China will surpass the U.S. by October to become the world’s biggest net oil importer, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said, adding that the switch is likely to become permanent from next year as the U.S. continues to boost domestic energy supply while China’s energy demand remains robust.
China is already the biggest energy user in the world and the second-largest oil consumer after the United States.
Greece’s economy shrank by 4.6 percent on an annual basis in the second quarter, marking a gradual deceleration of the country’s longest recorded recession, while the government reported a surplus for the first seven months of the year, official data showed on Monday.
While the contraction in Q2 marked a 20th consecutive quarterly decline, officials say it was an improvement from the first quarter of 2013, when the economy contracted 5.6 percent compared with a year earlier.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed on Monday reforms that would open up the country’s oil sector to foreign investors for the first time in 75 years, reforms that could spur economic growth and spotlight Mexico as a rising power as other big emerging markets struggle.
Japan’s economy expanded at a slower pace than most analysts expected in the second quarter, raising questions about whether Tokyo will push ahead with a sales tax hike to bring its rapidly-increasing debt under control.
Gross domestic product expanded at an annualised rate of 2.6 percent, a preliminary government estimate showed on Monday, continuing a third straight quarter of expansion in Asia’s second largest economy.
This week: Secretary of State John Kerry travels to Colombia and Brazil this week on efforts to deepen relations with Latin America; Negotiators from Palestine and Israel meet in Jerusalem for another round of peace talks following earlier discussions in Washington; North Korea holds talks with South Korea to normalise relations over the Kaesong Industrial Zone.
Monday, August 12
Secretary of State John Kerry travels to Colombia and Brazil this week on efforts to deepen relations with Latin America.
The Chinese yuan hit a record high against the U.S. dollar in intraday trading on Wednesday as the People’s Bank of China lifted the currency’s reference rate, fuelling speculation that the central bank will soon allow greater appreciation of the yuan.
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France needs to accelerate labour market reforms and avoid new taxes to sustain a tentative return to growth, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday, while warning that unemployment would keep rising this year and next in the eurozone’s second-biggest economy.
In an annual health check of the French economy, the IMF said the country has made considerable progress in cutting spending, predicting that the deficit will drop to 3.9 percent of GDP in 2013, down from 4.8 percent in 2012.
Japan’s top nuclear body on Monday warned that highly radioactive water is seeping into the ocean from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, triggering alarm bells over the plant’s precarious state and the plant operator’s ability to control the leak.
In an interview with Reuters, head of the Nuclear Regulatory Authority task force Shinji Kinjo said contaminated groundwater has breached an underground barrier and is rising toward the surface, exceeding legal limits of radioactive discharge.
The United States said on Sunday it is prepared to work with the new government of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, adding that the new administration now had a chance to allay global fears over its controversial nuclear programme.
In a statement congratulating Rouhani on his inauguration, the White House said it would be a “willing partner” if Tehran decides to engage substantively and seriously” in honouring its international obligations and works toward a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue.
