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06
March

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Jakarta (voinews): Governor of Bank Indonesia (BI) Perry Warjiyo stated that Indonesia's economy would be able to grow 5.1 percent annually in 2023 as the authority has continued to control inflation.

"Inflation in the second half (of 2023) can (fall) below 4 percent. In the first semester, inflation remains above 5 percent so we have to work hard in reducing inflation, especially food inflation," he said at the kick-off event for the 2023 Food Inflation Control National Movement (GNPIP) followed online on Sunday.

Inflation control by maintaining food security will encourage people's consumption which contributes more than 50 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP).

"Indonesia can also increase exports to Indonesia and China that currently become sources of the world's economic growth," Warjiyo said.

Currently, the government is trying to control the prices of commodities by synergizing, especially to control the prices of foods such as rice and cooking oil.

BI, with its 46 representative offices spread across Indonesia, also continues to cooperate with regional governments in improving food security.

The 2023 GNPIP will be carried out through various programs, such as affordable markets, strengthening of cooperation between regions, subsidies for freight costs, chili-planting movement, business model replication, provision of agricultural tools and machines to farmers, and strengthening of coordination and communication.

At Sunday's event, Warjiyo stated that last year's edition of GNPIP, which was started in July, was able to reduce food inflation from 11.47 percent annually to 5.61 percent at the end of 2022.

"In all regions, food inflation in 2022 also experienced a drastic decrease," he stated.

Through the 2022 GNPIP, BI held 2,638 cheap market events, formed 63 cross-region collaborations, carried out 75 freight cost subsidy programs, and distributed 2.4 million grow bags.

BI also carried out 86 business model replication programs, distributed agricultural tools and machines worth Rp32.21 billion and carried out 48 programs for data and information digitalization. (Antaranews)

04
March

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Russia's ruptured undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines are set to be sealed up and mothballed as there are no immediate plans to repair or reactivate them, sources familiar with the plans have told Reuters.

Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, each consisting of two pipes, were built by Russia's state-controlled Gazprom to pump 110 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas a year to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

Three of the pipes were ruptured by unexplained blasts in September, and one of the Nord Stream 2 pipes remains intact.

But soaring tensions between Moscow and the West over Russia's invasion of Ukraine had by then already brought Nord Stream 1 to a standstill and prevented its twin, criticised by Washington and Kyiv for increasing Germany's dependence on Russia, ever coming online.

Gazprom has said it is technically possible to repair the ruptured lines, but two sources familiar with plans said Moscow saw little prospect of relations with the West improving enough in the foreseeable future for the pipelines to be needed.

Europe has drastically cut its energy imports from Russia over the past year, while the state-controlled Gazprom's (GAZP.MM) exports outside the former Soviet Union almost halved in 2022 to reach a post-Soviet low of 101 bcm.

One Russian source said Russia saw the project as "buried". Two others said that, while there was no plan to repair the ruptured pipelines, they would at least be conserved for possible reactivation in the future.

Another source familiar with the plans confirmed that the stakeholders are considering conservation.

This would most likely mean sealing the ruptured ends and putting a coating into the pipes to prevent further corrosion from seawater.

One of the Russian sources said that, if the seaborne liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States that Europe is using to offset some of its Russian supplies became much more expensive, Europe might again be ready to buy more from Russia.

Moscow's Energy Ministry referred questions to the pipeline operators, but neither they nor Gazprom replied to requests for comment.

Engie (ENGIE.PA), Gasunie (GSUNI.UL) and Wintershall DEA (WINT.UL) (BASFn.DE) - stakeholders in Nord Stream AG, the operator of Nord Stream 1 - declined to comment. A spokesperson for Germany's E.ON (EONGn.DE), which also owns a stake in Nord Stream AG, said: "To our knowledge as a minority shareholder, no decision has been made, either for or against restoring the line."

WHO BLEW UP THE PIPELINES?

Moscow has maintained, without providing evidence, that the West was behind the blasts. Last month the White House dismissed as "complete fiction" a blog post by U.S. investigative journalist Seymour Hersh alleging that Washington was responsible.

Investigations by Denmark, Germany and Sweden have not yet concluded.

Nord Stream 1 had anyway been idle since late August when it was shut for maintenance, but never restarted as Russia and the West argued about the servicing of a pumping turbine amid Western sanctions.

