Consumer prices fall again year-on-year in May

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Consumer prices fell 0.1% from the previous month in May, following April’s 1.5% drop. May’s dip was mainly driven by lower prices for housing and utilities, and transport.

Consumer prices declined 1.5% on an annual basis in May, after they had dropped 1.2% in April—marking the lowest reading since June 2016. Meanwhile, the annual average variation in consumer prices dropped 0.2% in May, compared to the flat reading in April. Lastly, harmonized consumer prices tumbled 1.2% year-on-year in April (March: 0.1%), which is the latest month for which data is available.

FocusEconomics panelists project harmonized inflation to average 0.1% in 2020 and 0.5% in 2021.

Source:https://www.focus-economics.com/countries/cyprus/news/inflation/consumer-prices-fall-again-year-on-year-in-may

Industrial output shrinks at the turn of 2020

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Industrial production slid 1.4% year-on-year in January, contrasting December’s 2.6% expansion and marking the first fall since June 2019. January’s downturn was primarily driven by sharper contractions of the water and electricity supply sectors, and a moderation in manufacturing output compared to the previous month.

Meanwhile, the annual average growth in industrial production dipped to 2.6% from December’s 3.3%.

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast participants see fixed investment plunging 8.7% in 2020, which is down 17.6 percentage points from last month’s estimate, and growing 7.1% in 2021.

Source:https://www.focus-economics.com/countries/cyprus/news/industry/industrial-output-shrinks-at-the-turn-of-2020

Uzbekistan increases Iranian cement imports to the exclusion of other countries

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Uzbekistan imported 3.27Mt of cement in 2019, down by 6.8% year-on-year from 3.51Mt in 2018. The value of cement imported fell by 13% to US$154m from US$176m. Trend newspaper has reported that cement imports from Kazakhstan fell by 32% to 0.97Mt from 1.43Mt. Imports from Tajikistan and Turkmenistan also fell, but rose by 85% from Iran, to 0.59Mt from 0.32Mt.

Uzbekistan, which has a 12.9Mt/yr installed cement production capacity, removed its zero rate of customs duty on cement in October 2019 in order to help align domestic demand with production.

https://www.globalcement.com/news/item/10563-uzbekistan-increases-iranian-cement-imports-to-the-exclusion-of-other-countries

Import duties to continue in Armenia

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The Armenian government has announced that it plans to extend the duration of state duties on cement imported from Iran and several other countries until 1 July 2020. The decision was made on the basis of analysis that confirmed an extension of the customs duties was appropriate. The government said that it would continue to monitor the situation.

According to the RA Statistical Committee Armenia produced 0.59Mt of cement in 2019, 8.1% more than in 2018. The RA Customs Service reported that the country imported 0.31Mt in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 70.5%.
SOurce:https://www.globalcement.com/news/item/10619-import-duties-to-continue-in-armenia

Armenia resumes cement production

The government has included cement production under a list of permitted economic activities able to resume from 16 April 2020. Azbarez News has reported that the present lockdown is scheduled to continue until 15 May 2020. Cement and clinker imports from neighbouring Iran, historically the main source of construction cement for Armenia, have continued throughout the coronavirus crisis.

https://www.globalcement.com/news/item/10734-armenia-resumes-cement-production

Lebanon’s Parliament endorses $300m aid package

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Lebanon’s Parliament on Thursday ratified a 1.2 trillion Lebanese pound ($300m) aid package for low-income families and vital sectors including agriculture and industry, as the government attempts to stave off an economic collapse exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The spending package aims to create a social safety net to support struggling families through the end of the year, and provide aid to businesses hit by the worst economic and financial crisis in the country’s history.

“It’s very difficult to cover all the needs; as you know, the state has no money,” Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Zeina Akar – the architect of the package – told Al Jazeera. “We’re using money that isn’t there, securing it through loans. But we think we must help. We can’t not help.”

The 1.2 trillion Lebanese pound price tag equates to $300 million at the prevailing black-market exchange rate of 4,000 to $1 – or around $375 million at a legal, but mostly ignored, parallel rate of 3,200 to $1.

