International
USD/KRW Declines As South Korea Exits Recession in Q3
USD/KRW Declines As South Korea Exits Recession in Q3
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The South Korean won is recording modest gains against multiple currency rivals on Tuesday as the nation’s economy returned to growth in the third quarter. After enduring the sharpest economic downturn in more than a decade, Seoul was able to resuscitate the economy through a series of COVID-19 stimulus measures and surging exports.
During the July-to-September period, the gross domestic product (GDP) advanced 1.9%, following a 3.2% slide in the second quarter. The market had penciled in an expansion of 1.7% in the three months ending in September. This is the fastest quarterly expansion since the January-to-March period of 2010.
The economy rebounded mainly due to a 15.6% surge in exports, exceeding the 4.9% boost in imports.
South Korea saw growth in manufacturing (7.6%) and services (0.7%), but the East Asian powerhouse reported a contraction in construction (-5.5) and utilities (-7.4%). Moreover, consumption slid 0.1%, and gross fixed capital formation dropped 1.9%.
The Bank of Korea is projecting a 1.3% slide for the year. But Alex Holmes, an economist at research firm Capital Economics, told Reuters that he only anticipates a 1% contraction in GDP for all of 2020, alluding to COVID-19 risks continuing in the US and Europe.
While this would be the worst performance since 1998, it would still make Korea one of the best-performing economies in the world this year.
In the aftermath of the coronavirus public health crisis, the South Korean government unleashed $275 billion in fiscal stimulus measures to support the economy and limit the downturn. The central bank also slashed interest rates to an all-time low of 0.5%.
Later this week, consumer and business confidence, construction output, retail sales, and manufacturing and industrial production data will be released.
Overall, foreign investors appear to be bullish on the South Korean economy. Foreigners were net buyers of $92.62 million worth of shares on the leading benchmark index, Kospi. The bond market saw higher yields as the benchmark 10-year yield climbed 1.6 basis points to 1.499%. The highly liquid three-year Korean Treasury bond yield edged up 0.9 basis point to 0.917%.
On Monday, Seoul reported 88 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, down from 119 on Sunday. South Korea has had more than 26,000 infections, with a death toll of only 460.
The USD/KRW currency pair dropped 0.35% to 1,128.50, from an opening of 1,132.51, at 17:11 GMT on Tuesday. The EUR/KRW tumbled 0.18% to 1,334.96, from an opening of 1,337.43.
© AndrewMoran for Forex News, 2020. |
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International
New York Refuses To Give More Money For Offshore Wind Projects As Cheap “Green” Myth Implodes
New York Refuses To Give More Money For Offshore Wind Projects As Cheap "Green" Myth Implodes
By Irina Slav of OilPrice.com,
The New York…
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By Irina Slav of OilPrice.com,
The New York state authorities have rejected a request by Orsted, BP, and Equinor for raising the price of electricity in future power purchase contracts featuring offshore wind energy.
Offshore wind developers have been pressured by rising raw material and component costs, and higher borrowing costs, which has cast doubt over the viability of many projects. Indeed, Reuters reported that some projects planned for the waters off the coast of New York may need to be reconsidered in light of the authorities’ decision.
"Sunrise Wind's viability and therefore ability to be constructed are extremely challenged without this adjustment," Orsted told Reuters.
Sunrise Wind is an offshore project with a planned capacity of 924 MW that could supply electricity to 600,000 households. According to Orsted, it would also involve several hundred million dollars in investments in the state and 800 jobs.
"These projects must be financially sustainable to proceed," the president of Equinor Renewables Americas told Reuters, referring to the offshore wind projects the Norwegian energy major is leading in the U.S.
Per Reuters, Equinor is involved in three projects with BP—the 816 MW Empire Wind 1 and the 1.26 GW Empire Wind 2, as well as the Beacon Wind farm, with a projected capacity of 1.23 GW.
Indeed, rising costs have compromised the financial sustainability of many wind power projects and earlier this year led to the cancellation of a large-scale one off the coast of the UK.
Swedish Vattenfall, which led the Norfolk Boreas project, said it would quit it after it saw costs rise by 40%, which made the project unviable.
To tackle the rising cost problem, wind developers have turned to governments, asking for additional tax incentives and higher electricity prices, busting the myth of cheap wind power.
The New York Public Service Commission said that if they had agreed to do what the wind developers wanted, that would have added 6.7% to New Yorkers’ electricity bills, which are already among the highest in the State.
International
Russia Denies Talks Of A Gas Cartel
Russia Denies Talks Of A Gas Cartel
By Michael Kern of OilPrice.com
There are no plans for the creation of a natural gas cartel similar to…
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By Michael Kern of OilPrice.com
There are no plans for the creation of a natural gas cartel similar to the OPEC cartel in crude oil, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday.
“There are no discussions to set up a (gas) cartel,” Novak told RT Arabic TV as quoted by Reuters.
