May 24, 2021. Laurent Gillieron/Pool via REUTERS"/><figcaption>World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus waits for the arrival of Swiss Interior and Health Minister Alain Berset before a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the opening of the 74th World Health Assembly at the WHO headquarters, in Geneva, Switzerland May 24, 2021. Laurent Gillieron/Pool via REUTERS</figcaption></figure>



Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has steered the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, is on course to serve a second five-year term as head of the World Health Organization (WHO) after being the only candidate nominated by 28 countries.



Tedros, a former health and foreign minister of Ethiopia, was the first African elected WHO director-general in May 2017.



The clean slate for the May election comes even as the European Commission suspending funding to WHO programmes in the Democratic Republic of Congo over a major sexual abuse scandal, as reported exclusively by Reuters on Thursday.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/exclusive-eu-suspends-funding-who-programmes-congo-after-sex-scandal-2021-10-28/">read more</a>



Some 83 aid workers, a quarter of them employed by the WHO, were involved in sexual exploitation and abuse during Congo&#8217;s 2018-2020 Ebola epidemic, an independent probe said last month.



Health ministers from the WHO&#8217;s 194 member states are also due to hold an exceptional assembly in November amid mounting pressure for reform pursuant to the organisation&#8217;s handling of the pandemic.



Tedros drew support from France and Germany, among other European Union members, and three African countries &#8211; Botswana, Kenya and Rwanda &#8211; the official nomination list showed. Britain, China, Russia and the United States were not among them.



&#8220;WHO can announce that a single candidate was proposed by member states by the 23 September 2021 deadline: Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is the incumbent director-general,&#8221; the agency said in a statement. The nominations were kept secret to limit lengthy campaigning.



Earlier, the agency sent a letter to member states informing them of the confidential nominations contained in the sealed envelopes submitted by the deadline&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/tedros-sole-nominee-who-chief-western-diplomats-tell-reuters-2021-10-29/">read more</a>



Ethiopia declined to nominate Tedros for a second term due to friction over the conflict in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, making it necessary for other countries to step in and do so.



The issue is so sensitive that the African Union has not even discussed the appointment, including at its latest summit this month, African diplomats said.



Tedros has led the global response to COVID-19, the worst public health crisis in a century, which broke out in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 and has killed 5.2 million people.



The United States, under former President Donald Trump, accused him of being &#8220;China-centric&#8221;, a charge he denies.



Relations have warmed since Joe Biden&#8217;s administration took office in January.



But he annoyed China with public calls in July for it to share Wuhan lab audits and provide more data on early COVID-19 cases. WHO investigators have yet to regain access to the country to probe the origins of coronavirus.



&#8220;STAYING POWER&#8221;



The United States and Germany have led major donors in demanding fundamental reforms to the WHO&#8217;s structure, financing and capacity to deal with outbreaks.



The European Commission informed the WHO on Oct. 7 that it was immediately suspending funding to its Congo programmes due to concerns over its handling of the sexual abuse scandal. Tedros went to Congo 14 times during the epidemic but says that he was unaware of the allegations.<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/exclusive-eu-suspends-funding-who-programmes-congo-after-sex-scandal-2021-10-28/">&nbsp;read more</a>



&#8220;We have received the (EU) letter and we are now considering a response,&#8221; WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris told a briefing on Friday.



A European source, asked whether the Congo scandal could have an impact on Tedros&#8217; re-election, said: &#8220;Nope. He personally is taking the right steps and measures. As long as there is not a direct link to him. Which I don’t see.&#8221;



An African ambassador in Geneva, declining to be identified, said: “Dr. Tedros has done a very good job dealing with a severe pandemic with severe repercussions. He has tried to contribute within the capacity and the resources of WHO and to realize a more equitable distribution of vaccines at the global level.&#8221;



“He is a friend of Africa, he has done a lot of work and deserves a lot of support,&#8221; the ambassador said.



Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, speaking at a news briefing with Tedros on Thursday, where the WHO launched a $23.4 billion plan to bring COVID-19 vaccines and drugs to poorer countries, told him:



&#8220;I wish you all luck in your endeavour and I salute your staying power and your ability to keep focus on this agenda, servicing your broad membership and the whole world.&#8221;

Bilateral meeting on the sidelines of annual World Health Assembly in Geneva

Tedros sole nominee as WHO chief, U.N. agency says

<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/image.png" alt="" class="wp-image-412379" width="673" height="446" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/image.png 792w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/image-300x199.png 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/image-136x90.png 136w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/image-768x509.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 673px) 100vw, 673px" /><figcaption>FILE PHOTO: Euro, Hong Kong dollar, U.S. dollar, Japanese yen, pound and Chinese 100 yuan banknotes are seen in this picture illustration, January 21, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Lee/Illustration</figcaption></figure></div>



Central banks that launched massive emergency support to fight the pandemic last year are now planning a global turn in the other direction, with gaps already emerging in their perceived risk of inflation, the need to respond to it, and the pace of the likely return to normal monetary policy.



They are confronted with common supply shocks and common risks around a pandemic that continues to shape commerce.



&#8220;Globally we are still in for a long process,&#8221; of reopening and adapting to the post-pandemic economy, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said this week in a Reuters interview.



But the reopening, and particularly the associated inflation, is being felt differently across the developed world, testing officials&#8217; understanding of the post-pandemic economy and their ability to hit a shared 2% inflation target without derailing global growth.



