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Though inflation may be soaring, supply chains remain snarled, and the coronavirus won’t go away, America’s casinos are humming right along, recording the best month in their history in March.

The American Gaming Association, the gambling industry’s national trade group, said Wednesday that U.S. commercial casinos won more than $5.3 billion from gamblers in March, the best single-month total ever. The previous record month was July 2021 at $4.92 billion.

The casinos collectively also had their best first quarter ever, falling just short of the $14.35 billion they won from gamblers in the fourth quarter of last year, which was the highest three-month period in history.

Three states set quarterly revenue records to start this year: Arkansas ($147.4 million); Florida ($182 million), and New York ($996.6 million).

The numbers do not include tribal casinos, which report their income separately and are expected to report similarly positive results.

But while the national casino economy is doing well, there are pockets of sluggishness such as Atlantic City, where in-person casino revenue has not yet rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.

“Consumers continue to seek out gaming’s entertainment options in record numbers,” said Bill Miller, the association’s president and CEO. He said the strong performance to start 2022 came “despite continued headwinds from supply chain constraints, labor shortages and the impact of soaring inflation.”

The trade group also released its annual State of the States report on Wednesday, examining gambling’s performance across the country.

As previously reported, nationwide casino revenue set an all-time high in 2021 at $53.03 billion, up 21% from the previous best year, 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

But the report includes new details, including that commercial casinos paid a record $11.69 billion in direct gambling tax revenue to state and local governments in 2021. That’s an increase of 75% from 2020 and 15 percent from 2019. This does not include the billions more paid in income, sales and other taxes, the association said.

It also ranked the largest casino markets in the U.S. in terms of revenue for 2021. The Las Vegas Strip is first at $7.05 billion, followed by:

Atlantic City ($2.57 billion)
the Chicago area ($2.01 billion)
Baltimore-Washington D.C. ($2 billion)
the Gulf Coast ($1.61 billion)
New York City ($1.46 billion)
Philadelphia ($1.40 billion)
Detroit ($1.29 billion)
St. Louis ($1.03 billion)
the Boulder Strip in Nevada ($967 million)

The association divides most of Pennsylvania’s casinos into three separate markets: Philadelphia, the Poconos and Pittsburgh. Their combined revenue of nearly $2.88 billion would make them the second largest market in the country if judged as a single entity. It also counts downtown Las Vegas, and its $731 million in revenue, as a separate market.

Seven additional states legalized sports betting and two more added internet gambling in 2021.

The group reported many states saw gamblers spending more in casinos while visiting them in lower numbers compared to pre-pandemic 2019.

The average age of a casino patron last year was 43 1/2, compared to 49 1/2 in 2019.

Americans bet $57.7 billion on sports last year, more than twice the amount from 2020. That generated $4.33 billion in revenue, an increase of nearly 180% over 2020.

Internet gambling revenue reached $3.71 billion last year, and three states — New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan — each won more than $1 billion online. West Virginia’s internet gambling market reached $60.9 million in revenue in its first full year of operation, while Connecticut’s two internet casinos reported combined revenue of $47.6 million after launching in October.
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China’s export growth slumped in April to its lowest level in almost two years as the country’s “zero-COVID” policy continues to impact manufacturers and, according to trade experts, pushes many foreign businesses to reconsider operations in China.

Exports in terms of dollars grew 3.9% in April from the year-ago period, marking the slowest pace since June 2020, according to China’s customs administration.

They also dropped sharply from the 14.7% growth reported in March, according to official figures.

Import growth was essentially flat in April, improving slightly from a 0.1% decline in March and a bit better than the 3.0% contraction by a Reuters poll.

The weak figures reflect the state of China’s trade sector, which accounts for about one-third of gross domestic product. The sector has been losing momentum as COVID-19 restrictions across the country disturb supply chains in major centers such as Shanghai, which has been under a lockdown since late March.

It’s not clear when authorities will fully lift the restrictions. The city tightened them over the weekend as President Xi Jinping pledged to “unswervingly” double down on the zero-COVID policy.

Auto factories and other manufacturers that tried to keep operating by having staff live at their facilities were forced to reduce production because of supply chain disturbances and logistics issues.

