County Geneva Financial News

Geneva, New York and Hong Kong, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said on Thursday as it cautioned that the global cost-of-living crisis was not yet over. On average, prices have risen by 7.4% year on year in local currency terms for over 200 commonly used goods and services, a drop from the record 8.1% increase last year but still "significantly higher than the trend in 2017-2021," it said in a report.

United Nations on Wednesday called for the international community to move towards a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, saying Jerusalem should serve as the capital of both states. «It is long past time to move in a determined, irreversible way towards a two-state solution, on the basis of United Nations resolutions and international law,» said Tatiana Valovaya, Director-General of the U.N. office in Geneva, delivering a speech authored by U.N.

BJP leader Ajatshatru Singh, the grandson of the last Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh, on Saturday said people from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) are going to organise a conference in Geneva in March to highlight their plight. Talking to reporters here on his return from London, where he celebrated Jammu and Kashmir's accession day on October 26 as a special invitee to the UK Parliament's House of Commons, he said he met a large number of people from PoK there.

Christie’s says the largest fancy vivid blue diamond to ever come to auction has sold for more than $44 million, far outstripping the pre-sale estimate

WTO members to reform the dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organisation, as the present informal deliberations are creating hindrance for several nations to participate in the talks, an official said. The official added that formal talks on the subject can help in arriving at some kind of consensus by the 13th ministerial conference (MC), the highest decision making body of the WTO, in Abu Dhabi in February next year. The issue came up for discussion during a recent meeting of senior officials of WTO members in Geneva last week.

Indian think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) is seeking to incorporate crypto discussions into the WTO e-commerce framework.

India has asked the WTO members to work on a clear definition of e-commerce trade in goods and services as it would help provide developing countries a policy space to make decisions on the fast-growing sector, an official said. At present, there is a difference of understanding about the subject between developed and developing member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The issue came up for discussion during a recent meeting of senior officials of WTO members in Geneva last week.

GENEVA (Reuters) — The head of the World Trade Organization on Tuesday voiced optimism that trade deals could be reached at the next major ministerial meeting in February 2024.

By Naomi Rovnick and John Revill

Gaza Strip was worsening, with only four or five days of stocks left in the shops. WFP said stocks were getting low in warehouses inside the Palestinian enclave, but at the shop level, the situation was even more acute. «The situation in Gaza is getting worse by the minute: the humanitarian situation but also of course the food security situation,» WFP's Middle East spokeswoman Abeer Etefa, told reporters at the UN in Geneva via video-link from Cairo. «The current stocks of essential food commodities are sufficient for only two weeks — and that's at the wholesalers' level,» she said, with the warehouses located in Gaza City in the north of the territory and shops having difficulties replenishing supplies. «Inside the shops, the stocks are getting close to less than a few days, maybe four or five days of food stocks left.» Gaza-based Hamas fighters broke through Israel's heavily fortified border on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians. Israel has responded with withering air strikes on Hamas-controlled Gaza and by deploying tens of thousands of troops to the border in preparation for a full-scale ground offensive. Israel has demanded that residents of north Gaza leave for the south, hoping to clear the area of civilians in preparation for a perilous urban ground assault. Etefa said that out of five flour mills in the Gaza Strip, only one was operating due to security concerns and the unavailability of fuel. «So the bread supply is running low and people are lining up for hours to get bread,» she said. Only five bakeries out of 23 in Gaza contracted by WFP were still in operation, she added.

United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva," the MEA said. “He is expected to take up the assignment shortly," the brief official statement further added.

By Amanda Cooper

Baloch political activist Karima Baloch, who was mysteriously killed in Toronto in 2020, has accused Pakistan's ISI of killing her and asked the Canadian government to reopen the investigation. Hammal Haider participated in a protest in front of the United Nations in Geneva to demand justice for Karima Baloch and other Baloch political activists killed in Pakistan and foreign soils. The protest was organized by Baloch National Movement (BNM) during the 54th Session of Human Rights Council. Hammal said, «We believe that the Canadian government and Canadian justice system didn't do well for Karima Baloch who died in suspicious manner and suspicious circumstances and we have been requesting the Canadian government to investigate her case. But, we have seen no interest from the Canadian government.