The heads of the world&#8217;s four major central banks gather for a mostly virtual European Central Bank forum on Wednesday, and if last year was marked by a uniform rush to stave off the worst, their exit strategies are already diverging.



That&#8217;s led to major policy scuffling both in Europe and the United States over how much inflation risk central banks should tolerate as they try to make up for sluggish prices in the years since the Great Recession a decade ago &#8211; a major gamble, in effect, over whether the post-pandemic world will work the same as before.



Policy divergence among the world&#8217;s major central banks can influence markets worldwide, shifting capital flows, exchange rates and trade patterns. There may even be limits on how far a central bank like the Fed might go in normalizing policy or raising interest rates if major partners like the ECB aren&#8217;t moving in the same direction.



It is still early in the transition from the pandemic, but differences are already emerging.



“The key challenge is to ensure that we do not overreact to transitory supply shocks,” ECB President Christine Lagarde said at her bank&#8217;s premier research conference on Tuesday, and policy “must remain focused on steering the economy safely out of the pandemic emergency&#8221; rather than squelching any short-term increase in prices.



Like the ECB, the Fed is also banking on inflation easing largely on its own. But discussion of the risks has become more prominent, and in projections last week virtually all Fed officials said it was more likely inflation would run hotter than expected than otherwise.



Even as Lagarde spoke, Fed Chair Jerome Powell testified to the U.S. Congress about &#8220;bottlenecks, hiring difficulties, and other constraints&#8221; that have led the Fed to project inflation this year at 4.2%, twice the official target, and may make it more persistent.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cost-of-living-crisis">COST-OF-LIVING CRISIS?</h2>



The potential problems are manifold. The pandemic still rages, and while businesses and consumers have adapted to a large degree, it still shapes who is showing up for work, what goods and services get produced, and how fast those goods are moved around the planet and how smoothly those services are delivered.



Workers are moving back into jobs, but more slowly in many places than anticipated. The supply shocks that began with the first coronavirus shutdowns in 2020 continue to reverberate, whether in the form of fuel shortages in the UK, German auto plants waiting for computer chips, U.S. factories lacking industrial goods, backlogged shipping routes, or rising prices.



The Fed last week said it was nearing its first steps to wind down the emergency bond buying launched in March of 2020, and half of U.S. policymakers at their most recent meeting now say interest rates may need to increase next year.



For the Bank of England, the tipping point may already be in view, with markets expecting a rate increase no later than February, and yearly price increases of 4% beginning to show in public opinion.



&#8220;Talk of a &#8216;cost of living&#8217; crisis is gaining traction &#8230; and the public may be looking at the BoE to lean against inflation risks coming out of the pandemic,&#8221; Deutsche Bank economist Sanjay Raja wrote in a note to clients on Friday.



Japan&#8217;s core consumer inflation index, by contrast, remained flat in August, indicating that country&#8217;s decades-long battle with weak prices continues. Wholesale prices are rising, pushed by global commodities inflation, but growth is weak and Bank of Japan policy expected to remain loose.



The ECB has downplayed any post-pandemic policy shift.



Bondbuying through its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme will decline under the legislation that authorized it. But the bank is expected to expand other programs to partly compensate, with Lagarde arguing inflation remaining below the 2% target is a bigger risk than prices soaring persistently above it.



Looking back on the last decade it&#8217;s a natural concern.



By 2012 all the major central banks had fixed 2% as their preferred inflation target, then proceeded to persistently run short of it through a decade of sluggish growth.



The policy bias is now to err on the other side &#8211; and to hope the world cooperates.

image

Central banks parse inflation risk as turn from pandemic policy begins

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-109438462-1-820x547.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-401247" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-109438462-1-820x547.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-109438462-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-109438462-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-109438462-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/GettyImages-109438462-1.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /></figure>



SINGAPORE, July 21 (Reuters) – Oil prices fell on Wednesday after an industry report showed an unexpected build-up in U.S. oil inventories last week, which heightened worries about a resurgence in COVID-19 infections potentially dampening fuel demand.



<a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/quotes/@lcoc1/">Brent crude</a> futures fell 52 cents, or 0.8%, to $68.83 a barrel at 0354 GMT, giving up Tuesday’s 1.1% gain.



U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures dropped 50 cents, or 0.7%, to $66.70 a barrel, after rising $1 on Tuesday.



The market “has come under a bit of downward pressure in early morning trading today after a bearish and rather surprising inventory report from the API,” ING Economics analysts said in a note, referring to weekly figures from the American Petroleum Institute.



U.S. crude stocks rose by 806,000 barrels for the week that ended July 16, according to two market sources, citing American Petroleum Institute figures.



By comparison, 10 analysts polled by Reuters had estimated, on average, that crude stocks fell by about 4.5 million barrels.



Investors are awaiting data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration to see whether it confirms there was an increase in crude inventories, which would end an eight-week streak of inventory drawdowns.



“The price moves today and potentially tomorrow will be driven by U.S. oil stocks data, but the biggest thematic will be the OPEC+ deal to add 400,000 barrels per day a month versus whether demand will hold up given what we’re seeing on the Delta variant,” Commonwealth Bank analyst Vivek Dhar said.



<a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/opec-oil-deal-sends-prices-lower-and-this-could-be-a-buying-opportunity/">A deal</a> by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, together known as OPEC+, to boost supply by 400,000 bpd each month from August through December sparked an oil price selloff on Monday, exacerbated by demand fears with cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus picking up in major markets like the United States, Britain and Japan.



