Author: Finance for Sight

WASHINGTON: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend talks in London aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Tuesday, after earlier saying he planned to travel to London. After speaking with his British counterpart, Rubio said he was rescheduling his trip to the United Kingdom to coming months. “I look forward to following up after the ongoing discussions in London and rescheduling my trip to the UK in the coming months,” he said in a post on X. The talks will go ahead and President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy General Keith…

WASHINGTON: Policymakers should find a way to reduce the uncertainty over trade policy kicked up by Donald Trump’s tariff plans in order to boost global growth, the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist said in an interview. “The uncertainty in trade policy, and in policy generally right now, is a big drag on global activity,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told AFP ahead of Tuesday’s publication of the IMF World Economic Outlook report. “And the sooner we can lift it, the better off everyone will be,” he said, adding: “Bringing back stability, clarity, predictability to the trading system is the first order of business.”…

MOSCOW: U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, will visit Moscow this week for a new round of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, the White House said on Tuesday. Witkoff has previously held three long meetings with Putin on prospects for an end to the war in Ukraine. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump had met Witkoff earlier in the day and “they wanted everyone to know that the negotiations continue” and that Witkoff was headed to Russia later this week. Trump “wants to see peace, he wants this war…

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday slashed its forecasts for growth in the United States, China and most countries, citing the impact of U.S. tariffs now at 100-year highs, and warning that further trade tensions would slow growth further. The IMF released an update to its World Economic Outlook compiled in just 10 days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced universal tariffs on nearly all trading partners and higher rates – currently suspended – on many countries. It cut its forecast for global growth by 0.5 percentage point to 2.8% for 2025, and by 0.3 percentage point to 3%…

GAZA CITY: A Hamas delegation departed for Cairo to discuss “new ideas” aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza, an official from the group said, as Israeli air strikes killed 26 people across the territory Tuesday. The renewed effort follows Hamas’s rejection last week of Israel’s latest proposal to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza. Talks have so far failed to produce any breakthrough since Israel resumed its air and ground assault on Gaza from March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire. “The delegation will meet with Egyptian officials to discuss new ideas aimed at reaching a ceasefire,”…

DUBAI: In the bustling Gold Souk in Dubai, dubbed the ‘City of Gold’, 22-karat gold jewellery is a traditional favourite for weddings, religious celebrations, and as a family investment. Yet with bullion prices hitting record highs above $3,400 an ounce, there are signs of change, as buyers look to diamonds and lighter gold jewellery, instead. While U.S. tariffs and other factors have added fire to already hot demand for gold as an investment, the impact is different for gold jewellery, according to Andrew Naylor, head of Middle East and Public Policy at the World Gold Council (WGC). “In markets like…

United States (US) trade officials finalised steep tariff levels on most solar cells from Southeast Asia, a key step toward wrapping up a year-old trade case in which American manufacturers accused Chinese companies of flooding the market with unfairly cheap goods. The case was brought last year by Korea’s Hanwha Qcells, Arizona-based First Solar Inc and several smaller producers seeking to protect billions of dollars in investments in US solar manufacturing. The petitioner group, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, accused big Chinese solar panel makers with factories in Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam of shipping panels priced…

NEW DELHI: India imposed a 12 percent temporary tariff, locally known as a safeguard duty, on some steel products to stem unbridled imports, a government notification said on Monday. India, the world’s second-biggest producer of crude steel, said the tariffs would be applicable for 200 days with effect from Monday. “The safeguard duty imposed under this notification shall be effective for a period of two hundred days (unless revoked, superseded or amended earlier) from the date of publication of this notification,” the Ministry of Finance said. India’s steel tariff increase is its first big trade policy move since US President…

The U.S. economy could slow unless interest rates are lowered immediately, President Donald Trump said on Monday, repeating his criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who says rates should not be lowered until it is clearer Trump’s tariff plans won’t lead to a persistent surge in inflation. “With these costs trending so nicely downward, just what I predicted they would do, there can almost be no inflation, but there can be a SLOWING of the economy unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. The comments, and the…

VATICAN CITY: Here are some key dates in the life of Pope Francis, the first Jesuit and Latin American pope, who died on Monday aged 88: December 17, 1936: Jorge Mario Bergoglio is born in Buenos Aires to an accountant and a housewife from an Italian emigrant family. September 21, 1953: Receives his calling to become a priest. He later described being moved to go to church while heading to a school event, a day that “changed my life”. 1957: Undergoes an operation to remove part of his lung. March 11, 1958: After studying chemical engineering at university, he joins…