🔹 The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 is set to introduce a gold-backed digital currency to serve as legal tender in the country. The gold-pegged tokens will act as hedges against ongoing currency volatility, and serve as a more effective store of value than the Zimbabwe dollar.

🔹 Hyperinflation has plagued Zimbabwe's economy for over a decade, ravaging the country's currency, which has rapidly weakened against the USD since the beginning of 2022. The USD 💵 is an official currency used for payments in the country. Zimbabwe’s currency trades at 1,001 ZWL against $1 but is typically exchanged for 1,750 ZWL on the streets of Harare.

🔹 The monetary dysfunction in Zimbabwe and lack of changes have led to businesses printing their “own money,” often on handwritten scraps of paper, so that users can pay for future purchases.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Gold coins used as currency in Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 made available in smaller denominations as the country faces a shortage of US dollars.

Video courtesy WION

🔹 South Africa’s 🇿🇦 governing African National Congress (ANC) contradicted a statement by President Cyril Ramaphosa that the party had decided the country should withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Recently, South Africa's parliament announced that it would abandon a seven-year-long legislative process to pull South Africa out of the ICC's Rome Statute.

🔹 The remark by Ramaphosa comes as the country prepares to host a BRICS summit in August that Russian 🇷🇺 President Vladimir Putin has been invited to attend. As a member of the ICC, South African authorities would be obliged to arrest Putin under a warrant issued by the court.

🔹The ANC noted a resolution the party made in December to rescind an earlier plan to pull out of the ICC. South Africa drew international criticism in 2015, when it refused to execute an ICC arrest warrant for then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir while he was attending an African Union summit.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 South Africa's 🇿🇦 FM Naledi Pandor says BRICS economies want to find a way of bypassing the dollar to create a fairer payment system that would not be skewed toward wealthier countries. South Africa warned the US 🇺🇸 that the bill seeking to counter Russia's "malign activities" in Africa violate international laws.

💠 South Africa’s National Assembly speaker, calls for a collective solution from BRICS+ to mitigate the global food, 🌾 fuel & financial crisis.

Video courtesy Russian American Daily

🔹Nineteen countries have expressed an interest in joining BRICS 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 as the group prepares to hold an annual summit on June 2nd-3rd in South Africa. Thirteen countries have formally asked to join and another six have asked informally.

🔹Saudi Arabia and Iran have formally asked to join. Other applicants include Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain, Indonesia, and three African nations whose names are not presently disclosed. Pakistan presently under a severe economic crisis with works in progress to revive IMF loan programs may not be in a position to apply yet.

🔹Former staff economist at the US White House Council of Economic Advisers, wrote in Foreign Policy that a currency issued by BRICS would pose a unique threat to the dollar's dominance. His concern is that on the scale of GDP, BRICS collectively outweigh the entire G7 nations.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 BRICS review criteria for new members willing to join the group.

💠 Russia sees the possibility of a single supranational currency being created for settlements within the BRICS.

💠 The EAEU 🇷🇺 🇦🇲 🇰🇿 🇰🇬 🇧🇾 is interested in setting up a common payment system with BRICS nations.

💠 BRICS plan an international reserve currency based on a basket of the national currencies, backed by commodities such as gold.

Video source- FirstPost

🔹US 🇺🇸 and UK 🇬🇧 envoys goes to Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 and announce a warning that the county may face consequences if it continues helping Russia evade Western sanctions. The Western envoy warned that if Kazakh companies participate in dodging the sanctions on Russia 🇷🇺, this will expose them and the country to the risk of secondary sanctions.

🔹 The US Assistant Secretary of Treasury, US Deputy Commerce Secretary and UK Foreign Office Director for Sanctions told reporters in Astana, demanded Moscow’s ally in Central Asia comply with their embargo. The UK representative cited “open source trade information” to claim Kazakhstan is exporting goods sanctioned by the UK to Russia.

🔹 Within one day of the threat, Kazakhstan's Almaty-based Halyk Finance Institution announced it will restrict its dealings with Russian and Belarusian 🇧🇾nationals. Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬 may be the next country to be threatened as it is being accused of playing a role in helping Russia avoid technology importation bans.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Kazakhstan stops processing Russian Mir payment system, after the US threat of sanctions.

💠 Kazakhstan’s Kaztransoil applied to Russia's Transneft to transport Kazakh oil 🛢through Russia's section of the Druzhba pipeline to Germany.

💠 Booming trade flows with Russia’s neighbors may be a sign that sanctions are being evaded by EU & US companies.

💠 European traders are evading sanctions with fake paperwork claiming Russian/Belarussian firewood 🪵 is from Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan.

Video source - Jibek Joly News

🔹The United States 🇺🇸 will gradually lift sanctions on Venezuela 🇻🇪 only if the country moves toward restoring 'fair' elections. US sanctions have aggravated Venezuela’s economic crisis by hindering oil sales, though failed to unseat Maduro. The US envisions a “step-by-step approach” whereby steps toward restoring Venezuelan democracy are met by steps to ease sanctions.