While fuel demand has improved during the peak summer months, a surge in Delta variant COVID-19 cases is taking a toll on the demand outlook.



“The Delta dread has a rather firm grip of the oil market sentiment, having put a big question-mark over the demand rebound narrative of the past several weeks,” said Vandana Hari, energy analyst at Vanda Insights.



“Crude may eke out some modest gains in the coming days, but it is hard to see prices jumping to the higher orbits any time soon,” said Hari. 



(Reporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne and Roslan Khasawneh in Singapore. Editing by Gerry Doyle and Richard Pullin)



(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions – https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html

106905973-1625223614118-gettyimages-1232575215-OIL_DEMAND

Oil retreats on surprise rise in U.S. stocks, weakening demand outlook

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="404" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istock-172471634-941536-1611211252-820x404.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-400971" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istock-172471634-941536-1611211252-820x404.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istock-172471634-941536-1611211252-300x148.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istock-172471634-941536-1611211252-768x379.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/istock-172471634-941536-1611211252.jpg 1458w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /></figure>



July 21 (Reuters) – <a href="/quotes/xau=x/">Gold </a>eased on Wednesday as the dollar emerged as the preferred safe-haven bet amid fears that the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant may stall a global economic recovery, while a rebound in U.S. bond yields further pressured bullion prices.



Spot gold was down 0.2% to $1,806.56 per ounce, as of 0258 GMT. U.S. gold futures fell 0.2% to $1,808.10.



“Even though gold considered a safe-haven, in times where there are true concerns about growth outlook, policy going forward and there is a drive to safety, the U.S. dollar always wins out,” said IG Market analyst Kyle Rodda.



“We did see some buyers coming through below $1,800 per ounce, which was constructive. But at the moment, the dollar is viewed as a safe-haven on bets that the U.S. economy will outperform a patchy global economy.”



The dollar rose 0.1% to hover near a 3-1/2-month peak against its rivals, potentially trimming appetite for gold by making the metal more expensive for holders of other currencies.



Yields on 10-year Treasuries bounced off five-month lows, increasing the opportunity cost of holding non-interest bearing gold.



Asian shares rose after sharp declines in the previous two sessions on concerns over the impact of the fast-spreading Delta variant.



Investors now shift their focus to the European Central Bank meeting on Thursday where policymakers are expected to chart a new path to reflect a change in strategy and show the bank is serious about reviving inflation.



Elsewhere, silver fell 0.3% to $24.84 per ounce, after hitting a more than three-month low earlier in the session.



“Silver prices are under pressure on concern that the spread of the new coronavirus Delta variant infections will lead to additional pandemic restrictions that undercut economic activity and demand for industrial metals,” Avtar Sandu, a senior commodities manager at Phillip Futures, said in a note.



Palladium rose 0.1% to $2,636.32 and platinum fell 0.1% to $1,064.89. 



(Reporting by Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)



(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions – https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html

Gold_bar_3

Gold slips as dollar steals safe-haven thunder, yields rebound

<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/106913490-1626785481170-106913490-16267854232021-07-20t122038z_534994130_rc28oo9fq1wl_rtrmadp_0_space-exploration-blueorigin.jpg?v=1626785509&amp;w=929&amp;h=523" alt="Billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of ecommerce company Amazon.com Inc, his brother Mark Bezos, a private equity executive, pioneering female aviator Wally Funk and recent Dutch high school graduate Oliver Daemen pose in an undated photograph, ahead of their"/><figcaption>Billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of ecommerce company Amazon.com Inc, his brother Mark Bezos, a private equity executive, pioneering female aviator Wally Funk and recent Dutch high school graduate Oliver Daemen pose in an undated photograph, ahead of their scheduled flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket near Van Horn, Texas, U.S.Blue Origin | Reuters</figcaption></figure>



VAN HORN, Texas —&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jeff-bezos/">Jeff Bezos</a>&nbsp;is the world’s most wealthy person, and now the first to hold that title while not on the Earth.



Blue Origin launched him into spaceflight history on Tuesday, with Bezos riding his company’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/19/blue-origin-launching-jeff-bezos-to-space-tuesday-what-to-know.html">first crewed New Shepard rocket</a>, alongside his brother and the oldest and youngest people to ever have flown in space.



After touchdown, Bezos reflected on realizing his long-awaited dream of flying in space.



“Best day ever!” he said.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/106913526-1626788205180-AP21201483117652.jpg?v=1626788245&amp;w=929&amp;h=523" alt="This photo provided by Blue Origin, Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket lifts off Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The rocket is carrying passengers Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and space tourism company Blue Origin, his brother Mark Bezos, Oliver Daemen and Wally F"/></figure>



This photo provided by Blue Origin, Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket lifts off Tuesday, July 20, 2021. The rocket is carrying passengers Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and space tourism company Blue Origin, his brother Mark Bezos, Oliver Daemen and Wally Funk.Blue Origin | AP



The capsule carrying the Blue Origin crew accelerated to more than three times the speed of sound before it reached 80 kilometers (or about 262,000 feet), the boundary the U.S. uses to mark the edge of space. The crew floated in microgravity for a couple minutes, before the capsule returned and landed under a set of parachutes.



