Голова Конфедерації вільних профспілок України Михайло Волинець заявив, що на держшахтах заборгованість із зарплати досягла 2 млрд 340 млн
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Облікову ставку підвищено з дотеперішніх 8,5%
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Lebanon’s dire economic crisis is threatening to cancel Christmas for many people. The Lebanese currency has lost more than 93 percent of its value against the dollar over the past two years and soaring inflation is making it difficult for ordinary people to buy food and medicine, let alone Christmas trees and gifts.

With Christmas trees now costing between $80 to $120 dollars, almost double a Lebanese worker’s monthly salary, some are resorting to telling their children that Santa Claus is sick this year and won’t be able to bring them presents simply because parents are unable to buy the gifts. Most are struggling just to purchase food and medicine.

The U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, reports that 77 percent of Lebanese families say they lack sufficient food and 60 percent of them only buy food by running up unpaid bills or borrowing money.

Political analyst Dania Koleilat Khatib, with the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, said to VOA, “…although you may see some people shopping and think things are well, that’s not the situation for most Lebanese.”

“People who live from paycheck to paycheck, they are suffering big time. These people will not see Santa, will not see Christmas, will not see anything. You get shocked when you go to restaurants. The people in restaurants, they represent how much of the Lebanese society? They’re not 1 or 2 percent. The majority are very poor,” said Khatib.

But in the upscale northern seaside resort of Batroun, it’s hard to see Lebanon’s financial woes. It has just opened its first Christmas market which organizer Francois Baraket said he hopes will rival those in Europe in years to come. It has drawn Lebanese with money to spend, he told Dubai’s The National newspaper.

Dania Koleilat Khatib said those Lebanese who have money now receive help with hard currency from family abroad or are those who work with international agencies. Others may have been lucky enough to withdraw U.S. currency from the bank before the government froze dollar accounts. Christmas will also witness a number of Lebanese expats return home to celebrate with family.

“At Christmas you will see celebration because a lot of people are coming from outside. But that doesn’t mean that people are better off. This is always the issue with Lebanon because you have a lot of expats coming in and out. If we didn’t have this influx of hard currency from outside into Lebanon, people would be ‘dog eat dog.’ It would be much worse,” said Khatib.

The U.N’s World Food Program estimates that poverty in Lebanon has almost doubled this past March, affecting three million people compared with 1.7 million in 2020.
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Торги на українському міжбанківському валютному ринку завершуються на рівні 27 гривень 16–18 копійок за долар
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India has posted the fastest pace of growth among major economies, raising hopes of a revival in its pandemic-hit economy. But fears of the omicron variant have triggered concerns of whether the pace can be sustained even as economists warn that unemployment levels are still high in a country where millions lost jobs during the pandemic. 

India’s gross domestic product grew 8.4% from July to September this year compared to the same period last year, according to a government report.

While economies worldwide were hit hard due to the pandemic, India slipped into its worst recession in four decades last year with its economy shrinking by 7.3% after the Indian government imposed one of the toughest lockdowns in the world.

But there has been a significant turnaround in recent months with growth returning to levels before the pandemic, according to officials. “Data clearly shows that corporate income and profit are above the pre-pandemic level,” K.V. Subramanian, chief economist at the Finance Ministry said as he released the latest economic data. 

The International Monetary Fund, IMF, has forecast growth of 9.5% for India in 2021 — if the growth stays on track, it would be fastest among major economies in the world, surpassing its projections of about 8% for China. 

“What happens in India has a big impact, both in the region and in the world,” Luis Breuer, the IMF’s senior resident representative to India, said last month. “You’re talking about a large slice of humanity and the global economy.”

Normalcy returning 

Experts say the opening of the economy as the pandemic waned after a deadly second wave in April and May and significant progress in the country’s vaccination program have helped the revival.

India has lifted all restrictions in recent months as cases decline to their lowest in a year and a half — the country has been reporting less than 10,000 new infections a day in recent weeks. 

After spending a year indoors, people keen to get a sense of normalcy have crowded markets, hotels are booked as vacationers head out for holidays and streets in mega cities like Delhi and Mumbai are choked with traffic. That is helping a country whose economy is driven largely by millions of middle-class consumers. 

India’s recent festive season saw shops and malls do brisk business. “We did no business at all for nearly a year, but customers have started ordering clothes from us since August this year,” Geeta Mehra, a boutique clothes retailer, told VOA. “Weddings that had been on hold for the last year and a half are now taking place which has resulted in good sales for us.”