Lebanon’s currency has depreciated by some 60 percent since last summer due to an acute dollar shortage rooted in unsustainable government spending, ballooning debt, a decade-long economic slowdown and decreasing remittances from abroad.

Half of the new aid package will go towards providing 200,000 families with a monthly cash payment of 400,000 pounds ($100) through December. People with disabilities, victims of landmines and explosions, and parents of public school children in need will be prioritised, Akar said.

Some seven thousand small and medium-sized enterprises will receive a one-off cash payment of between 15 million and 20 million Lebanese pounds ($3,750-$5,000 at the black market exchange rate), while more than 30,000 farmers and 6,600 vocational workers will get 4.5 million pounds each ($1,125), Akar said.

And some 200 industries will get $1m in foreign currency to help them purchase imported raw materials. This industry bailout is necessary because informal capital controls imposed by banks have decimated all imports except essentials – wheat, fuel and medicine.

‘Torpedoed’ banking secrecy
Parliament also endorsed a law amending the country’s strict banking secrecy law. While the amendment originally gave judges the authority to probe the accounts of top officials, including ministers and members of parliament (MPs), a number of lawmakers raised concerns that the law could be used to target political foes of those in power, given Lebanon’s lack of judiciary independence.

“There is an intent to settle scores,” Progressive Socialist Party MP Wael Abou Faour said.

Lebanon regularly ranks among the most corrupt countries in the world.

Over the protests of many MPs, House Speaker Nabih Berri managed to push through a last-minute amendment to the banking secrecy law that exclusively empowers members of a yet-to-be-created national anti-corruption commission and investigative commission at the Central Bank to look into bank accounts.

“In a way, this law was frozen. They were supposed to allow judges to lift banking secrecy, but the formula has changed,” Nizar Saghieh, a leading Lebanese legal expert and co-founder of NGO The Legal Agenda, told Al Jazeera.

But Lebanese lawmakers also strengthened anti-corruption protections by endorsing a law that reins in the power of ministers to advance candidates for top government administrative and oversight chiefs. The country’s Civil Service Council will now select candidates through exams and interviews, leaving it up to the government to select from among three people who qualify.

Endorsing the law is a “radical, positive change towards liberating the administration from the dominance of the political authorities,” Independent MP Neemat Frem tweeted following the session.

Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/lebanon-parliament-endorses-300m-aid-package-200528190122422.html

Lebanon eyes tourism with international airport reopening by July

Lebanon’s only international airport will reopen to passenger traffic by early July at the latest, the country’s transport minister told Al Jazeera on Tuesday, as the economically ravaged nation seeks to jump-start its tourism sector for the all-important summer season.

Transport Minister Michel Najjar told Al Jazeera that Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport is slated to reopen “by the first three or four days of July max”, with the government set to formalise the decision during a ministerial meeting in the coming days.

The airport will initially operate at a reduced capacity of between 10 and 20 percent – equating to some 2,000 to 3,000 daily passengers based on the number of entries and exits last year, Najjar said.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Tuesday that Lebanon would reopen air travel to wealthy Gulf Arab nations – historically a source of more than 30 percent of Lebanon’s tourist traffic per year – and focus on countries that are conducting coronavirus tests, known as PCR tests.

Special safety procedures would be implemented for passengers coming from other countries, he added.

“What is important for us today is to put Lebanon back on the tourism map while balancing between health protection and tourism in order to revive the economy,” Diab said during a meeting with representatives of tourism-dependent sectors, according to a statement released by his office.

Tourism is one of the main pillars of the small eastern Mediterranean nation’s crisis-addled economy, accounting for some 18 percent of gross domestic product in 2017, according to a study by Blominvest, one of Lebanon’s biggest banks.

Around two million tourists visit Lebanon each year, drawn by the country’s picturesque beaches and mountains, ancient ruins and renowned food, drink and nightlife. But the sector has been hit hard by the country’s descent into an economic crisis last year that sparked a nationwide, anti-establishment uprising that brought hundreds of thousands to the streets.