Brevan Howard, one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, has been on a bit of a warpath with its hiring recently. It’s been adding portfolio managers around the world, from both banks and other funds.

World Trade Organization in Geneva early this week was unambiguous: A global economy split into rival trading factions would reduce real incomes 5% — maybe double that amount in poor countries. The next day, the European Union launched what some of the 27-nation bloc’s most well-known industries — ranging from Airbus SE to cosmetic producers and wine makers — worry could land them on the punishing end of a trade war with China. Since the European Commission’s announcement Wednesday of a new anti-subsidy inquiry into Chinese electric vehicles, which might lead to duties on Made-in-China EV imports, European businesses are scrambling to assess their exposure to a potential tariff barrage between two of the world’s largest economies. That’s because President Xi Jinping’s government has shown a determination to respond to punitive trade measures — like former US President Donald Trump’s tariffs — with its own reciprocal restrictions. The most powerful tool Beijing can wield is restricting access to its huge domestic market. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, speaking to Bloomberg Television on Friday, signaled that perhaps a new era has arrived, one where “the EU starts thinking about its own interest.”‘Powerful Signal’ With the Chinese subsidy investigation, Brussels “wanted to send a powerful signal,” former EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told Bloomberg News in an interview.

International Trade Centre (ITC), a United Nations-WTO joint venture, has begun work on developing a prototype of Global Trade Helpdesk to enhance information access for small businesses in line with the G20 plan for trade endorsed at the New Delhi summit, Pamela Coke Hamilton, its executive director, told ET. The ‘Jaipur Call for Action’ under India’s G20 presidency has roped in Geneva-based ITC for “appropriate, aggregated, trade-related information relevant for MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises)” available on a single portal and a non-exhaustive list of links to relevant government websites for MSMEs. The New Delhi declaration adopted last week by the G20 leaders had endorsed the proposal. “We will have an initial report on the Global Trade Helpdesk for members next year – to be shared at our annual meeting of stakeholders – and the plan is to work towards building a prototype,” Coke Hamilton said in an interview to ET.

By Ahmed Elumami, Ayman al-Warfali and Emma Farge

Libya's coastal city of Derna has soared to 11,300 as search efforts continue following a massive flood fed by the breaching of two dams in heavy rains, the Libyan Red Crescent said Thursday. Marie el-Drese, the aid group's secretary-general, told The Associated Press by phone that a further 10,100 people are reported missing in the Mediterranean city. Health authorities previously put the death toll in Derna at 5,500.

Geneva: WTO Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang said developing countries need to think about development from a broader perspective and look at inclusiveness to encourage small businesses and women empowerment. At the ongoing WTO Public Forum in Geneva on Wednesday, he said development goes beyond special and differential treatment (S&DT). S&DT allows developing and poor countries benefits such as taking longer time to implement agreements and binding commitments. Emphasising that S&DT is a core principle of the WTO, he said it is required because of asymmetries in capabilities and knowledge among countries and that «discussions on specific S&DT provisions in WTO agreements are continuing in the house». «Meanwhile, development goes beyond S&DT.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Wednesday said food security, reform of the multilateral trade watchdog, development agenda, moratorium on ecommerce transactions, and fisheries subsidies agreements are the deliverables for the ministerial conference (MC) next year. She also said that work is on to introduce «deliberative sessions» at the MC13 for ministers to discuss issues related to carbon taxes, climate, MSMES, women, industrial subsidies and trade. «For MC13, we're trying to get a breakthrough in food security and agriculture but the issues are tough. Some members want to look at trade distorting subsidies and others want to work on stockholding (issues) like India,» she said. Public stockholding is a policy tool used by governments to purchase, stockpile and distribute food when needed.

Libya's eastern city of Derna on Tuesday, and it was feared the toll could surpass 5,000 after floodwaters smashed through dams and washed away entire neighborhoods of the city. The startling death and devastation wreaked by Mediterranean storm Daniel pointed to the storm's intensity, but also the vulnerability of a nation torn apart by chaos for more than a decade. The country is divided by rival governments, one in the east, the other in the west, and the result has been neglect of infrastructure in many areas. Outside help was only just starting to reach Derna on Tuesday, more than 36 hours after the disaster struck.