Tesla Inc. has halted most production at its Shanghai plant because of problems securing parts for its electric vehicles, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

According to the memo, the plant planned to manufacture fewer than 200 vehicles at its Shanghai factory on Tuesday, far below the roughly 1,200 units a day it was producing shortly after reopening on April 19 after a 22-day closure.

“Shanghai’s lockdown had impacted components of China’s economy that are the most vulnerable — service workers, delivery drivers and other people still working,” Rui Zhong, program associate at the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, said in an email. “This includes Tesla workers who are producing luxury vehicles in conditions that have been described as them sleeping in factories.”

Tesla’s sales in China slumped by 98% in April, according to data released Tuesday by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). After reopening, the factory sold 1,512 vehicles in April, down from 65,814 cars sold in March, according to CPCA.

Other automakers also reported a steep slowdown in sales and production for April. Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, reported that it was halting some operations in eight plants in Japan from May 16 to 21 because of a parts shortage resulting from the lockdown in Shanghai, according to the Automotive News website. More foreign businesses in China are cutting revenue expectations and plans for future investment because of China’s recent COVID-19 outbreak and related restrictions.

A survey released Monday by the American Chamber of Commerce in China shows that 58% of survey respondents said they have decreased their 2022 revenue projections, up from 54% in a similar survey in April. Meanwhile, 52% of respondents have already either delayed or decreased investments in China.

The latest study, conducted from April 29 to May 5, covered 121 companies with operations in China.

Gordon Chang, author of the 2021 book “The Coming Collapse of China,” told VOA Mandarin in an email that despite concerns raised by foreign businesses, China would stick to its strict coronavirus containment policy at least through the end of May.

“Many, however, think the lockdown of Shanghai will continue through at least the end of this month and the ‘zero-COVID’ policy will continue through the (Chinese Communist) Party’s 20th National Congress, which will be held in the fall if tradition holds,” Chang said. The congress is scheduled to convene in the second half of 2022.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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President Joe Biden on Wednesday hailed American farmers as the “backbone of freedom,” pledging hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of support and calling on them to offset a global grain shortage caused by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

“You’re literally the backbone of our country, it’s not hyperbole,” he said, speaking at a family farm in Kankakee, Illinois, where, earlier in the day, he stood in front of a tractor and gazed over growing waves of grain. “But you also feed the world. And we’re seeing, with Putin’s war in Ukraine, you’re like the backbone of freedom.”

Russia’s 11-week-old invasion of Ukraine has imperiled global supplies of wheat, corn, barley, oilseeds and cooking oil, and it has disrupted fertilizer supplies. World food prices have risen nearly 13% in the wake of the invasion, the White House says.

Biden has announced a number of interventions for American farmers. Those include support that would allow farmers to plant two sets of crops in one year; access to technology that would allow for less fertilizer use, and the doubling of funding for domestic fertilizer production, to $500 million.

Biden told the gathered farm community that blame for the crisis rested on Putin, whose navy is blocking Ukrainian exports from Black Sea ports.

“But we’re doing something about it,” Biden said. “And our farmers are helping … on both fronts, reducing the … price of food at home and expanding production and feeding the world in need.”

The head of the European Investment Bank (EIB) this week sounded the alarm, saying that Ukraine is sitting on a staggering amount of wheat it can’t export.

“Ukraine is a rich country,” EIB President Werner Hoyer said. “Ukraine is the wheat basket of Europe, and it’s sitting on €8 billion (U.S. $8.5 billion) worth of wheat right now from last year’s harvest. They cannot export it; they have no access to the sea.

“This is one of the key issues that we must address, because they are industrious people,” he added. “They are sowing like crazy right now, and they will expect probably a good harvest, maybe 70% of last year’s harvest, in a couple of months — and then what to do with it? So these are issues that need to be addressed immediately, in addition to the social needs and the daily problems that Ukrainian citizens face.”

Worldwide effects

The European Union’s top diplomat warned of global impact.

“They are causing scarcity,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said of the Russian military, which invaded Ukraine on February 24. “They are bombing Ukrainian cities and provoking hunger in the world.”

Already the effects have spread across the world. Last month, farmers in Sri Lanka participated in strikes over rising food and fuel prices. That movement ultimately resulted in the resignation of the island nation’s Cabinet and prime minister.

And the crisis is likely to hit hardest in parts of the world where resources are already stretched thin, analysts said.

