Myanmar’s military-appointed authorities are doing their best to revive an economy in turmoil since a February coup and stabilize the kyat currency, a minister told Reuters on Tuesday, blaming the crisis partly on foreign backers of its opponents.

The currency lost more than 60% of its value in September after the Southeast Asian nation was roiled by months of protests, strikes and economic paralysis following the coup.

Inflation has soared to 6.51% since the military took power from 1.51% previously, and foreign reserves stand at 11 trillion kyat, or $6.04 billion at the central bank’s official rate, the minister, Aung Naing Oo, said in a rare interview.

It was the first time Myanmar had disclosed its level of foreign currency since the coup, and compares with a World Bank figure of just $7.67 billion at the end of 2020.

The junta’s investment minister said Myanmar was suffering from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic but attributed its economic troubles to sabotage by opponents of the junta, a strategy he said was backed by some foreign elements.

“The pandemic has posed in Myanmar a serious threat. It has led to an economic slowdown that has been worsened by sabotage and civil disobedience that has affected national stability,” said the key former policymaker in the army-backed government that ran Myanmar after the end of direct military rule in 2011.

Asked which countries had backed “economic sabotage” and what evidence there was, he declined to specify, saying only: “We have received a number of evidence of how they interfere.”

International media had exaggerated the crisis, he said, adding: “Hopefully, in a few months, we will be able to restore our normal situation.”

Six foreign companies had applied for permission to exit Myanmar since the coup and others had suspended their business, he added.

They include one of the biggest investors, Norwegian telecoms company Telenor, which announced in July it was selling its Myanmar operations to Lebanese investment firm M1 Group for $105 million.

Telenor executives had been requested not to leave the country while the deal is pending approval, Aung Naing Oo said.

Reformer turned junta minister

The fall in the value of the kyat has driven up food and fuel prices in a fragile economy the World Bank forecasts to contract 18% this year, slumping far more than its neighbors.

Steps had been taken to build confidence in the currency, said Aung Naing Oo, a former member of the military who had served in the ousted government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Authorities will encourage use of online payments, loans for farmers and debt moratoria, among other efforts to help the economy, he added.

The ratio of tax to gross domestic product had fallen to 5% to 6%, down from 8.4% in 2020, he said. Opponents of the coup have been refusing to pay tax to the junta, which has sought to crush resistance in an attempt to consolidate power.

Troops have killed hundreds of opponents and dozens of children since seizing power and detaining most of the civilian leadership, according to monitoring group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Asked why he, someone known as a reformer, was working for a military that had reversed the democratic transition, Aung Naing Oo said he thought he would have “more power to push for reforms” if he accepted the appointment as minister.

His predecessor and ex-boss, Thaung Tun, the investment minister under Suu Kyi’s government, is one of several former senior officials who have been detained since the coup.

He is being held in a guesthouse in the capital, Naypyitaw, said Aung Naing Oo, “in a very safe area with other ministers.”
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Afghan businesswomen say that they have been forced to close their businesses as the Taliban have imposed a ban on women working outside. Yalda Baktash has the story. Script writer: Roshan Noorzai
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«У нас є можливість імпортувати газ з різних європейських країн – Польщі, Угорщини, Словаччини, зараз прораховується варіант імпорту з Румунії»
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The U.S. stock market certainly shook when hundreds of thousands of regular people suddenly piled into GameStop early this year, driving its price to heights that shocked professional investors. But it didn’t break. 

That’s one of the takeaways from a report by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s staff released Monday about January’s “meme-stock” mania. As GameStop’s stock shot from $39 to $347 in just a week, some of the stock market’s plumbing began creaking, but the report indicated the market’s basic systems and operations remained sound.  

The surge for GameStop and other downtrodden stocks also laid bare how much power is being wielded by a new generation of smaller-pocketed and novice investors, armed with apps on their phones that make trading fun.  

“The extreme volatility in meme stocks in January 2021 tested the capacity and resiliency of our securities markets in a way that few could have anticipated,” the report said. “At the same time, the trading in meme stocks during this time highlighted an important feature of United States securities markets in the 21st century: broad participation.”  

Many of the points in the report were already known, such as how the extremely heavy bets made by some hedge funds against GameStop’s stock actually helped accelerate its extreme ascent, though they weren’t the main driver.  

The report also didn’t make any recommendations for changes to how the market is structured, but it pointed to several areas for further consideration. They include topics that SEC Chair Gary Gensler has already cited in recent speeches, such as whether the way some brokerages make their money encourages them to push customers to trade more often than they should.  

The report also indicated the SEC could further scrutinize events that may cause a brokerage to restrict trading in a stock. During the height of the frenzy, several brokerages barred customers from buying GameStop after the clearinghouse that settles their trades demanded more cash to cover the increased risk created by its highly volatile price. That left many investors incensed.  

The report also raised questions about whether investors are getting the best execution on their trades when so many are getting routed to big trading firms instead of to exchanges like the Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange.  

And, perhaps in a disappointment to some of the investors who piled into GameStop to punish the financial elite: The SEC’s staff said it doesn’t believe hedge funds were broadly affected by investments in GameStop and other meme stocks.  