🔹Leaked documents of US intelligence posted on Discord claim Russia 🇷🇺 will be able to finance war efforts for at least another year, despite the sanctions.

🔹British American Tobacco, a London-based company with a subsidiary based in Singapore, must pay $630 million in fines to the U.S. government for violating U.S. sanctions by selling tobacco products to North Korea 🇰🇵.

🔹The EU 🇪🇺 is already preparing its 11th package of sanctions against Russia.

🔹Russia’s exports of fuels such as diesel and gasoline are on course to remain well above seasonal norms this month despite sanctions. Ukrainian report sounds alarm over violations of US sanctions in sales of crude 🛢from Russia’s Asian ports.

🔹The Czech 🇨🇿 gov't has made the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, the first person on its national sanctions list.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 The EU has been looking into the 'legal' options to confiscate Russia’s assets frozen under sanctions.

💠The US/EU has undermined ‘Lex Mercatoria’ (Latin – ‘Merchant Law’). The autonomous legal order of international economic relations for trade & rules for settling disputes. The west has now now destroyed, how money & currencies function in relationship to trade & private property rights.

Video Source - PressTV

🔹The yuan 🇨🇳 became the most widely-used currency for cross-border transactions in China for March, overtaking the dollar for the first time, reflecting efforts by Beijing to internationalise use of the yuan. Cross-border payments and receipts in yuan rose to a record $549.9 billion in March from $434.5 billion a month earlier.

🔹The yuan was used in 48.4% of all cross-border transactions, while the dollar's 💵 share declined to 46.7% from 48.6% a month earlier.

🔹Data from SWIFT showed that the yuan's share of global currency transactions for trade finance rose to 4.5% in March, while the dollar accounted for 83.71%.

🔹The Central Bank of Iraq 🇮🇶 is considering it's option to convert dollars in the bank's accounts with JP Morgan and the Development Bank of Singapore to yuan for payment to final beneficiaries in China as part of a policy to allow direct yuan settlement for trade from China.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 China & Brazil 🇧🇷 set up yuan clearing arrangement in to facilitate cross-border transactions.

💠 The KSA 🇸🇦 is open to discussions about trade in currencies other than the USD, such as the Chinese yuan.

💠 The share of trade between Russia & China in national currencies has reached roughly half of turnover (yuan- ruble).

💠 China's holdings of US 🇺🇸 Treasuries have been decreasing in 2022.

💠 Moscow 🇷🇺 & Beijing are developing a system of settlements to allow cross-border transactions bypassing SWIFT.

Video source - Sean Foo

🔹Argentina 🇦🇷 is set to follow Brazil and start to pay for Chinese 🇨🇳 imports in yuan rather than US dollars 💵. The country wants to preserve its dwindling USD reserves. A historic drought has hit Argentina's agricultural exports, meaning fewer dollars are coming in.

🔹The South American nation will aim to buy around $1 billion of Chinese imports in April using yuan. After that, it hopes to pay for around $790 million of monthly imports in the Chinese currency.

🔹Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa said “...these types of measures give our reserves greater strength and are key to improving the prospects for net reserves, giving us greater freedom and capacity to intervene in the face of those who speculate and over-speculate with the economic situation,”.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Argentina 🇦🇷 applies to join BRICS group of nations.

💠 Argentina & Brazil want to "advance discussions on a common South American currency" to be used for financial and trade flows.

💠 China 🇨🇳 and Brazil 🇧🇷 have reached a deal to trade in their own currencies after setting up a yuan clearing arrangement in to facilitate cross-border transactions.

Video source - CGTN

🔹Russia's Foreign Minister S. Lavrov addressed the online Global Conference on Multipolarity on April 29th. He said, "It seems only natural that efforts by Washington and its satellites to reverse the course of history and force the international community to live up to a ‘rules-based world order’ have failed. He also expressed that the trend toward multipolarity is irreversible, whether former colonial powers like it or not.

🔹The 17-hour long conference was filled with short speeches from politicians, public dignitaries, journalists, and academic and cultural figures from around the world, who stand up for multipolarity, and for fairer and more democratic inter-state relations.

🔹Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spokeswoman, M. Sakharova, criticized "the political elites in the US and the EU who do not use information and communication technologies for the noble purpose of providing objective information to the general public, but for agitation, provocation and propaganda".

🔹Political scientist & philosopher Alexander Dugin declared that the era of unipolarity is over. He encouraged attendees of various nations to recognise that they are part of many civilizations and not only "the rest of the world" that Western leaders categorize non-western countries as. He included the people of western civilization who are against the agendas (anti-humanity) pushed by their western political elite, as part of the multipolar world.

Video source - Russian MFA

🔹The Norwegian 🇳🇴 gov't wants to nationalise large parts of the country’s gas pipelines when existing concessions expire. Norway’s gas pipelines are currently owned by Gassled, a co. owned by several oil co.'s. The oil co's extracted natural gas when Gassled was established in 2003.

