According to MarketWatch, cocoa bean prices increased for the sixth straight session on Friday and are expected to reach their highest point in over 46 years. Jack Scoville, vice president of The Price Futures Group says that "cocoa bean supply from West Africa remains tight and expectations that production will fall below demand are increasing." On the US ICE floor, March cocoa bean futures...

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported that passenger traffic on global carriers grew by 36.9% in 2023. Consequently, it bounced back to 94.1% of pre-pandemic 2019 levels. Last year, European airlines saw a 22% rise in passenger volume on overseas flights. The percentage of occupied cabins increased to 83.8% in 2022 from 80.7% in 2022. Overseas flights increased by 28.3% in...

The Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry, Ken Saito, announced at a press conference in Tokyo that Japan has chosen to "assist" a cooperative initiative based on the Japanese telecoms corporation NTT’s developments in the area of optoelectronic semiconductor technology. "It was decided today to assist a joint project centered on NTT with the participation of key Japanese enterprises...

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated at the Italy-Africa summit that although foreign investors are not making significant investments in clean energy in Africa, the region has abundant conditions for accessing such energy resources. "It is undoubtedly thought-provoking, considering Africa's enormous potential for clean energy circumstances. Africa offers enough of sunshine,...

Global energy markets won't be driven by China in 2024, commodity analysts at Citi forecast. According to the analysts’ assessment, which MarketWatch cites, China's economy would only receive little boost from the government's stimulus plans, and the amount of oil imported into the nation will essentially stay the same at 11.3 million barrels per day (bpd) as last year. Citi notes that the...

While Australian sector players are scrapping earlier production plans, China can use the decline in lithium prices to bolster its position in this market, reports The Financial Times referring to data from the company and estimations from analysts. Because of an abundance of supply, the price of lithium has dropped by more than 80% in the last year, to $13.2 thousand per ton, the lowest since...

The Bank of Canada maintained its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday, marking the highest level since 2001, at 5% annually. Trading Economics notes that the regulator's decision was in line with analysts' forecasts. The central bank decided not to alter the rate for the fourth meeting in a row. The Governing Council expressed its continued concern for inflationary concerns, particularly the...

Australia's Future Fund assets increased by 8% in 2023 to a record high following a market rally at year-end on expectations that central banks would begin reducing interest rates. According to sources, state fund assets increased by $15.6 billion during the year to 211.85 billion Australian dollars ($139.2 billion) at the end of December. At the end of 2021, a high of $203.6 billion was...

In light of the outcomes of the two-day meeting that concluded on Tuesday, the Bank of Japan decided to maintain the main monetary policy parameters in place. The Japanese central bank said in a statement that the target yield on ten-year government bonds is about zero, and the short-term interest rate on deposits held by commercial banks with the Central Bank remains at minus 0.1% annually....