The launch marked Blue Origin’s entrance into the market of private spaceflight, joining&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/richard-branson/">Richard Branson’s</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/SPCE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Virgin Galactic</a>&nbsp;— its direct competitor in the sector of suborbital tourism — and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/elon-musk/">Elon Musk’s</a>&nbsp;SpaceX.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-making-history">Making history</h2>



In addition to his singular net worth, Bezos, 57, is also the only space founder to ride the first crewed flight of his company. While SpaceX and Virgin Galactic have launched astronauts before, Bezos is the first to put himself on the inaugural crew flight.



Floating next to him: Wally Funk, 82, and Oliver Daemen, 18 — respectively the oldest and youngest humans to ever fly in space — and Bezos’ brother, Mark, 53.



Bezos invited his brother and Funk, a female aerospace pioneer, to join the flight. Daemen was a late addition. His seat was originally part of a public auction, but the auction’s winner, an anonymous person who bid $28 million to fly with Bezos, was unable to make the July 20 launch date. Daemen’s father, Joes, CEO of a private equity firm in the Netherlands, was also a bidder, with Daemen scheduled to fly on Blue Origin’s second crew launch as a paying passenger. When the mystery bidder backed out, the company moved Daemen up to the first launch.



Tuesday’s launch also came on another historic milestone — the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Bezos’ space vision</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/106508164-1588016562809iss040e092688_large.jpg?v=1588016610&amp;w=929&amp;h=523" alt=""/><figcaption>NASA</figcaption></figure>



New Shepard’s launch represents a milestone in its progress toward Bezos’ vision. He founded Blue Origin with the goal to create “a future where millions of people are living and working in space to benefit Earth.”



The New Shepard rocket and the capsule that rides atop it are reusable, capable of launching, landing, and launching again multiple times. The rocket system is in many ways a pathfinder for Blue Origin’s other, larger scale projects — such as its orbital New Glenn rocket.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/106845699-1614269360088-blueorigin_newglenn_launch_web.jpg?v=1614269426&amp;w=929&amp;h=523" alt="An artist's illustration of a New Glenn rocket standing on the launchpad in Florida."/><figcaption>An artist’s illustration of a New Glenn rocket standing on the launchpad in Florida.Blue Origin</figcaption></figure>



Like New Shepard, the New Glenn rocket booster is designed to be reusable, with the company expecting each one to be capable of launching and landing 25 times. New Glenn, with an inaugural launch date target of late 2022, stands about 320 feet tall and is designed to lift nearly 50 tons of payload to low Earth orbit. The rockets are named after Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard and John Glenn, respectively the first American in space and the first American to orbit Earth. In 1998, then-77-year-old Sen. Glenn became the oldest person in space.



Blue Origin has also developed multiple engines to power both its rockets, including the BE-3, BE-4, and BE-7 engines.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/106147179-1569381242599be4enginetestthumbnail.gif?v=1569381306&amp;w=929&amp;h=523" alt="Blue Origin tests one of the BE-4 rocket engines the company is developing to launch its New Glenn rocket."/><figcaption>Blue Origin tests one of the BE-4 rocket engines the company is developing to launch its New Glenn rocket.Blue Origin | gif by @thesheetztweetz</figcaption></figure>







Blue Origin is also working on a crewed lander called Blue Moon, which the company hopes to one day deliver astronauts and cargo to the lunar surface.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Space billionaires</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/106912890-16267065082021-07-19t032326z_1476711816_rc26no9eupiw_rtrmadp_0_space-exploration-blueorigin.jpeg?v=1626706553&amp;w=929&amp;h=523" alt="Mural displaying Jeff Bezo and his brother Mark Bezo, is seen in Van Horn, Texas, two days before the scheduled launch of Blue Origin's inaugural flight to the edge of space by billionaire American businessman Jeff Bezos and his three crewmates, in the ne" width="840" height="472"/><figcaption>Mural displaying Jeff Bezo and his brother Mark Bezo, is seen in Van Horn, Texas, two days before the scheduled launch of Blue Origin’s inaugural flight to the edge of space by billionaire American businessman Jeff Bezos and his three crewmates, in the nearby town of Van Horn, Texas, U.S. July 18, 2021.Thom Baur | Reuters</figcaption></figure>







The company’s only direct competition in the market of launching space tourists to the edge of space is Branson’s Virgin Galactic, a sector known as suborbital tourism. SpaceX is preparing to launch its first private mission in September, called Inspiration4, but Musk’s company sends its capsules further into space on multiday flights, in what is known as orbital tourism.



Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have been developing rocket-powered spacecraft, but that is where the similarities end. While Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket launches vertically Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo system is released in the air and returns to Earth in a glide for a runway landing, like an aircraft.



And while Blue Origin launches autonomously, Virgin Galactic system is flown by two pilots. Branson’s company has flown four test spaceflights to date but does not expect to begin flying paying customers until 2022.&nbsp;



Blue Origin’s auction may have netted $28 million, but a seat on a suborbital spacecraft is typically much less expensive. Virgin Galactic has historically sold reservations between $200,000 and $250,000 per ticket, and more recently charged the Italian Air Force about $500,000 per ticket for a training spaceflight.



The tourism market is a nascent slice of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/30/space-economy-worth-over-420-billion-weathering-covid-crisis-report.html">the more than $420 billion space economy</a>. Yet its high profile — given the much more thrilling human element — means it has a powerful and widespread influence over the space industry, with investors often pointing to astronaut flights as driving excitement about the broader implications of the extraterrestrial marketplace.

