VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Brazil's new finance minister, Fernando Haddad, said on Monday he would propose a new fiscal anchor in the first half of this year as leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's team works to "restore" public accounts.

"We are not here for adventures," he said, seeking to calm market jitters over the return of Lula.

A former mayor of Sao Paulo, Haddad took office with the challenge of presenting a credible fiscal framework after Congress passed a package increasing Brazil's spending cap to ramp up social expenditures.

In his first speech in office, Haddad said the government would not accept the "absurd" 220 billion-real ($41.19 billion) primary deficit forecast in this year's budget, indicating it will work to reduce it.

He pledged to fight inflation, promising to send to Congress the proposal for a new fiscal anchor in the first half of the year seeking to ensure public debt sustainability.

But he did not mention Lula's decision the day before to extend a costly tax exemption on fuels, in what some saw as a striking political setback for the new minister.

Prior to taking office, Haddad had stated that the measure - which has an annual impact of 52.9 billion reais - would not be extended.

Speaking to journalists after the event, he said Lula asked for an extension so that a decision on resuming fuel taxes could be taken once the new board of state-owned oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) is installed. The taxes boost federal revenue but harm Lula's popularity.

A lawyer with a master's degree in economics and a doctorate in philosophy, Haddad has been viewed with distrust by the market for fear of uncontrolled spending.

He sought to dispel these concerns on Monday, saying the harmonization of fiscal and monetary policy would happen "for sure." Haddad said he will also try to democratize access to credit and establish a more transparent tax system. (reuters)

Mexican authorities said on Sunday at least 14 people died in an armed attack at a prison in the northern border city Juarez and two more died during a later armed aggression elsewhere in the city.

The Chihuahua state prosecutor said in a statement that among those who died in the prison attack were 10 security personnel and four inmates, while another 13 were hurt and at least 24 escaped.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack.

The prosecutor said initial investigations found the attackers arrived at around 7 a.m. local time at the prison in armored vehicles and opened fire.

Minutes earlier, authorities had reported a nearby attack against municipal police. After a chase, four men were captured and a truck seized.

In a different part of the city, two more drivers died later in the day following what authorities called an armed aggression.

The state prosecutor did not specify whether the three incidents were related.

In August, hundreds of Mexican soldiers were sent to Juarez after a prison face-off between members of two rival cartels caused a riot and shootouts that killed 11 people, most of them civilians. (Reuters)

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will send a special envoy to attend this week's funeral of former Pope Benedict, with her office saying it is a demonstration of the "deep friendship" between Taiwan and the Vatican, which has been courting China.

Benedict, the first pontiff in 600 years to resign and a standard bearer for conservatives who yearned for a more traditional Church, died on Saturday. His funeral will be held on Thursday.

The Vatican is Chinese-claimed Taiwan's sole European diplomatic ally, and Taipei has watched with concern as Pope Francis has moved to improve relations with China. The democratically governed island has formal ties with only 14 countries, largely due to Chinese pressure.

In a statement late on Saturday, Taiwan's presidential office said Tsai has appointed former Vice President Chen Chien-jen, a devout Catholic, as her special envoy to the funeral "based on the deep friendship between our country and the Vatican".

Chen went to the Vatican three times while in office, in 2016, 2018 and 2019, including attending the canonisation ceremony of Mother Teresa.

In September, while visiting the Vatican for the beatification of former Pope John Paul I, also as Tsai's envoy, Chen met Pope Francis and asked him to "pray for Taiwan". (Reuters)

South Korea's factory activity shrank for a sixth consecutive month in December, a business survey showed on Monday, as the global economic downturn and a local truckers' strike led to the worst slump in demand in 2-1/2 years.

The S&P Global purchasing managers' index (PMI) for South Korea manufacturers fell to a seasonally-adjusted 48.2 last month from 49.0 in November.

It fell again after two months of slight improvements from a more than two-year low of 47.3 reached in September, but remained below the 50-mark that separates expansion from contraction for the sixth month in a row.

Sub-indexes showed output contracted for an eighth straight month, new orders declined for a sixth month, and new export orders shrank for a 10th month.

In particular, new orders fell at the fastest pace since June 2020, both for overall orders and exports, while input purchases and backlogs of work also decreased at the fastest pace in about 2-1/2 years.

Meanwhile, suppliers' delivery times were their worst since June, as South Korean truckers went on a strike for the second time in 2022.

"The December PMI data provided further evidence that South Korean manufacturing firms have continued to struggle in the face of the current global economic downturn," said Laura Denman, economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

"Low levels of client demand, on both a domestic and international scale, were central to the latest deterioration."

On the inflation front, input prices rose at the slowest pace since January 2021, while the pace of output price increases significantly eased to the weakest in their 27-month rising streak.

Manufacturers were barely optimistic about the future output over the coming year, with the level of optimism just above the neutral threshold and at the lowest since July 2020. (Reuters)