During the run-up of GameStop’s price, many people were bellowing on Reddit and other social media platforms that this was their chance to stick it to the hedge funds. They took aim at funds that had bet GameStop, a struggling video-game retailer, would see its price continue to fall. 

Those hedge funds did that by “shorting” the stock. In such a trade, a short seller borrows a share, sells it and then hopes to buy it back later at a lower price to pocket the difference.  

Some of those short sellers were indeed burned. And when they bought GameStop shares to get out of their suddenly soured bets, the buying helped push the stock up even further. But other hedge funds that had earlier bet on gains for GameStop’s stock made profits, as did others who jumped into the upsurge.  

Hedge funds as a group have been making money this year, including a 1.2% return in January during the throes of the meme mania, according to the HFRI Fund Weighted Composite index. 

The SEC’s staff nevertheless said that improved reporting of short sales is another area worthy of further study, particularly if it will help regulators better track the market. 
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The Treasury Department says the economic and financial sanctions the United States has employed over the past two decades to battle global terrorism, nuclear proliferation, drug cartels and other threats need to adapt to a rapidly changing financial world. 

The department issued a report Monday that said it needs to modernize the technology it uses and upgrade its workforce to deal with new techniques and tools such as digital currencies. 

“Treasury’s sanctions review has shown that this powerful instrument continues to deliver results but also faces new challenges,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in releasing the report. 

The report found that since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Treasury’s use of sanctions has increased by 933%, from 912 sanctions designations in 2001 to 9,421 this year. 

The sanctions program is administered by Treasury in conjunction with recommendations from the White House and the State Department. The report said it was successful in preventing Iran from using the international financial system and commercial markets to generate revenue from oil sales to support its nuclear program, pushing the country to the negotiating table in 2015. 

The report also said that the sanctions effort had frozen and seized billions of dollars in assets from front companies used by the Cali drug cartel, at one point the world’s largest drug trafficking organization. More than 1,600 terrorist entities and individuals have also been sanctioned since the 2001 terrorist attacks, according to the report. 

But the review of Treasury’s sanction operations, which had been ordered by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, found that the effort needs to be updated. 

The report said sanctions need to keep up with new and emerging techniques being employed by cybercriminals, and a changing financial system where such products as cryptocurrencies have already started to reduce the use of the U.S. dollar, long the world’s reserve currency. 

“Technical innovations such as digital currencies, alternative payment platforms and new ways of hiding cross-border transactions all potentially reduce the efficacy of American sanctions,” the report said. “These technologies offer malign actors opportunities to hold and transfer funds outside the traditional dollar-based financial system.” 

The report did not provide specifics of what Treasury was planning. But last week, the United States joined with more than 30 countries in a commitment to coordinate actions against ransomware attacks through such moves as increasing data sharing among countries and tightening regulations on crypto markets. 
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After Cyclone Idai hit in 2019, some Zimbabweans turned to activities like illegal gold panning to survive. Now Voluntary Service Overseas, an international development charity, is giving them a new option — bee keeping. In the town of Chimanimani, life has turned sweet for one Zimbabwean because of the honey from his bees.

While some in Chimanimani started gold panning after surviving Cyclone Idai in 2019, 21-year-old Washington Nyakazeya turned to bee-keeping after he and his family survived the disaster.

He is now an organic honey seller in Zimbabwe. He says the program has transformed daily life as he gets at least $300 a month — more than what a school teacher gets. 

“Since I started bee-keeping I have seen a change in my life. Money is now coming to our home through honey sales. At times I even wonder if it’s me having some of the amount of money I get some days,” he said.

Nyakazeya family’s fields were left in tatters after Cyclone Idal struck, leaving millions in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe homeless and hungry.

Voluntary Service Overseas Zimbabwe is training villagers — mainly youths — to do bee-keeping here in Chimanimani.

Guzha, the project manager at Voluntary Service Overseas Zimbabwe, says the project seeks to empower locals by providing alternative sources of income. 

“Due to climate change, unpredicted droughts, persistent flooding after Cyclone Idai we have managed to realize that bee-keeping is a viable adaptation strategy. So we have trained young people in bee-keeping so that they can earn income as a secure and resilient livelihood option,” he said.

Former Zimbabwe Forestry Commission official, Roseline Mukonoweshuro, says the project is sustainable not just for the farmers but also for the environment. 

“Bee keeping is very important because we see that once people are practicing bee-keeping, they will protect their forest and as a result they won’t cut the trees because they need the trees for forage and at the same time, they won’t burn the forest because they still to have their hives as well as the forage,” she said.

Zimbabwe Forestry Commission says the country loses 330,000 hectares of forest annually as a result of deforestation, but Nyakazeka is jealously guarding all the trees near his home.

He plans on increasing his 50 bee-hives to more than 100 next year and wants to start exporting his organic honey to Europe and the United States.
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Угоду і подовження програми співпраці з Києвом до кінця червня 2022 року повинні схвалити Керівництво Фонду та Виконавча рада
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«Як національна компанія, ми не можемо покривати попит з боку комерційних, промислових споживачів за ціною, яка була б неринкова»
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