🔹Norway became Germany’s 🇩🇪 single-largest natural gas supplier last year. Norway now supplies Europe with more natural gas than Russia does. But while Norway intends to keep its gas output high, it has no plans to reduce its prices to make European 🇪🇺 energy more affordable.

🔹The Norwegian state currently owns 46.7% of Gassled and therefore already partially owns the country’s pipelines. Current concessions to the oil companies are scheduled to expire in 2028, meaning contracts for transport of gas between the Norwegian gov't and Gassled will run out at this time. Norway has the right to take over ownership of the pipelines when the current concession contracts expire.

🔹Petoro oversees three dozen of the largest oil and natural gas fields in Europe, on Norway's petroleum-rich continental shelf. Petoro earned about $50 billion in 2022, almost three times what it made in 2021 📈, and Equinor reported record adjusted earnings of $75 billion.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Norway replaced Russia 🇷🇺 as Europe’s top pipeline natural gas supplier after the Nord Streams 1 & 2 sabotage.

💠 Norway's 🇳🇴 sovereign wealth fund returned -14.1% in 2022 📉, equivalent to a record loss of 1.64 trillion Norwegian kroner ($166.2 billion). The fund previously cut its holdings in oil & gas and bought stocks in big tech, big pharma & real estate.

💠 Norway's Equinor CEO warns of EU gas price caps on Russia- "Any price cap is not really solving the fundamental problems".

🔹The central banks of South Korea 🇰🇷 and Indonesia 🇮🇩 signed a MoU to cooperate on promoting the use of their currencies for bilateral transactions, such as current account transactions and direct investment.

🔹Businesspersons can make the most of the cooperation to reduce the transaction costs and exposure to the risk of exchange rate in conducting bilateral transactions between both nations. This can be done including through the use of direct exchange rate quotation between the Korean won and Indonesian rupiah in interbank trading.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Indonesia applies to join the BRICS group and is interested in joining the BRICS Bank (NDB).

💠 The Bank of Indonesia will launch its domestic card payment system to reduce dependency on foreign systems.

💠 An official meeting of all ASEAN nations' (includes Indonesia 🇮🇩) Finance Ministers & Central Bank Governors was held to discuss reduced dependence on the US Dollar, Euro, Yen, and British Pound from financial transactions and move to settlements in local currencies.

💠Indonesia shows interest in using the Indian 🇮🇳 Rupee as a trading unit.

Video source - SEA Today News

🔹USA 🇺🇸 - Uncertainty continues to pummel the banking industry, despite assurances from financial regulators and bankers. Today, (May 4th), there was a sell-off on PacWest Bancorp (PACW -🔻-50.62% at closing) and Western Alliance Bancorp (WAL- 🔻-38.45% at closing), two smaller regional banks 🏦 whose shares have been under pressure since SVB failed in mid-March and set off the current crisis.

🔹Put options activity for both PACW and WAL hit daily records. More than 335,000 contracts tied to both stocks, combined, changed hands. PacWest was targeted because of a high concentration of large, uninsured deposits from venture capital and tech clients. WAL issued a statement claiming that a Financial Times report about the bank exploring a sale is false.

🔹Even Midwest regionals such as Comerica and KeyCorp are down more than 20% this week. That could reflect growing concerns about large amounts of real estate loans, particularly in the office property market. Canada's 🇨🇦 Toronto-Dominion Bank Group called off its $13.4 billion acquisition of First Horizon Corp, triggering a 33% slump in the US bank's shares.

🔹Earlier this week the US gov't arranged the subsequent sale of First Republic Bank to JPMorgan. It was the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history and the third failure of a midsize lender in two months.

Video source - maneco64

🔹 CEO of A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S 🚢 which ships close to one-fifth of the world's containers, warns of a downturn. Chief executive Vincent Clerc said there's still a lot of uncertainty ahead as global business activity slows and companies race to reduce inventories at warehouses due to overstocking during the pandemic years. In return, demand for container ships has sunk on major shipping lanes from Asia to Europe and the US.

🔹 For Q1 2023, A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S reported a 56% plunge 📉 in EBITDA, amounting to $3.97 billion. The quarter saw a 9.4% reduction in volumes and a 37% drop in freight rates, which now hover near the break-even point.

🔹Cargo volumes at Canada's 🇨🇦 largest port 🏗 (Vancouver) fell by 3% last yea. In March, container volumes across the country dropped nearly 12% year-over-year. Container traffic has continued to drop off as Canadians tighten budgets amid higher interest rates and ongoing inflation.

🔹 Political tensions between the US 🇺🇸 and China 🇨🇳 are contributing to lower container shipments between the world’s two largest economies. Many companies in the US are looking to reduce down the amount of imports they have got coming from China.

💠 In Jan. 2023, we reported on this channel that the cost to send a container from Asia to the US on the demand-sensitive spot market had already tumbled 📉 more than 80% from its Sept. 2021 peak. Container shipping rates in January was sitting below the 10-year average.

The days of overconsumption of goods, brought on primarily by fiscal stimulus, are over, and is one of the main reasons global shipping lanes are slowing.