“This is a real reversal for the global economy,” Desmond Lachman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told VOA. “And those are the countries that are impacted the most — countries that are very reliant on food and energy imports are really going to get hit very hard. And politically, it’s going to be extremely difficult for those countries.”

Analysts say food price inflation could lead to instability on the world’s least-developed continent.

“Most African governments will scramble to cushion the loss of purchasing power stemming from higher inflation,” said Jacques Nel, head of economic-focused research firm Africa Macro. “Many will not be able to provide the necessary relief. Unrest is a matter of when and where, and not if.”

History shows that the humble grain holds immense power, perhaps no more famously than when the price of bread nearly doubled in 1788 France. Peasants revolted against the monarchy, hungry for governance ruled by the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity. Revolution came the following year.
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In any country, the currency exchange rate is an indicator of stability and the economy’s strength. With unprecedented sanctions being imposed on Russia, many economists are closely watching the ruble. Anna Rice narrates the story of the Russian ruble, and the effect economic sanctions are having.
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A top U.S. energy official says Russia’s war on Ukraine has driven home the need to diversify supply chains, and that Africa can benefit from this. Jose Fernandez made the comment to VOA Wednesday at an annual conference on African mining in Cape Town, South Africa.

Jose Fernandez, the U.S. Undersecretary for economic growth, energy, and the environment, is the highest-ranking American official ever to attend the Investing in African Mining conference, or Indaba. Indaba is a Zulu word for discussions.

Speaking to VOA, Fernandez said the U.S. is very interested in working with African partners to make the kind of investments that will benefit both sides.

“That’s a message that I’m not sure has been made here in the last few years,” he said.

He said Russia’s attempts to weaponize its oil and gas exports to Europe highlights the fact that the U.S., and other countries, cannot depend on one, or two, or even three suppliers for important products.

“Something we need to diversity is our sources of energy. We need to invest more in renewables. That requires wind turbines, it requires solar panels, it requires electric batteries and other components that are going to be critical for the energy future,” he said.

Fernandez said the U.S. geological service has identified almost 40 critical minerals that are going to be needed for a clean energy future as well as in products like cars, computers and chips — noting that Africa has many of them.

How could the continent benefit?

“In order to do that, it’s going to require foreign investment and one way or the best way to attract foreign investment is to have clear rules and a transparent regulatory regime. What I am here to do, is to see how the U.S. can help Africa take advantage of the opportunity and create jobs,” said Fernandez.

Tony Carrol, executive advisor of the conference, says the importance of Fernandez’s attendance cannot be overstated.

“It’s the first truly high-ranking U.S. government official we’ve had at the mining indaba in the 28 years. He is responsible for the energy and natural resource portfolio within the State Department and reports directly to the secretary of state. His meetings here were meaningful and I think they were enthused about this event and looking forward to coming back,” he said.
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Indonesia’s “unpredictable” palm oil export policies may help Malaysia emerge as the dominant supplier to India, the world’s top buyer of the edible oil, industry sources said.

Indonesia is the world’s biggest palm oil producer but its erratic export policies, including the most recent ban announced on April 22, have pushed Indian consumers to increase their dependence on Malaysia, the world’s second-largest producer whose output is less than half of its rival.

Malaysia is positioning itself to take advantage of Indonesia’s ban by cutting palm oil export taxes by as much as half, Malaysia’s Commodities Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said on Tuesday.

The combination of lower export taxes and the Indonesian ban may mean Indonesia’s share of palm oil exports to India will fall to 35% in the current marketing year ending on Oct. 31, from more than 75% a decade ago, according to an estimate from the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA), a vegetable oil trade body.

“Malaysia is the biggest beneficiary from Indonesia’s unpredictable policies,” said B.V. Mehta, executive director of Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA), a vegetable oil trade body.

“As Indonesia is not in the market, Malaysia is selling more, and at near record high prices.”

In the first five months of the 2021/22 marketing year, India has bought 1.47 million tons of Malaysian palm oil compared to 982,123 from Indonesia, data compiled by SEA showed.

Trader estimates for May show India imported around 570,000 tons of palm oil, with 290,000 from Malaysia and 240,000 from Indonesia.