The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) is an organization of gas producers and exporters but it is not coordinating supply to the market the way OPEC does. Russia is a member of the GECF and its top energy official Novak said in the televised interview that the gas organization was “mostly about exchanging views.”
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the halt of most of Russian pipeline gas supplies to Europe, the EU has turned to LNG imports and increased deliveries via offshore pipelines from Norway and North Africa to replace the Russian supply, which accounted for around one-third of all European gas imports before the war in Ukraine.
The EU aims to ditch Russian gas by 2027.
Having lost the European market, Russia has raised pipeline exports to China and its global LNG exports, which are neither sanctioned nor too shunned in gas-starved Europe.
This year, the exports of Russian gas giant Gazprom to Europe have slumped and dragged its profits down. Gazprom has reported a massive drop in its first-half net profit as deliveries to Europe plunged compared to the same period in 2022 when Russia was still supplying pipeline gas to its European customers.
The major drop in Gazprom’s gas deliveries to key customers was due to the halt of Russian pipeline gas exports to nearly all European countries.
Gazprom started to reduce supply via the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany in June 2022, claiming an inability to service gas turbine maintenance outside Russia due to the Western sanctions against Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine. This was weeks before the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines at the end of September 2022, which definitively closed all pipeline gas routes of Russia’s gas to Germany.
International
Carnival Cruise Line enforces a key main dining room rule
Cruisers love to debate every aspect of eating in the main dining room, but Carnival has drawn a line in the sand on one key issue.
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For most people on a Carnival, Royal Caribbean, MSC, or Norwegian (NCLH) - Get Free Report cruise the main dining room serves as a gathering and reset point.
During the day families and friends may go off in different directions, but on most nights they gather in the main dining room for a multicourse dinner experience that generally takes about 90 minutes.
Cruise lines have more small tables, so in many cases you're not sitting with strangers as often as you would have been in the past, but dinners in the main dining room remain an important part of cruising.
Dinner brings everyone on a trip together and creates shared memories even when days are spent in different places.
Related: Carnival Cruise Line CEO openly talks about adding unpopular fee
The main dining room , of course, is not the only option. You can opt for specialty dining or the buffet, or you can just grab a pizza. Still, with the capacity to serve the entire ship across multiple seatings, the main dining room dinners remain a crucial part of the cruise experience on Carnival, Royal Caribbean (RCL) - Get Free Report, MSC, and Norwegian sailings.
Cruisers, of course, love to debate any changes and rules that are enforced or not enforced in the main dining room. Thousands of social-media posts argue how and whether each cruise line enforces its dress code, with some people wanting to wear shorts, hats or flip-flops while others lament that passengers no longer wear tuxedos on formal nights.
Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) - Get Free Report Brand Ambassador John Heald recently touched off a debate, however, when he outlined on his Facebook page one rule that Carnival does enforce.
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Image source: Nora Tam/South China Morning Post via Getty
Don't be late for your Carnival main dining room time
Heald spends most days answering questions from Carnival's customers. Sometimes he shares notes that have been sent to him and solicits public response.
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In this case, he shared what happened to one family when it arrived 40 minutes late to its designated meal time.
On our recent Pride cruise from Rome, we had a table of 10. After long days in port, we did not always make it on time for early seating and came into the main dining room at intervals. This really threw our servers off and therefore, OUR service suffered. One evening, we were all 40 minutes late That is all.. The restaurant manager told us we had to eat at the buffet or come back to see if there was a table available at the late seating.
Carnival, like most cruise lines, offers early and late seatings as well as "anytime" dining options. People who have a specific seating will eat at the same table every night, while people with flexible time seating will eat in a different dining room.
The family that arrived late shared more info with Heald.
That is not acceptable with teenagers. If Carnival puts a cruise together with long stays in ports then expect many to be late. We were punished for being 30 mins late. Unacceptable !!! You are monsters!
Carnival's brand ambassador tried to be understanding but also backed the main dining room management's decision.
I also understand as a parent myself that getting a family ready for dinner on time is not easy, especially after a long day in port. However, the waiter has not just this table to serve but others and moving back to serving appetisers while everyone else is about to be served their main course really can cause a massive dollop of stress for the waiter. If perhaps they had Your Time Dinning or late seating it might have been manageable but early seating, nope, I support what the Maitre D did by asking them to use the Lido or come back later for a table
Heald also posted a poll asking his followers to vote on whether directing guests who were 40 minutes late to their seating to the buffet was a correct choice.
His followers overwhelmingly agreed with the cruise line: 97% agreed with the decision and 3% said the cruise line should have tried to accommodate the family.
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A comment from Pam Miller Downey seemed to illustrate how most people felt about the issue.
"They were late...that means not on time..that means they eat somewhere else. Most people who are 40 minutes late wouldn't even dream of going to the MDR. They would automatially go to Lido or one of the other eateries," she wrote.
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