Водночас митні надходження наразі є недостатніми для того, щоб говорити про виконання їхнього плану
…

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says global food prices stabilized last month at a very high level but were slightly lower than in March, which saw the highest ever jump in food prices.

FAO officials see little prospect of a significant decrease in the price of food as long as the Russian-Ukrainian war goes on. Both countries combined account for nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley exports and up to 80% of sunflower seed oil shipments.

The FAO’s deputy director in the markets and trade division, Josef Schmidhuber, said disruption in the export of those and other food commodities from Ukraine is taking a heavy toll on global food security. He said poor countries are suffering most because they are being priced out of the market.

“It is an almost grotesque situation that we see at the moment,” he said. “In Ukraine, there are nearly 25 million tons of grain that could be exported but they cannot leave the country simply because of the lack of infrastructure and the blockade of the ports. At the same time…there is no wheat corridor opening up for exports from Ukraine.”

Ukraine’s summer crop of wheat, barley, and corn will be harvested in July and August. Despite the war, Schmidhuber said harvest conditions are not dire. He said about 14 million tons of grain should be available for export.

However, he notee there is not enough storage capacity in Ukraine. He added there is a great deal of uncertainty about what will happen over the next couple of months as the conflict grinds on.

“And what we also see, and that is, of course, only anecdotal evidence, that grain is being stolen by Russia and is being transported on trucks into Russia,” Schmidhuber said. “The same goes for agricultural implements, tractors, etc., etc. And all that could have a bearing on agricultural output.”

The FAO official said the situation in Ukraine indicates that the current problem is not one of availability, but one of access. He said there is enough grain to go around and feed the world. The problem, he said, is the food is not moving to the places where it is needed.
…

In lush fields southwest of Paris, farmers are joining Europe’s fight to free itself from Russian gas.

They’ll soon turn on the tap of a new facility where crops and agricultural waste are mashed up and fermented to produce “biogas.” It’s among energy solutions being promoted on the continent that wants to choke off funding for Russia’s war in Ukraine by no longer paying billions for Russian fossil fuels.

Small rural gas plants that provide energy for hundreds or thousands of nearby homes aren’t — at least anytime soon — going to supplant the huge flows to Europe of Russian gas that powers economies, factories, business and homes. And critics of using crops to make gas argue that farmers should be concentrating on growing food — especially when prices are soaring amid the fallout of the war in Ukraine, one of the world’s breadbaskets.

Still, biogas is part of the puzzle of how to reduce Europe’s energy dependence.

The European Biogas Association says the European Union could quickly scale up the production of bio-methane, which is pumped into natural gas networks. An investment of 83 billion euros ($87.5 billion) — which, at current market prices, is less than the EU’s 27 nations pay per year to Russia for piped natural gas — would produce a tenfold increase in bio-methane production by 2030 and could replace about a fifth of what the bloc imported from Russia last year, the group says.

The farmers around the Paris-region village of Sonchamp feel their new gas plant will do its bit to untie Europe from the Kremlin.

“It’s not coherent to go and buy gas from those people who are waging war on our friends,” said Christophe Robin, one of the plant’s six investors, who farms wheat, rapeseed, sugar beets and chickens.

“If we want to consume green (energy) and to avoid the flows and contribution of Russian gas, we don’t really have a choice. We have to find alternative solutions,” he said.

Biogas is made by fermenting organic materials — generally crops and waste. Robin likened the process to food left too long in a container.

“When you open it, it goes ‘Poof.’ Only here, we don’t open it. We collect the gas that comes from the fermentation,” he said.

The gas from their plant could meet the needs of 2,000 homes. It will be purified into bio-methane and injected into a pipeline to the nearby town of Rambouillet, heating its hospital, swimming pool and homes.

“It’s cool,” said Robin. “The kids will benefit from local gas.”

Like in the rest of Europe, the production of bio-methane in France is still small. But it is booming. Almost three bio-methane production sites are going online every week in France on average and their numbers have surged from just 44 at the end of 2017 to 365 last year. The volume of gas they produced for the national network almost doubled in 2021 compared to the previous year and was enough for 362,000 homes.