If Indonesia’s export ban stays in place for two more weeks, then India’s June palm oil imports could fall to 350,000 tons, mostly from Malaysia.

New normal?

The flip in Indian palm oil imports would upend an established pattern of Indonesian dominance across South Asia.

However, Indian oil refiners feel they have to protect their supply chains against policy shake-ups after Indonesia’s interventions in the palm oil market since 2021.

“You can’t just rely on Indonesia and run a business. Even if Indonesia offers you a discount over Malaysia, one has to secure supplies from Malaysia to hedge against Indonesia’s unpredictable polices,” a Mumbai-based refiner said.

“Refiners commit sales of finished goods in advance and we cannot back out just because raw material is not available,” he said.

But, Malaysia’s relatively tight palm oil inventories are a lingering concern following an enduring labor shortage that has slashed plantation yields.

“Malaysia has limited stocks. Many producers in Malaysia are well-sold nearby,” said an official with a Malaysian planter with operations across Indonesia and Malaysia.

Malaysia produces roughly 40% of Indonesia’s output so it cannot completely replace Indonesian supplies.

Even so, Indian oil consumers are keen to increase Malaysian deals and reduce their reliance on Indonesia.

“Indonesia may lift the ban on exports sometime this month, but there is no guarantee it will not restrict exports again. Malaysia’s export policy is far more stable and that’s what we want,” said an Indian buyer, who declined to be named.
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The Senate confirmed economist Lisa Cook on Tuesday to serve on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, making her the first Black woman to do so in the institution’s 108-year history. 

Her approval was on a narrow, party-line vote of 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the decisive vote. 

Senate Republicans argued that she is unqualified for the position, saying she doesn’t have sufficient experience with interest rate policy. They also said her testimony before the Senate Banking Committee suggested she wasn’t sufficiently committed to fighting inflation, which is running at four-decade highs. 

Cook has a doctorate in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been a professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State since 2005. She was also a staff economist on the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 to 2012 and was an adviser to President Joe Biden’s transition team on the Fed and bank regulatory policy. 

Some of her most well-known research has focused on the impact of lynchings and racial violence on African American innovation. 

Cook is only the second of Biden’s five nominees for the Fed to win Senate confirmation. His Fed choices have faced an unusual level of partisan opposition, given the Fed’s history as an independent agency that seeks to remain above politics. 

Some critics charge, however, that the Fed has contributed to the increased scrutiny by addressing a broader range of issues in recent years, such as the role of climate change on financial stability and racial disparities in employment. 

Biden called on the Senate early Tuesday to approve his nominees as the Fed seeks to combat inflation. 

“I will never interfere with the Fed,” Biden said. “The Fed should do its job and will do its job, I’m convinced.” 

Fed Chair Jerome Powell is currently serving in a temporary capacity after his term ended in February. He was approved by the Senate Banking Committee by a nearly unanimous vote in March. 

Fed governor Lael Brainard was confirmed two weeks ago for the Fed’s influential vice chair position by a 52-43 vote. 

Philip Jefferson, an economics professor and dean at Davidson College in North Carolina, also has been nominated by Biden for a governor slot and was approved unanimously by the Finance Committee. He would be the fourth Black man to serve on the Fed’s board. 

Biden has also nominated Michael Barr, a former Treasury Department official, to be Fed’s top banking regulator, after a previous choice, Sarah Bloom Raskin, faced opposition from West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. 

Cook, Jefferson, and Barr would join Brainard as Democratic appointees to the Fed. Yet most economists expect the Fed will continue on its path of steep rate hikes this year. 
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Wall Street is tumbling toward its lowest point in more than a year on Monday as renewed worries about China’s economy pile on top of markets already battered by rising interest rates. 

The S&P 500 was 2.3% lower in afternoon trading after coming off its fifth straight losing week, its longest such streak in more than a decade. It joined a worldwide swoon for markets. Not only did stocks fall across Europe and much of Asia, but so did everything from old-economy crude oil to new-economy bitcoin. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 374 points, or 1.1%, at 32,520, as of 3:16 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 3.4% lower as tech-oriented stocks again took the brunt of the sell-off. Monday’s sharp drop leaves the S&P 500, Wall Street’s main measure of health, down roughly 16% from its record set early this year. 