106913519-1626788028750-gettyimages-1329690430-ay4i6883_2021072071436209

Jeff Bezos reaches space on Blue Origin’s first crewed launch

VAN HORN, Texas, July 20 (Reuters) – Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, on Tuesday is set to blast off aboard his company Blue Origin’s New Shepard launch vehicle for a suborbital flight as part of a history-making crew – another milestone in ushering in a new era of private space travel.



The American billionaire is due to fly from a desert site in West Texas on an 11-minute voyage to the edge of space nine days after British rival Richard Branson was aboard his competing space tourism company Virgin Galactic’s successful inaugural suborbital flight from New Mexico.



Branson got to space first, but Bezos is due to fly higher – 62 miles (100 km) for Blue Origin compared to 53 miles (86 km) for Virgin Galactic – in what experts call the world’s first unpiloted space flight with an all-civilian crew.



Bezos, founder of ecommerce juggernaut Amazon.com Inc , and his brother and private equity executive Mark Bezos will be joined in the flight by two others. Pioneering female aviator Wally Funk, 82, and recent high school graduate Oliver Daemen are set to become the oldest and youngest people to reach space.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/SPACE-EXPLORATION/BLUEORIGIN/jbyprzzympe/blue-origin.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" src="https://graphics.reuters.com/SPACE-EXPLORATION/BLUEORIGIN/jbyprzzympe/blue-origin.jpg" alt=""/></a><figcaption>Click to enlarge graphic</figcaption></figure>



“I am excited, but not anxious. We’ll see how I feel when I’m strapped into my seat,” Bezos said in an interview with Fox Business Network on Monday. “… We’re ready. The vehicle’s ready. This team is amazing. I feel very good about it. And I think my fellow crewmates feel good about it, too.”



Funk was one of the so-called Mercury 13 group of women who trained to become NASA astronauts in the early 1960s but was passed over because of her gender. Daemen, Blue Origin’s first paying customer, is set to attend the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands to study physics and innovation management in September. His father heads investment management firm Somerset Capital Partners.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-read-more-mauritius-arrests-captain-of-japanese-oil-spill-ship">Read more: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2020/mauritius-arrests-captain-of-japanese-oil-spill-ship/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Mauritius arrests captain of Japanese oil spill ship</a></h3>







Barring technical or weather-related delays, New Shepard is due to blast off around 8 a.m. CDT (1300 GMT) from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One facility some 20 miles (32 km) outside the rural Texas town of Van Horn.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-minutes-of-weightlessness">MINUTES OF WEIGHTLESSNESS</h2>



New Shepard is a 60-foot-tall (18.3-meters-tall) and fully autonomous rocket-and-capsule combo that cannot be piloted from inside the spacecraft. It is completely computer-flown and will have none of Blue Origin’s staff astronauts https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/bezos-blue-origin-make-history-with-unpiloted-civilian-space-flight-2021-07-14 or trained personnel onboard.



In contrast, Virgin Galactic used a space plane with a pair of pilots onboard.



New Shepard is set to hurtle at speeds upwards of 2,200 miles (3,540 km) per hour to an altitude of about 62 miles (100 km), the so-called Kármán line set by an international aeronautics body as defining the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space.



During the flight, the crew will unbuckle for a few minutes of weightlessness and gaze back at the Earth’s curvature through what Blue Origin calls the largest windows ever used in space travel. Then, the capsule falls back to Earth under parachutes, using a last-minute retro-thrust system that expels a “pillow of air” for a soft landing at 1 mph (1.6 km/h) in the Texas desert.



The reusable booster is due to return to the launch pad using drag brakes and ring and wedge fins for stabilization.



Tuesday’s launch marks another landmark in the “billionaire’s race” to establish a space tourism sector that Swiss investment bank UBS estimates will reach $3 billion annually in a decade. Another billionaire tech mogul, Elon Musk, plans to send an all-civilian crew on an even more ambitious flight in September: a several-day orbital mission on his Crew Dragon capsule.



Blue Origin has not offered details on its longer-term pricing strategy or how quickly it will ramp up the frequency of its launches. Chief Executive Bob Smith has said the next flight is likely in September or October. Smith said the “willingness to pay continues to be quite high” for people interested in future flights.



The company appears to have a reservoir of future customers. More than 6,000 people from at least 143 countries entered an auction to become the first paying customer, though the auction winner who made a $28 million bid ultimately dropped out of Tuesday’s flight.



Bezos, who founded Blue Origin in 2000, has a net worth of $206 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires. He stepped down this month as Amazon CEO but remains its executive chairman.



(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Van Horn, Texas; Editing by Will Dunham)



(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions – https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-explainer-why-are-pirates-attacking-ships-in-the-gulf-of-guinea"><a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/2021/explainer-why-are-pirates-attacking-ships-in-the-gulf-of-guinea/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">EXPLAINER-Why are pirates attacking ships in the Gulf of Guinea?</a></h3>

46172109345_3e3e67096d_o

Jeff Bezos, worlds richest man, set for inaugural space voyage

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="545" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/kennete-820x545.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-407052" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/kennete-820x545.jpg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/kennete-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/kennete-120x80.jpg 120w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/kennete-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/kennete.jpg 1200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>Zambia&#8217;s Founding President; Kenneth Kaunda Photo via Wikipedia </figcaption></figure>



Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia&#8217;s founding president and liberation hero, has died, aged 97, at a military hospital in Lusaka where he was being treated for pneumonia, his son, Kambarage, said on Wednesday.