France’s government has taken several steps to quicken bio-methane development since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The industry says bio-methane met almost 1% of France’s needs in 2021 but that will increase to at least 2% this year and it could make up 20% of French gas consumption by 2030, which would be more gas than France imported last year from Russia.

The Sonchamp farmers took out 5 million euros ($5.3 million) in loans and received a 1-million-euro state subsidy to build their plant, Robin said. They signed a 15-year contract with utility firm Engie, with a fixed price for their gas. That will limit their ability to profit from high gas prices now but ensures them a stable income.

“We’re not going to be billionaires,” said Robin.

Workers are finishing the construction and the plant is almost ready to be connected to the network. Piles of agricultural waste — wheat husks, pulped sugar beets, onion peelings, even chicken droppings — have been prepared to be fed into the giant bubble-like fermentation tanks.

Winter barley specially grown to make gas will make up about 80% of the 30 tons of organic material that will be fed each day into the plant.

Robin insists that the barley won’t interfere with the growing of other crops for food, which critics worry about. Instead of one food crop per year, they’ll now have three harvests every two years — with the barley as extra, sandwiched in between, Robin said.

In Germany, the biggest biogas producer in Europe, the government is cutting down on crop cultivation for fuels. The share of corn permitted in biogas facilities will be lowered from 40% to 30% by 2026. Financial incentives will be provided so operators use waste products such as manure and straw instead.

Germany is estimated to have over 9,500 plants, many of them small-scale units supplying rural villages with heat and electricity.

Andrea Horbelt, a spokeswoman for the German biogas association, said the production of bio-methane could be doubled in a matter of years but also wouldn’t be cheap.

“Using biogas for electricity is more expensive than solar and wind, and will always remain so,” she said.

At the end of their gas-making process, the Sonchamp farmers will also get nitrogen- and potassium-rich wastes from the fermenters that they’ll use to fertilize their fields, reducing their consumption of industrial fertilizer.

“It’s a circular economy and it’s green. That pleases me,” Robin said. “It’s a superb adventure.”
…

America’s employers added 428,000 jobs in April, extending a streak of solid hiring that has defied punishing inflation, chronic supply shortages, the Russian war against Ukraine and much higher borrowing costs.

Friday’s jobs report from the Labor Department showed that last month’s hiring kept the unemployment rate at 3.6%, just above the lowest level in a half-century.

The economy’s hiring gains have been strikingly consistent in the face of the worst inflation in four decades. Employers have added at least 400,000 jobs for 12 straight months.

At the same time, the April job growth, along with steady wage gains, will help fuel consumer spending and likely keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise borrowing rates sharply to try to slow inflation. Early trading Friday in the stock market reflected concern that the strength of the job market will keep wages and inflation high and lead to increasingly heavy borrowing costs for consumers and businesses. Higher loan rates could, in turn, weigh down corporate profits.

“With labor market conditions still this strong — including very rapid wage growth — we doubt that the Fed is going to abandon its hawkish plans,″ said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

The latest employment figures contained a few cautionary notes about the job market. The government revised down its estimate of job gains for February and March by a combined 39,000. And the number of people in the labor force declined in April by 363,000, the first drop since September. Their exit slightly reduced the proportion of Americans who are either working or looking for work from 62.4% to 62.2%.

Still, at a time when worker shortages have left many companies desperate to hire, employers kept handing out pay raises last month. Hourly wages rose 0.3% from March and 5.5% from a year ago.

Across industries last month, hiring was widespread. Factories added 55,000 jobs, the most since last July. Warehouses and transportation companies added 52,000, restaurants and bars 44,000, health care 41,000, finance 35,000, retailers 29,000 and hotels 22,000. Construction companies, which have been slowed by shortages of labor and supplies, added just 2,000.

Yet it’s unclear how long the jobs boom will continue. The Fed this week raised its key rate by a half-percentage point — its most aggressive move since 2000 — and signaled further large rate hikes to come. As the Fed’s rate hikes take effect, they will make it increasingly expensive to spend and hire.