Most of this year’s damage has been the result of the Federal Reserve’s aggressive flip away from doing everything it can to prop up financial markets and the economy. The central bank has already pulled its key short-term interest rate off its record low of near zero, where it sat for nearly all of the pandemic. Last week, it signaled additional increases of double the usual amount may hit in upcoming months, in hopes of stamping out the high inflation sweeping the economy. 

The moves by design will slow the economy by making it more expensive to borrow. The risk is the Fed could cause a recession if it moves too far or too quickly. In the meantime, higher rates discourage investors from paying very high prices for investments, because investors can get more than before from owning super-safe Treasury bonds instead. 

That’s helped cause a roughly 29% tumble for bitcoin since April’s start, for example. It dropped 10.8% Monday, according to Coindesk. Worries about the world’s second-largest economy added to the gloom Monday. Analysts cited comments over the weekend by a Chinese official warning of a grave situation for jobs, as the country hopes to halt the spread of COVID-19. 

Authorities in Shanghai have again tightened restrictions, amid citizen complaints that it feels endless, just as the city was emerging from a month of strict lockdowns after an outbreak. 

The fear is that China’s strict anti-COVID policies will add more disruptions to worldwide trade and supply chains, while dragging on its economy, which for years was a main driver of global growth. 

In the past, Wall Street has been able to remain steady despite similar pressures because of the strong profit growth that companies were producing. 

But this most recent earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies has yielded less enthusiasm. Companies overall are reporting bigger profits for the latest quarter than expected, as is usually the case. But discouraging signs for future growth have been plentiful. 

The number of companies citing “weak demand” in their conference calls following earnings reports jumped to the highest level since the second quarter of 2020, strategist Savita Subramanian wrote in a BofA Global Research report. Tech earnings are also lagging, she said. 

The tech sector is the largest in the S&P 500 by market value, giving it additional weight for the market’s movements. Many tech-oriented companies saw profits boom through the pandemic as people looked for new ways to work and entertain themselves while locked down at home. But slowdowns in their profit growth leave their stocks vulnerable after their prices shot so high on expectations of continued gains. 

The higher interest rates engineered by the Fed are also hitting their stock prices particularly hard because they’re seen as some of the market’s most expensive. The Nasdaq composite’s loss of roughly 25% for 2022 so far is much sharper than that for other indexes. 

Electric automaker Rivian Automotive slumped 19.1% Monday as restrictions expired that prevented some big investors from selling their shares following its stock market debut six months ago. It’s lost more than three quarters of its value so far this year. 

The yield on the 10-year Treasury has shot to its highest level since 2018 as inflation and expectations for Fed action rose. It moderated Monday, dipping to 3.07% from 3.12% late Friday. But it’s still more than double the 1.51% level where it started the year. 

In Asian stock markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 2.5%, and South Korea’s Kospi lost 1.3%. Stocks in Shanghai inched up 0.1%. 

In Europe, France’s CAC 40 fell 2.8%, and Germany’s DAX lost 2.1%. London’s FTSE 100 slid 2.3%. 

Apart from concerns about inflation and coronavirus restrictions, the war in Ukraine is still a major cause for uncertainty. More than 60 people were feared dead after a Russian bomb flattened a school being used as a shelter, Ukrainian officials said. Moscow’s forces pressed their attack on defenders inside Mariupol’s steel plant in an apparent race to capture the city ahead of Russia’s Victory Day holiday Monday. 

Even the energy sector, a star performer in recent weeks, was under pressure on Monday. Benchmark U.S. crude fell 6.1% to settle at $103.09 per barrel, though it’s still up about 40% this year. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 5.7% to settle at $105.94 a barrel. 

 
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When you think about places to get some rest, airplanes don’t normally come to mind. Aerotel is trying to change all that. Romain Chanson reports for VOA from northern South Africa, in this piece narrated by Carol Guensburg.
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Ukrainian officials say farmland used for planting spring crops could more than halved this year because of the war.
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The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says global food prices stabilized last month at a very high level but were slightly lower than in March, which saw the highest ever jump in food prices.

FAO officials see little prospect of a significant decrease in the price of food as long as the Russian-Ukrainian war goes on. Both countries combined account for nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley exports and up to 80% of sunflower seed oil shipments.