However, she is cautious about increasing stocks and employing more people as fears of the new Omicron variant raise fresh concerns about the pandemic. India is now among nearly 30 countries where it has been found. Health authorities had reported 23 cases by Tuesday. 

Uneven recovery 

Some businesses, however, have still to recover. “Our business is only 20% of the pre-pandemic levels,” said Sanjay Kapur, a stationery retailer since the last 22 years. “Stationery requirement has become minimal as offices and schools are still closed and most work is done online. We can only wait and watch.

The threat of the Omicron variant looms large over people like Kapur — they worry it may keep offices and schools shut for longer than expected. And although the government has said it is not imposing any additional restrictions, curbs on international travel have been imposed. 

Experts have described the recovery as uneven and fractured. 

“The organized sector is looking up whereas the unorganized sector is not doing so well. Even within the organized sector some economic activities are performing better than others,” said Santosh Mehrotra, professor and chairperson of the Centre for Informal Sector and Labor Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He points out that while sectors like manufacturing and technology have recovered, hospitality and retail that are among the biggest job creators, are still struggling. 

Chavi Kasaudhan got a job at a retail store at Delhi airport recently. “I was lucky to get a break but many of those who did a six-month course in hospitality and retail with me are still waiting,” the 20-year-old said. 

While jobs have been returning, millions are still struggling to find work, especially in the country’s vast informal sector that includes farm workers, street vendors, laborers, and rickshaw pullers. 

Economists say official numbers do not reflect how this sector, where an estimated 90% of people work, is faring.

“What is not being captured by data is the fact that unemployment levels are very high,” Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Mehrotra said. Mehrotra estimates that the pandemic has added an additional 15 million to the number of poor people in the country, which represents a reversal of gains made in recent decades in alleviating poverty. 

Still, there is optimism that Asia’s third largest economy is turning a corner, and the stress of the pandemic could be subsiding.

Suhasini Sood contributed to this story.
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U.S. senators struck a deal Tuesday to create a one-time law allowing Democrats to lift the nation’s borrowing authority and avert a credit default without requiring votes from the opposition Republicans. 

The House of Representatives will vote on the fix as early as Tuesday evening and it is expected to be approved by Congress in the coming days, allowing lawmakers to avert the crisis with a simple 51-vote majority in the upper chamber. 

The Bipartisan Policy Center said last week it expected the United States would no longer be able to meet its debt repayment obligations between December 21 and January 28. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has put deadline even earlier: next Wednesday. 

“Nobody wants to see the U.S. default on its debts. As Secretary Yellen has warned, a default could eviscerate everything we’ve done to recover from the COVID crisis,” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor of the chamber. 

“We don’t want to see that, I don’t believe we will see that, and I continue to thank all my colleagues for cooperating in good faith to preserve the full faith and credit of the United States,” he said. 

America spends more money than it collects through taxation so it borrows money via the issuing of government bonds, seen as among the world’s most reliable investments. 

Around 80 years ago, lawmakers introduced a limit on how much federal debt could be accrued. 

The ceiling has been lifted dozens of times to allow the government to meet its spending commitments, usually without drama and with the support of both parties, and it stands at about $29 trillion. 

Democratic leaders have spent weeks underlining the havoc that a default would have wrought, including the loss of an estimated 6 million jobs and $15 trillion in household wealth, as well as increased costs for mortgages and other borrowing. 

But Republicans in both chambers of Congress initially objected to helping raise the limit this time, saying they refused to support President Joe Biden’s taxing and spending plans. 

In reality, both parties see raising the borrowing cap as politically toxic, and Republicans hope to make it an issue in the 2022 midterm election campaign. 

Under the complex, multistep compromise proposed Tuesday, the Republicans can essentially stand on the sidelines, offering help to create the new law but offering no votes to increase the limit.

Congress would have to specify the exact dollar amount of a new borrowing cap, likely upward of $30 trillion.

Both chambers would have to approve the new process first, and then the Senate, followed by the House, would pass the extension by simple majority votes. 

Crucially, Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, is backing the process. 

“I think this is in the best interest of the country, by avoiding default,” he told reporters when questioned about the convoluted approach. 

 
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«У листопаді вони зросли на 3% насамперед завдяки надходженню другого траншу від Міжнародного валютного фонду за програмою stand-by обсягом 500 млн спеціальних прав запозичень (СПЗ)» – НБУ
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Фонд державного майна України 27 жовтня продав «Перший київський машинобудівний завод» за 1,429 мільярда гривень
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