The similar-sized Nord Stream 2 had been completed in September 2021 as tensions with Russia were growing and ran in trouble as Germany's regulators refused to certify it. Berlin then froze the project days before Moscow sent its armed forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed using the undamaged link of Nord Stream 2 to pump gas but Germany, now keen to end its reliance on Russia, rejected the idea. Poland has also stopped buying Russian gas.

Russia is currently exporting only around 40 million cubic metres per day of pipeline gas to Europe, via Sudzha on the border between Ukraine and Slovakia.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow, which hopes to set up a gas hub in Turkey to replace the Baltic route, would no longer rely on the West as an energy partner. (Reuters)

04
March

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Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut are facing increasingly strong pressure from Russian forces, British military intelligence said on Saturday, with intense fighting taking place in and around the eastern city.

Ukraine is reinforcing the area with elite units, while regular Russian army and forces of the Russian private military Wagner group have made further advances into Bakhmut's northern suburbs, the British Defence Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on Twitter.

Two key bridges in Bakhmut have been destroyed within the last 36 hours, it said, adding that Ukrainian-held resupply routes out of the city are increasingly limited.

One of those bridges connected Bakhmut to the city's last main supply route from the Ukrainian-held town of Chasiv Yar, about 13 km (eight miles) to the west, it said.

Ukraine's military command said Russia was still trying to surround Bakhmut but added that over the past day Ukrainian forces had beaten back Russian attacks in the city.

"The enemy does not cease attempts to surround Bakhmut," it said in its morning briefing note on Saturday, adding that over the past day Ukrainian forces had beaten back Russian attacks in Bakhmut.

Russian artillery pounded the last routes out of Bakhmut on Friday, aiming to complete the encirclement of the besieged city and bring Moscow closer to its first major victory in the war in six months.

The Ukrainian briefing note also said Russian attacks had been foiled in the villages of Ivanivske and Bohdanivka, both of which lie less than eight km (five miles) west of Bakhmut's city centre.

The capture of those villages, which flank the crucial Bakhmut-Chasiv Yar road on either side, would leave the city on the cusp of total Russian encirclement.

The battle for Bakhmut has raged for seven months. A Russian victory in the city, which had a pre-war population of about 70,000 and has been blasted to ruins in the onslaught, would give Moscow the first major prize in a costly winter offensive, after it called up hundreds of thousands of reservists last year.

Russia says it would be a stepping stone to completing the capture of the Donbas industrial region, one of Moscow's most important objectives.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has described Bakhmut as a "fortress".

"Nobody will give away Bakhmut. We will fight for as long as we can. We consider Bakhmut our fortress," he told a news conference in Kyiv on Feb. 3. (Reuters)

04
March

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Japan's trade unions are demanding the biggest wage hike in more than two decades at their spring pay negotiations, a national labour tally showed on Friday, as the government and central bank urge firms to raise workers' wages to support the economy.

A survey of more than 2,000 unions nationwide showed an average 4.49% raise request for this year, first time above 4% since 1998's 4.36%, according to the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (JTUC). This is also the highest since the mid-1990s, a statement by JTUC shows.

Workers in the world's third-largest economy have been emboldened by policymakers' calls for wage hikes to sustain a frail post-pandemic economic recovery threatened by a four-decade-high inflation.

Despite the higher cost burden, major Japanese firms have promised large pay increases to retain skilled workers amid labour crunch.

World's largest car maker Toyota (7203.T) last week accepted a union demand for the biggest base salary growth in 20 years, followed by rival Honda's (7267.T) agreement with its union requesting a 5% pay increase.

Gaming giant Nintendo (7974.T) said it will lift workers' base pay by 10%, while fashion brand Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing (9983.T) announced an up to 40% raise.

The JTUC preliminary survey showed the average union demand during this year's annual labour talks, called "shunto" in Japanese, was much larger than 2022's 2.97%.

JTUC, commonly known as "Rengo", is the largest labour organisation in the country representing about seven million workers. Although those working at smaller businesses, on temporary terms or without union membership tend to receive a much smaller, if not flat, pay growth, the result of shunto is seen as a harbinger of the country's wage trends.

According to JTUC, its unions and companies last year agreed on average 2.07% wage hikes, higher than in previous two years but still short of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's request for a bigger increase to spur growth.

As of January, Japan Economic Research Center estimated big firms would offer pay hikes of 2.85% on average for the year starting April, which would be the fastest pay rises since 1997.

Bank of Japan officials have said the outcome of the wage hike talks is an important criterion to determine the future course of its ultra-loose monetary policy. (Reuters)