The FAO’s deputy director in the markets and trade division, Josef Schmidhuber, said disruption in the export of those and other food commodities from Ukraine is taking a heavy toll on global food security. He said poor countries are suffering most because they are being priced out of the market.

“It is an almost grotesque situation that we see at the moment,” he said. “In Ukraine, there are nearly 25 million tons of grain that could be exported but they cannot leave the country simply because of the lack of infrastructure and the blockade of the ports. At the same time…there is no wheat corridor opening up for exports from Ukraine.”

Ukraine’s summer crop of wheat, barley, and corn will be harvested in July and August. Despite the war, Schmidhuber said harvest conditions are not dire. He said about 14 million tons of grain should be available for export.

However, he notee there is not enough storage capacity in Ukraine. He added there is a great deal of uncertainty about what will happen over the next couple of months as the conflict grinds on.

“And what we also see, and that is, of course, only anecdotal evidence, that grain is being stolen by Russia and is being transported on trucks into Russia,” Schmidhuber said. “The same goes for agricultural implements, tractors, etc., etc. And all that could have a bearing on agricultural output.”

The FAO official said the situation in Ukraine indicates that the current problem is not one of availability, but one of access. He said there is enough grain to go around and feed the world. The problem, he said, is the food is not moving to the places where it is needed.
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In lush fields southwest of Paris, farmers are joining Europe’s fight to free itself from Russian gas.

They’ll soon turn on the tap of a new facility where crops and agricultural waste are mashed up and fermented to produce “biogas.” It’s among energy solutions being promoted on the continent that wants to choke off funding for Russia’s war in Ukraine by no longer paying billions for Russian fossil fuels.

Small rural gas plants that provide energy for hundreds or thousands of nearby homes aren’t — at least anytime soon — going to supplant the huge flows to Europe of Russian gas that powers economies, factories, business and homes. And critics of using crops to make gas argue that farmers should be concentrating on growing food — especially when prices are soaring amid the fallout of the war in Ukraine, one of the world’s breadbaskets.

Still, biogas is part of the puzzle of how to reduce Europe’s energy dependence.

The European Biogas Association says the European Union could quickly scale up the production of bio-methane, which is pumped into natural gas networks. An investment of 83 billion euros ($87.5 billion) — which, at current market prices, is less than the EU’s 27 nations pay per year to Russia for piped natural gas — would produce a tenfold increase in bio-methane production by 2030 and could replace about a fifth of what the bloc imported from Russia last year, the group says.

The farmers around the Paris-region village of Sonchamp feel their new gas plant will do its bit to untie Europe from the Kremlin.

“It’s not coherent to go and buy gas from those people who are waging war on our friends,” said Christophe Robin, one of the plant’s six investors, who farms wheat, rapeseed, sugar beets and chickens.

“If we want to consume green (energy) and to avoid the flows and contribution of Russian gas, we don’t really have a choice. We have to find alternative solutions,” he said.

Biogas is made by fermenting organic materials — generally crops and waste. Robin likened the process to food left too long in a container.

“When you open it, it goes ‘Poof.’ Only here, we don’t open it. We collect the gas that comes from the fermentation,” he said.

The gas from their plant could meet the needs of 2,000 homes. It will be purified into bio-methane and injected into a pipeline to the nearby town of Rambouillet, heating its hospital, swimming pool and homes.

“It’s cool,” said Robin. “The kids will benefit from local gas.”

Like in the rest of Europe, the production of bio-methane in France is still small. But it is booming. Almost three bio-methane production sites are going online every week in France on average and their numbers have surged from just 44 at the end of 2017 to 365 last year. The volume of gas they produced for the national network almost doubled in 2021 compared to the previous year and was enough for 362,000 homes.

France’s government has taken several steps to quicken bio-methane development since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The industry says bio-methane met almost 1% of France’s needs in 2021 but that will increase to at least 2% this year and it could make up 20% of French gas consumption by 2030, which would be more gas than France imported last year from Russia.

The Sonchamp farmers took out 5 million euros ($5.3 million) in loans and received a 1-million-euro state subsidy to build their plant, Robin said. They signed a 15-year contract with utility firm Engie, with a fixed price for their gas. That will limit their ability to profit from high gas prices now but ensures them a stable income.

“We’re not going to be billionaires,” said Robin.