Kaunda ruled Zambia from 1964, when the southern African nation won its independence from Britain, until 1991, and afterwards become one of Africa&#8217;s most committed activists against HIV/AIDS.



&#8220;I am sad to inform (members) we have lost Mzee. Let’s pray for him,&#8221; Kambarage said on the late president&#8217;s Facebook page.



 (Reporting by Chris Mfula; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Alison Williams)

kennete

Zambia’s founding president, Kenneth Kaunda, dies aged 97 – son

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1110" height="740" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/GettyImages-1213304774-1110x740.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-395014" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/GettyImages-1213304774-1110x740.jpg 1110w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/GettyImages-1213304774-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/GettyImages-1213304774-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/GettyImages-1213304774-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/GettyImages-1213304774-scaled.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px" /><figcaption>Cropped hand wearing a nitrile glove holding a Covid-19 vaccine vial and a syringe</figcaption></figure>



BEIJING, March 15 (Reuters) &#8211; China aims to vaccinate at least half a billion of its people against COVID-19 in four months, a challenge that will test the country&#8217;s formidable industrial might just as it accelerates efforts to help inoculate the rest of the world.



Reuters calculations indicate China could ramp up capacity enough to vaccinate the world&#8217;s biggest population and hundreds of millions beyond, in dozens of countries from Africa to Latin America.



But little is known about how fully the three approved domestic manufacturers are using their capacity &#8211; a lack of information that leaves a huge question mark over global efforts to end the pandemic that began in central China.



&#8220;It is important for the public to have an understanding of what the government is doing, what the private industry is doing, how fast or slowly they are doing,&#8221; said U.S. researcher Jennifer Pancorbo.



More precise production data that help people get some sense of whether shots will be available in May or July will affect how people plan their return to normal life, said Pancorbo, director of industry programmes and research at North Carolina State University&#8217;s Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center.



China got an early start, invoking emergency-use authorisation for vaccines in July. But it has inoculated less than 4% of its population, far behind such countries as Israel, Britain and the United States, as it largely focussed on preventing transmission.



Now Beijing is shifting gears, aiming to inoculate 40% of its 1.4 billion people by the end of June.



With 65 million doses administered as of Sunday, China needs to average around 4 million shots a day to meet that target.



Vaccine developers&#8217; statements suggest manufacturers could reach an annual capacity of 3.6 billion doses by the end of the year, according to Reuters calculations: 3.1 billion doses of the three approved vaccines that require double injections and 500 million single-dose shots.



That would be enough to vaccinate China&#8217;s entire population eventually and honour its commitment to supply at least 463 million doses overseas through donations and exports.



But none of the makers of the approved vaccines &#8211; China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), CanSino Biologics Inc (CanSinoBIO) or Sinovac Biotech Ltd &#8211; has detailed how many doses they are producing after their latest scale-up. &#8220;Chinese vaccine manufacturers are still expanding, and with the continuous release of production capacity, the output will gradually increase,&#8221; Tian Yulong, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told a news conference on Monday.



He declined to disclose China&#8217;s vaccine production rate or supply levels, when asked by Reuters.



Even if they have enough capacity ready, if disruptions in the supply of raw materials and key components occurred, they probably could not run their factories at full speed, experts caution.



&#8216;HARD TO PREDICT&#8217;



&#8220;All the vials, boxes, syringes, needles, all that stuff, where does it come from?&#8221; said Harris Makatsoris, professor of sustainable manufacturing systems at King&#8217;s College London, &#8220;The question is these companies &#8211; do they have sufficient capacity, because they serve the internal market as well as the global market?&#8221;



Sinovac said in early February that its capacity to make finished products lagged behind its bulk production capacity, but overseas partners could help fill bulk vaccine into vials and syringes.



A Sinovac spokesman told Reuters it does not expect a shortage of vials and would be able to quickly expand production if China or other countries accept a larger vial that can hold multiple doses of its vaccine.



Unlike AstraZeneca PLC, which puts 10 doses in a vial and Pfizer Inc, which uses five, Sinovac uses a single-dose vial or syringe.



Sinopharm and CanSinoBIO did not reply to Reuters requests for comment.



Drugmakers worldwide are struggling, as they run flat out to meet the unprecedented demands from competing countries at record speed.



Gao Fu, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, thinks China has sufficient production capacity to meet its goals, but cautions that translating capacity into products that meet standards is complicated.



Before starting mass production, a newly built line needs to go through test runs and fine-tuning that could affect the production schedule, making it difficult to disclose precise production rates.



&#8220;You may produce a batch and it doesn&#8217;t meet the requirements, and then you have to do it again, make a change to something,&#8221; said Zoltan Kis, an Imperial College London researcher specialising in vaccine manufacturing. &#8220;This is the same everywhere in the world, not only in China.&#8221;



Established Western vaccine makers have hit production snags &#8211; AstraZeneca faces growing anger as it falls far behind commitments to supply the European Union.



&#8220;Companies have consistently overestimated their ability to produce and deliver vaccines,&#8221; partly because a scarcity of information makes it hard to estimate supply, said Jerome Kim, director general of the nonprofit International Vaccine Institute.