In addition, the vast economic aid that the government had been supplying to households has expired. And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has helped accelerate inflation and clouded the economic outlook. Some economists warn of a growing risk of recession.

For now, the resilience of the job market is particularly striking when set against the backdrop of galloping price increases and rising borrowing costs. This week, the Labor Department provided further evidence that the job market is still booming. It reported that only 1.38 million Americans were collecting traditional unemployment benefits, the fewest since 1970. And it said that employers posted a record-high 11.5 million job openings in March and that layoffs remained well below pre-pandemic levels.

What’s more, the economy now has, on average, two available jobs for every unemployed person. That’s the highest such proportion on record.

And in yet another sign that workers are enjoying unusual leverage in the job market, a record 4.5 million people quit their jobs in March, evidently confident that they could find a better opportunity elsewhere.

Still, the nation remains 1.2 million jobs short of the number it had in February 2020, just before the pandemic tore through the economy.

Chronic shortages of goods, supplies and workers have contributed to skyrocketing price increases — the highest inflation rate in 40 years. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February dramatically worsened the financial landscape, sending global oil and gas prices skyward and severely clouding the national and global economic picture.

In the meantime, with many industries slowed by labor shortages, companies have been jacking up wages to try to attract job applicants and retain their existing employees. Even so, pay raises haven’t kept pace with the spike in consumer prices.

That’s why the Fed, which most economists say was much too slow to recognize the inflation threat, is now raising rates aggressively. Its goal is a notoriously difficult one: a so-called soft landing.
…

A UN report recently warned 97% of Afghanistan’s population could sink below the poverty line.
…

Asian equities tumbled Friday following a rout on Wall Street fueled by worries over rising interest rates and surging inflation, while the pound extended losses the day after taking a beating on fears of a U.K. recession.

Global markets have been battered this year by a series of crises including surging inflation, rising interest rates, China’s economic slowdown and the war in Ukraine.

There was some relief after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday lifted borrowing costs 50 basis points — the most since 2000 — but suggested a feared 75-point lift was not on the agenda for now.

However, U.S. traders ran for the hills Thursday as they contemplated a period of fierce monetary tightening by the U.S. central bank as it struggles to contain inflation running at a more than 40-year high.

The Nasdaq — dominated by tech firms particularly sensitive to higher rates — lost 5%, while the Dow and S&P 500 fell more than 3%.

“Valuations become even more sensitive, very sensitive, when rates are going up and that is what we are experiencing,” Kristina Hooper, at Invesco, told Bloomberg Television.

“It’s just getting exacerbated as we get into the thick of monetary-policy tightening in the U.S.”

That sell-off filtered through to Asia, where Hong Kong tanked more than 3% as tech firms took a hit. Meanwhile, the European Chamber of Commerce in the city called the finance hub’s stringent pandemic travel restrictions and frequent flight bans a “nightmare” for businesses.

The remarks come a week after the Australian Chamber of Commerce recommended that Hong Kong follow the lead of Singapore or Japan by lowering quarantine requirements for business travelers.

Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Wellington, Taipei and Manila also tanked. However, Tokyo ended the morning slightly higher.

Adding to the selling pressure was ongoing weakness in China’s economy caused by strict lockdowns and other containment measures as officials struggle to bring a COVID flare-up under control by sticking to a zero-COVID policy.

Various districts in Beijing told residents on Thursday to work from home, while Shanghai, the biggest city in the country, remains essentially shut down.

On currency markets the pound continued to struggle a day after plunging more than 2% in reaction to the Bank of England’s updated forecast that warned annual inflation would top 10% and the economy would contract later this year.

Crude rose after key oil producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia refused to lift output more than their planned marginal increase as they weighed tight supply concerns caused by the Ukraine war.

“OPEC’s inability to ramp up production when desperately needed by the market is compounding an already dangerous supply deficit,” said Stephen Innes, of SPI Asset Management.

“This means geopolitical tensions will remain high, and while there are some demand-side risks at the moment, it seems likely that the threat of supply disruption will be the dominant driver at this time,” he said.
…