International diamond corporation De Beers has markedly increased prices for diamonds due to strong demand, with small stones seeing the biggest increases, sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg. Consumer demand for diamond jewelry showed a marked increase last year while supplies were limited, the agency noted. De Beers was raising diamond prices for much of 2021, and while at that...

Analysts at the World Economic Forum (WEF) believe that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the emergence of new strains could literally bring about a collapse in the global economy. Over than 12 000 respondents from 124 countries participated in the survey. As a result, they highlighted problems to be expected in the short term. All of them are related to the consequences of the...

Global PC sales in 2021 were at their highest in almost 10 years. Lenovo, Dell, HP, Asus, Apple and Acer led the PC market. PC sales have been declining since 2012, reaching a low point in 2017. The need for them has increased again due to the shift towards remote work and study. Personal computer (PC) sales hit a peak in nearly 10 years and have risen to 2012 levels, CNBC writes, citing data...

Tech startups from London attracted $25.5 billion in 2021, more than doubling their 2020 results. The UK capital surpassed all European cities in this indicator and in the world was second only to the US cities of San Francisco, New York and Boston. Experts attribute London's success to cooperation between lawmakers and the technology sector, as well as the city's accumulated talent pool. Venture...

Switching to green public procurement methods could cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 15 per cent, according to analysts at the World Economic Forum and consultancy firm BCG. "Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with government procurement account for 15 per cent of global emissions, seven times more than those from the aviation industry... A green public procurement approach could...

Almost 60% of oil and gas investors worldwide believe they are under pressure from clients to make their investment portfolios greener, according to a survey by international consultancy The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). "Almost 60% admitted to being pressured by clients to divest from fossil fuel investments," according to conclusions of BCG's 2021 Energy Impact Center (CEI) study, in which the...

After the internet shutdown in Kazakhstan and the adoption of laws against cryptocurrency mining, an exodus of miners from the country could begin. Cryptocurrency miners who migrated to Kazakhstan after a ban on mining in China may shut down their operations in the country after protests blocked the Internet and, consequently, up to 15 percent of the global Bitcoin network, CNBC reported. The...

US startups attracted a record $330bn in investment last year, nearly doubling the 2020 result. But venture capital market participants are already calling the surge unsustainable. Private equity firms in the United States raised a total of $329.8 billion in venture capital funding last year, nearly doubling the amount raised in 2020, the Financial Times said, citing PitchBook data. Venture...

According to Reuters, OPEC+ will continue to its agreement to raise oil production in February. In February, OPEC+ may increase output by 400,000 bpd, as it has done every month since August 2021. The remaining reduction would total 3.4 million bpd by the end of January. OPEC+ must resume production by the end of September, according to the agreement. OPEC+ reduced its 2022 oil surplus...