While China has other challenges to address in its vaccination campaign, Kim said he would &#8220;worry first about supply, then about delivery and finally acceptance.&#8221; (Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo in Beijing and Miyoung Kim in Singapore, Editing by William Mallard)



(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions &#8211; https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html

In this photo illustration, a man holds a syringe with a

China’s ambitious COVID-19 vaccination plan to test its production capability

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="820" height="547" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1302717103-820x547.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-397873" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1302717103-820x547.jpeg 820w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1302717103-300x200.jpeg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1302717103-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1302717103-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GettyImages-1302717103-scaled.jpeg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px" /><figcaption>SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA &#8211; FEBRUARY 18: In this photo illustration reports on Facebook&#8217;s news ban on Australian and International content on February 18, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. Facebook has banned publishers an users in Australia from posting it sharing news content as the Australian government prepares to pass laws that will require social media companies to pay news publishers for sharing using content on their platforms. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



CAPE TOWN, February 19 (ANA) – Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has committed to apply laws to Facebook that force the social media giant to pay publishers for their media content.



In its dispute with the Australian authorities over paying for content, Facebook blocked all media content in Australia on Thursday.



Facebook not only blocked domestic and foreign news outlets for Australians, but also removed state government and emergency department accounts.



The proposed Media Bargaining Bill is designed to address a power imbalance between social media giants and publishers, whereby Facebook and Google are scooping up the majority of the advertising revenue. Australian publishers have complained that it is not a level playing field.



The bill includes negotiation safety, which allows for news outlets to negotiate commercial deals with Facebook and Google for news content used, and to prevent the tech sites from dominating the negotiations.



According to the Straits Times, if an agreement can’t be reached, an arbitrator will decide on the most reasonable offer. And, if the social media platforms were to break the agreement, they would face an US$7.8 million penalty.



“There is a lot of world interest in what Australia is doing. That is why I invite Facebook to constructively engage because they know that what Australia will do here is likely to be followed by many other Western jurisdictions,” Morrison told reporters in Sydney on Friday.



Morrison added that the leaders of Britain, France, Canada and India were backing them and would adopt the same approach.



The proposed legislation will initially apply to Facebook and Google, but authorities said it is likely other big tech firms will be added to it as well.



“Facebook was wrong, Facebook’s actions were unnecessary, they were heavy-handed, and they will damage its reputation here in Australia,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a news conference on Thursday.



“There is something much bigger here at stake than just one or two commercial deals. This is about Australia’s sovereignty,” he said.



– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher

Facebook Australia Restricts News Publishers And Users In Response To Proposed Media Bargaining Laws

Australia Commits To Content Law Despite Facebook News Blackout

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="594" height="410" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/gettyimages-1155740300-594x594.jpg" alt="Billionaire Elon Musk: I am not Warren Buffett’s biggest fan" class="wp-image-351991" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/gettyimages-1155740300-594x594.jpg 594w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/gettyimages-1155740300-594x594-300x207.jpg 300w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/gettyimages-1155740300-594x594-100x70.jpg 100w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/gettyimages-1155740300-594x594-218x150.jpg 218w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px" /><figcaption>Billionaire Elon Musk: I am not Warren Buffett’s biggest fan (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for E3/Entertainment Software Association)</figcaption></figure>



<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/elon-musk/">Elon Musk</a> just became the richest person in the world, with a net worth of more than $185 billion.



Thursday’s increase in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=TSLA">Tesla’s</a>&nbsp;share price pushed Musk past&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jeff-bezos/">Jeff Bezos</a>, who had been the richest person since 2017 and is currently worth about $184 billion. Musk’s wealth surge over the past year marks the fastest rise to the top of the rich list in history — and marks a dramatic financial turnaround for the famed entrepreneur who just 18 months ago was in the headlines for Tesla’s rapid cash burn and his personal leverage against Tesla’s stock.



Musk started 2020 worth about $27 billion, and was barely in the top 50 richest people.



Tesla’s rocketing share price — which has increased more than nine-fold over the past year — along with his generous pay package have added more than $150 billion to his net worth.



Meanwhile,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=AMZN">Amazon’s</a>&nbsp;share price has remained more subdued due to the potential for increased regulation from Washington.



Elon Musk passed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/id/10000263">Warren Buffett</a>&nbsp;in July to become the seventh richest person. In November, Musk raced past&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/id/10000312">Bill Gates</a>&nbsp;to become the second richest person. Musk has gained more wealth over the past 12 months than Bill Gates’ entire net worth of $132 billion.



Tesla’s shares were recently trading at about $790, up more than 4% in trading Thursday. The company’s market value has grown to $737.6 billion.

Elon Musk At SpaceX Headquarters

South African born, Elon Musk is now the richest person in the world, passing Jeff Bezos

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/GettyImages-1189261957-1110x767.jpg" alt="Bill Gates: ‘I wish I had done more’ to warn world about pandemic danger" class="wp-image-371281"/><figcaption>Bill Gates: ‘I wish I had done more’ to warn world about pandemic danger (Photo by Hou Yu/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>



SINGAPORE — Bill Gates has predicted there could be as many as half a dozen Covid-19 vaccines approved and ready for distribution by the spring of 2021, as medical advancements to combat the coronavirus ramp up.



“I expect that we’ll have about six vaccines approved by the first quarter,” Gates said Tuesday, speaking virtually at the Singapore FinTech Festival.



