Country Financial News

By Andrea Shalal

Investing.com-- Gold prices rose on Friday and were headed for a positive week amid increasing bets that the Federal Reserve was close to ending its rate hike cycle, while copper prices rose as major importer China unveiled more stimulus measures. 

Investing.com-- Oil prices rose on Friday after wild swings through the week as markets weighed tightening supplies and uncertainty over demand, with focus now shifting squarely towards a Federal Reserve meeting next week. 

By Andrea Shalal

Chandrayaan-3' — India's moon mission is paving its way through the space towards Moon, neighbouring country Pakistan is still struggling with a dwindling economy, the huge pile of debt and religious extremism-fuelled politics. Qaisar Rashid in his piece in the Daily Times said that while India ticked one after the other boxes right from ISRO, focusing on IT to opting for a modern education system, Pakistan kept on struggling with its internal conflicts and orthodox education system.

foreign exchange reserves have surged to a nine-month high following a fresh financial bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  The country's reserves nearly doubled to $8.73 billion as of July 14, with inflows coming from the IMF and friendly nations like Saudi Arabia and the UAE. This is the highest reserve level since October when the central bank held $8.76 billion.

History: Belgium became part of the United Netherlands in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. Following the unrest, the Belgian Revolution forced the Butch forces out of the country in 1830.

Investing.com-- Japanese consumer inflation rose slightly less than expected in June, data showed on Friday, amid easing energy costs, although core inflation and a key Bank of Japan indicator remained sticky.

By Anant Chandak

By Carolina Pulice and Kylie Madry

Yi Gang, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, revealed the milestone at a conference hosted by the Moneyary Authority of Singapore.As reported by Reuters, Yi Gang said the digital yuan has recorded over 950 million transactions, from 120 million wallets.Yi Gang told the conference: “You can see that right now, the balance of e-CNY is only counting two-tenths of 1% of M0, so that the balance is very small, but with this kind of balance (we) support a big number of transactions, which means that the velocity is high and more efficient.”The Chinese Government has made steady progress in seeding the digital currency across the country, with all banks and digital wallets from Alipay and WeChat onboard.

rural markets — which had remained weak in the past three years due to the economic impact of the pandemic — are revving up and expected to spur demand for passenger cars, motorcycles and tractors as the country heads into the festive season later this quarter. Moderating rural inflation, higher non-agricultural income and an increase in minimum support price for all kharif crops are expected to put more money in the hands of consumers in rural markets, boosting demand and bridging the divergent recovery seen in the country since the easing of Covid, said several senior industry executives.

Matthew McConaughey and Camila's just keep livin Foundation revealed the Greenlights Grant Initiative on Thursday. The initiative aims to assist school districts across the nation in accessing federal school safety funding from legislation like the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was signed into law by the federal government on June 25, 2022.

Investing.com — Storage fills for natural gas in the United States came in as expected for last week, and there was not much of a change either in weather forecasts. Yet, U.S. gas prices rallied some 6% Thursday in a development market watchers said could have more to do with the Russia-Ukraine situation.

Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill 2021, and Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill 2023 —will be tabled during the monsoon session of Parliament. Both have been criticised for the harmful impacts they could have on the country’s rich but fragile ecosystems and biodiversity. Both have been scrutinised by joint parliamentary committees (JPCs), which asked for public inputs on the amendments.

Besides Stockton Rush, entrepreneurs of Pakistan origin Suleman Dawood and Shahzada Dawood, British adventurer Hamish Harding, and French citizen Paul-Henri Nargeolet were killed when the OceanGate submersible Titan imploded, killing all onboard. They were on an adventure trip as well as a research mission and wanted to reach near the debris of the submerged iconic ship Titanic. Participating in a program called ‘60 Minutes Australia’, submarine operator and a friend of Stockton Rush, Karl Stanley said that he had warned the OceanGate CEO about the submersible. Stanley claimed that Rush definitely knew that the mission would end this way. He went to the extent of accusing him of murdering these persons and making them pay for this. Describing his experience of going on a test diving in the Bahamas in 2019, he said that he had heard gun-shot-like noises every three to four minutes. He also said that he had raised his concerns about the carbon fiber hull and warned that it would worsen. He added that he had no doubts that it was the carbon fiber hull that failed. The two friends had a heated exchange of calls and emails. Multiple agencies are investigating the incident. The US Coast Guard, the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch, and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are probing the mishap from different angles. Structural titanium rings were seen at the front and rear of the submersible in the pictures of the fragments of the submersible. Scientists believe that extreme pressure at the depth of the ocean might have caused the implosion. Stanley is the owner of Stanley Exploration, a deep-sea exploration company, based in the Latin American country of Honduras.

Vikram Misri visited Egypt this week to meet Egyptian National Security Council and Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar University, to discuss deradicalisation and counter-extremism strategies and initiate inter-faith dialogue.

HDFC Bank reported a huge profit growth in the first quarter of the current financial year. The Reserve Bank of India has now weighed in on India’s prospects of becoming a developed nation. After crossing the 65,000 mark on 3 July, Sensex continued its winning streak and added 2,000 points more in two weeks to close above 67,000 on 19 July.

The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday took suo motu cognizance of a video depicting women being sexually assaulted in violence-hit Manipur, terming it “deeply disturbing" and the “grossest violation of constitutional rights". It sought explanations from the central and the state governments and directed them to ensure that such incidents do not recur, threatening to “step in" if action isn’t taken. Fixing the next hearing on 28 July, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y.

By Timothy Gardner and Patricia Zengerle

By Jefferson Kahinju and Thomas Mukoya