Hundreds of businesses tied to tourism have closed in the past six months, while tens of thousands of workers have been laid off, according to tourism sector representatives.

Those crushing financial conditions – which are rooted in years of corruption, government mismanagement and the war next door in Syria – were further exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

A nationwide lockdown that began in mid-March to stem the spread of COVID-19 ordered all bars, clubs and restaurants to close, though some were permitted to maintain delivery services for a limited number of hours.

Most lockdown restrictions have since been eased.

Tony Ramy, the head of the syndicate of owners of restaurants, cafes, nightclubs and patisseries, said during Tuesday’s meeting with Diab that 80 percent of restaurants had been unable to open their doors due to the crisis.

Car rentals – some 76 percent of which are made by foreign tourists and locals returning from abroad – have also suffered. Some 25 percent of car rental companies have closed down and 700 sector workers have lost their jobs, said Mohamad Dakdouk, the head of the Syndicate of Car Rental Agencies.

Though the lockdowns have heaped even more financial misery onto Lebanon, officials say the measures have helped mitigate the virus’s spread. Lebanon has recorded 1,368 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 30 deaths from the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Officials hope that the country’s relatively few cases of COVID-19 will boost Lebanon’s attractiveness as a tourist destination this summer.

Tourism would provide an injection of much-needed foreign currency into Lebanon’s heavily import-dependent economy. An acute shortage of United States dollars has pummeled the Lebanese pound, which has lost some 60 percent of its value since August on the parallel and black markets.

But though the pound’s rapid depreciation has destroyed livelihoods in Lebanon, it could also enhance the country’s tourism appeal by boosting the purchasing power of prospective tourists from abroad.

Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/lebanon-eyes-tourism-international-airport-reopening-july-200609165208519.html

Iran restaurant industry hit hard by COVID-19

The global coronavirus pandemic has changed the way Muslims around the world are observing the holy month of Ramadan.

In Iran, the foodservice industry has been hit hard.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, restaurants were already struggling. Months of political and economic unrest meant fewer customers.

Many small businesses have gone under and many more are on the verge of doing so.

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi has more from Tehran.

Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/iran-restaurant-industry-hit-hard-covid-19-200430130737136.html

Akkord Cement increases cement volumes by 20% so far in 2020

Akkord Cement has reported sales of 237,000t of cement in the first four months of 2020, up by 20% year-on-year from 197,000t in the same period of 2019. April 2020 sales fell to 31,200t due to the impacts on demand of the coronavirus outbreak. Trend News has reported that Akkord Cement’s 1.0Mt integrated Gazakh cement plant in Ganja region produced 3250t of clinker for export, up by 10% from 2960t in 2019. The company says that it ‘plans to organise exports’ of clinker from the 3300t/day clinker capacity plant to Iraq and Qatar ‘after the country leaves the coronavirus quarantine regime.’ It added, “The export of clinker to Iran in the future is also being considered.”

Source:https://www.globalcement.com/news/item/10850-akkord-cement-increases-cement-volumes-by-20-so-far-in-2020

Oman allows exchange houses to open as Covid-19 restrictions ease

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Establishments that are allowed to operate on a limited basis include vehicle and fishing boat repair shops, electronics outlets, car rental offices, office suppliers and printing shops

Oman allows exchange houses to open as Covid-19 restrictions ease
To date, there have been 2,131 cases of Covid-19 in the Sultanate, including 10 fatalities.

Oman’s government has announced that a limited number of commercial businesses in the Sultanate will be able to operate again as Covid-19 restrictions ease, the state-run Oman News Agency (ONA) has announced.

As part of the move, money exchange companies to resume their services.

Establishments that are allowed to operate on a limited basis – in which they receive and deliver only, with no customers allowed inside – include vehicle and fishing boat repair shops, electronics outlets, car rental offices, office suppliers and printing shops.

Automobile electrical outlets, lube change stores, brake repaid workshops and tyre sale and repair outlets are also allowed to operate, with two customers allowed in at any given time.

Source:https://www.arabianbusiness.com/culture-society/445864-oman-allows-exchange-houses-to-open-as-covid-19-restrictions-ease