In addition to the already selectively approved&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=PFE">Pfizer</a>&#8211;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=BNTX">BioNTech</a>&nbsp;vaccine, Gates said candidates from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=MRNA">Moderna</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=AZN-GB">AstraZeneca</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=JNJ">Johnson &amp; Johnson</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=NVAX">Novavax</a>&nbsp;would also likely be granted authorization over the coming months. He did not name a sixth vaccine source.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-rapid-vaccine-developments">Rapid vaccine developments</h2>



Last week,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/02/uk-approves-pfizer-biontech-coronavirus-vaccine-for-use.html">the U.K. became the first country to give the&nbsp;Pfizer-BioNTech&nbsp;vaccine</a>&nbsp;emergency use approval, with rollouts scheduled to begin Tuesday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is set to vote on its approval Thursday.



Gates — whose eponymous non-profit organization, the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, has long advocated for global health developments including vaccinations — congratulated regulators in developed nations on their speedy progress. 



“The Western regulators are doing a great job,” he said. “They’ve run these phase three trials in an incredibly professional way, looking for any side effects, looking at efficacy.”



Yet Gates noted that much work remains to be done, including by organizations like his own, to ensure vaccines are fairly distributed to all countries, especially less developed ones.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ensuring-equitable-distribution">Ensuring equitable distribution</h2>



“We need to make sure we (distribute) in a somewhat equitable way, that’s not how rich you are determines whether you get access to this vaccine,” said Gates.



Already, the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation is working with India’s Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine producer by volume, to begin&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/07/indias-serum-institute-seeks-emergency-use-for-astrazenecas-vaccine-.html">manufacturing and distributing AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate</a>&nbsp;nationally. A similar arrangement will be made with Serum for the Novavax vaccine, Gates said, while a separate manufacturer will be found for Johnson &amp; Johnson’s candidate, once approved.



All three candidates rely on traditional vaccine technology, meaning they can be developed and stored at relatively lower cost and with lesser difficulty than their counterparts from Pfizer and Moderna. That makes them more suitable options for distribution among less wealthy nations.

Bill Gates: ‘I wish I had done more’ to warn world about pandemic danger

Bill Gates says six Covid vaccines could be available by spring 2021

As the world nears the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic, many workers say that their mental health is at risk.
In a <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diverse-employees-are-struggling-the-most-during-covid-19-heres-how-companies-can-respond" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new report</a>, McKinsey surveyed 1,100 executives and 2,656 employees across 11 countries to see how the pandemic is impacting workers. They found that while 96% of companies globally have made changes to their HR policies and increased employee resources, only 1 in 6 employees report feeling supported and 62% of employees globally “consider mental health issues a top challenge.”
An even larger share of women, 67%, said that mental health was their biggest coronavirus-related challenge.
Other common challenges expressed by workers included feeling disconnected, a lack of opportunity for growth and coordinating child care.
<div id="attachment_392390" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392390" class="wp-image-392390 size-full" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/106798832-1605711871855-McKinsey_employee_challenges.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="457" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/106798832-1605711871855-McKinsey_employee_challenges.jpg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/106798832-1605711871855-McKinsey_employee_challenges-300x185.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />Source: McKinsey</div>
“As you look globally at the effect of Covid-19 has had across groups, there’s a lot of similarities around the world. Globally, the biggest concerns are mental and physical health,” says <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/our-people/kweilin-ellingrud" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kweilin Ellingrud</a>, McKinsey’s lead author of the report. “But then some particular groups and some places have been disproportionately affected. For example, in India, Brazil and China, 75% to 90% of respondents cite workplace health and safety and mental health as challenges in the contact of Covid-19, compared with 50% to 60% of those in the United States, the United Kingdom and France.”
Workers from backgrounds that are not the majority in their country and workers in emerging economies reported facing the greatest challenges from the pandemic.
<div id="attachment_392391" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392391" class="wp-image-392391 size-full" src="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/106798833-1605711958160-McKinsey_accute_challenges.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="465" srcset="https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/106798833-1605711958160-McKinsey_accute_challenges.jpg 740w, https://cms.cnbcafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/106798833-1605711958160-McKinsey_accute_challenges-300x189.jpg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />Source: McKinsey</div>
Ellingrud says the data reflects a “fork in the road” for corporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. 
“If we do nothing in terms of being more strategic about how we support our most at-risk employees around the world from these effects, we will, in fact, move two steps back,” she says. “Historically, there has been slow and steady progress towards equity and equality over the years, but we are now at risk of losing quite a bit of ground across employees who are most affected unless we have a concerted effort to support those struggling most.”
McKinsey’s report gives actionable advice for how employers might execute these efforts.
“LGBTQ+ employees, and POC in particular, cited concerns with workload increases, and more workers expect this to be a challenge in the next six months,” it reads. “Addressing this may require companies to rethink expectations on worker productivity and performance, expand benefits like paid time off, and support employees in establishing boundaries between work and home life.”
And Ellingrud says she has been encouraged by early data that suggest employers are embracing the challenge — 40% reported increased funding for DEI efforts.
“The bar is rising,” she says.

mental-health-3337026_1920

McKinsey report: 62% of workers worldwide consider mental health ‘a top challenge’

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OPEC+ set to stick to modest oil output rise amid price rally

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McKinsey report: 62% of workers worldwide consider mental health ‘a top challenge’

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