Japan’s industrial output contracted in November and partially reversed the previous month’s gain, while retail sales slowed sharply as increasing global risks drag on demand and threaten the country’s export-reliant economy. Source: Reuters
Economics
Earnings at China’s industrial firms in November dropped for the first time in nearly three years, as slackening external and domestic demand left businesses facing more strain in 2019 in a sign of rising risks to the world’s second-largest economy. Source: Reuters
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged Muslim countries to use their national currencies in order to liberate the countries from the burden of exchange rates. Source: Hürriyet Daily News
A Russian navy ship, the Vice-Admiral Zakharin minesweeper, was moving towards the Sea of Azov from the Black Sea on Wednesday, a Reuters reporter said. Source: Reuters
raq has allocated 67 percent of its 2019 oil sales to Asia, the country’s oil ministry said on Tuesday, as OPEC’s second-biggest producer aims to sell more of its oil on the prized Asian markets. Source: Oil Price
Austria has mulled over the possibility of new sanctions against Russia due to the detention of three Ukrainian Navy vessels that sailed toward the Kerch Strait in what Moscow has described as an unequivocal provocation committed in violation of international law. At a secret meeting of the Political and Security Committee in Brussels on Tuesday, French and German diplomats spoke out against stepping up existing EU sanctions against Russia in light of the growing rift between Moscow and Kiev over the Kerch Strait incident. Source: Sputnik
The French government will not close any of its nuclear reactors besides Fessenheim before the end of the current presidential mandate which runs until 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday. Source: Reuters
In an interview with CNN, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that the country must be prepared for China’s growing military threat, but the rest of the world should take notice because it is a sign of more to come from the communist regime if other nations sit idly by. Source: Taiwannews
A bill being currently processed in parliament would allow the deportation of a dual national for crimes such as high treason or terrorism, but the intention now is to include more “ordinary” aggravated crimes as well. Source: Xinhua
Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced tax and loan benefits earlier this month to increase the number of Hungarian children.
It later prompted Swedish minister Annika Strandhall to compare the policy to Nazi Germany.
Hungary’s deputy prime minister said the remarks were an aberration triggered by political correctness.
Moscow will match any U.S. move to deploy new nuclear missiles closer to Russia by stationing its own missiles closer to the United States or by deploying faster missiles or both, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. Source: Reuters
Nearly one hundred people met this afternoon for a hotel in Verviers to protest against the arrival of Theo Francken (N-VA). The former secretary of state for Asylum and Migration was expected in the city at a lecture, but it has since been canceled. His car was attacked and the police can not guarantee his safety, he reports on Twitter. Muriel Targnion, mayor of Verviers (PS), joined the demonstrators as well. Source HLN
Fearing a nuclear arms race between China, Russia and the United States after the collapse of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which the United States is withdrawing from, Merkel made her call for a global treaty. Source: Reuters
Members of Italy’s ruling governing party the 5-Star Movement voted on Monday to block a possible kidnapping trial against Matteo Salvini, its coalition ally and leader of the hard-right League party. The online ballot is meant to dictate how 5-Star senators should vote on Tuesday in a parliamentary committee reviewing whether magistrates can continue a probe into Salvini, who is also interior minister and deputy prime minister. Source Thomson Reuters
Five Star movement asks supporters whether Matteo Salvini should be prosecuted for allegedly kidnapping migrants. Members of Italy’s ruling Five Star Movement are voting online on Monday to decide whether to block a possible kidnapping trial against Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, a coalition ally and leader of the right-wing League party. Source Aljazeera
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested over the weekend that a mosque in Athens should open with minarets if Greece wants to reopen the Halki Orthodox seminary near Istanbul. Source Ekathimerini
French schools are to replace the words “mother” and “father” with “parent 1” and “parent 2” under a controversial same sex amendment to a law passed this week. Source: Telegraph
Poland’s foreign ministry on Friday (Feb 15) summoned Israel’s ambassador over reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implicated Poles in the Holocaust. Source: Channel News Asia
The EU has announced an additional €30 million in humanitarian assistance. Another €20 million in development funding will contribute to the reconstruction of the country’s cultural heritage. Source: European Commission
Spain’s Socialist government announced a 47 billion euro ($53 billion) public investment plan on Wednesday to tackle climate change over 10 years, which would be partly financed by issuing green bonds. Source: Reuters
Honda is closing its factory in Turkey as the country’s new-car sales collapse.
Vehicle sales in Turkey dropped 35 percent last year to 612,607 as the value of the local currency fell, figures from JATO Dynamics show. Honda’s sales bucked the trend by rising 8.5 percent due to the popularity of the locally made Civic sedan, Turkey’s fourth best-selling car last year.
- Car sales fell 17.7 per cent last month from a year earlier, while total vehicle sales in January fell 15.8 per cent to 2.37 million units overall
- Seventh straight monthly decline in the world’s largest car market, and adds to wider concerns over domestic consumption and economic growth
Zimbabwe could run out of bread in a week after flour stocks dwindled due to the country’s failure to pay for imported wheat, according to a confidential letter written to bakers by the country’s grain millers’ group on Monday. Source: Reuters
Turkey saw 72,937 house sales in January with a 24.8-percent annual fall, the country’s statistical office announced on Feb. 18. The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said 31,048 newly-built houses were sold while the rest were second-hand sales last month. Source Daily News
- China’s car sales in January fell 15.8 percent from last year, China’s Association of Automobile Manufacturers said.
- This marks the seventh straight month of declining sales in the world’s largest auto market.
- Beijing is now trying to persuade consumers to loosen their purse strings and has pledged to provide subsidies to boost rural sales of some vehicles and purchases of new energy vehicles.
- China’s car sales in January fell 15.8 percent from last year, China’s Association of Automobile Manufacturers said.
- This marks the seventh straight month of declining sales in the world’s largest auto market.
- Beijing is now trying to persuade consumers to loosen their purse strings and has pledged to provide subsidies to boost rural sales of some vehicles and purchases of new energy vehicles.
The biggest U.S. bank said it developed a prototype digital coin that it plans to use to speed up payments between corporate customers. The token, dubbed JPM Coin, is based on blockchain technology, a decentralized public ledger of transactions that offers more speed because it doesn’t rely on a central record keeper. Source: Bloomberg
FCA Group, Ford and Volkswagen led a 4.6 percent decline in European car registrations in January, industry data showed, dampened by an economic slowdown in euro zone economies and consumer jitters over Brexit and trade. Source Reuters
Russia’s Gazprom will start gas supplies to China from Dec. 1, a month earlier than planned, the gas producer said on Friday. Deliveries of gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline were due to begin at the end of December 2019, but the project is only expected to reach full capacity in 2025. Source: Reuters
Two days of U.S.-Chinese trade talks ended with no specific details about whether progress was made or not Friday, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called them “productive” on Twitter. Source: WLOX