Workers are finishing the construction and the plant is almost ready to be connected to the network. Piles of agricultural waste — wheat husks, pulped sugar beets, onion peelings, even chicken droppings — have been prepared to be fed into the giant bubble-like fermentation tanks.

Winter barley specially grown to make gas will make up about 80% of the 30 tons of organic material that will be fed each day into the plant.

Robin insists that the barley won’t interfere with the growing of other crops for food, which critics worry about. Instead of one food crop per year, they’ll now have three harvests every two years — with the barley as extra, sandwiched in between, Robin said.

In Germany, the biggest biogas producer in Europe, the government is cutting down on crop cultivation for fuels. The share of corn permitted in biogas facilities will be lowered from 40% to 30% by 2026. Financial incentives will be provided so operators use waste products such as manure and straw instead.

Germany is estimated to have over 9,500 plants, many of them small-scale units supplying rural villages with heat and electricity.

Andrea Horbelt, a spokeswoman for the German biogas association, said the production of bio-methane could be doubled in a matter of years but also wouldn’t be cheap.

“Using biogas for electricity is more expensive than solar and wind, and will always remain so,” she said.

At the end of their gas-making process, the Sonchamp farmers will also get nitrogen- and potassium-rich wastes from the fermenters that they’ll use to fertilize their fields, reducing their consumption of industrial fertilizer.

“It’s a circular economy and it’s green. That pleases me,” Robin said. “It’s a superb adventure.”
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A UN report recently warned 97% of Afghanistan’s population could sink below the poverty line.
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America’s employers added 428,000 jobs in April, extending a streak of solid hiring that has defied punishing inflation, chronic supply shortages, the Russian war against Ukraine and much higher borrowing costs.

Friday’s jobs report from the Labor Department showed that last month’s hiring kept the unemployment rate at 3.6%, just above the lowest level in a half-century.

The economy’s hiring gains have been strikingly consistent in the face of the worst inflation in four decades. Employers have added at least 400,000 jobs for 12 straight months.

At the same time, the April job growth, along with steady wage gains, will help fuel consumer spending and likely keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise borrowing rates sharply to try to slow inflation. Early trading Friday in the stock market reflected concern that the strength of the job market will keep wages and inflation high and lead to increasingly heavy borrowing costs for consumers and businesses. Higher loan rates could, in turn, weigh down corporate profits.

“With labor market conditions still this strong — including very rapid wage growth — we doubt that the Fed is going to abandon its hawkish plans,″ said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

The latest employment figures contained a few cautionary notes about the job market. The government revised down its estimate of job gains for February and March by a combined 39,000. And the number of people in the labor force declined in April by 363,000, the first drop since September. Their exit slightly reduced the proportion of Americans who are either working or looking for work from 62.4% to 62.2%.

Still, at a time when worker shortages have left many companies desperate to hire, employers kept handing out pay raises last month. Hourly wages rose 0.3% from March and 5.5% from a year ago.

Across industries last month, hiring was widespread. Factories added 55,000 jobs, the most since last July. Warehouses and transportation companies added 52,000, restaurants and bars 44,000, health care 41,000, finance 35,000, retailers 29,000 and hotels 22,000. Construction companies, which have been slowed by shortages of labor and supplies, added just 2,000.

Yet it’s unclear how long the jobs boom will continue. The Fed this week raised its key rate by a half-percentage point — its most aggressive move since 2000 — and signaled further large rate hikes to come. As the Fed’s rate hikes take effect, they will make it increasingly expensive to spend and hire.

In addition, the vast economic aid that the government had been supplying to households has expired. And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has helped accelerate inflation and clouded the economic outlook. Some economists warn of a growing risk of recession.

For now, the resilience of the job market is particularly striking when set against the backdrop of galloping price increases and rising borrowing costs. This week, the Labor Department provided further evidence that the job market is still booming. It reported that only 1.38 million Americans were collecting traditional unemployment benefits, the fewest since 1970. And it said that employers posted a record-high 11.5 million job openings in March and that layoffs remained well below pre-pandemic levels.

What’s more, the economy now has, on average, two available jobs for every unemployed person. That’s the highest such proportion on record.

And in yet another sign that workers are enjoying unusual leverage in the job market, a record 4.5 million people quit their jobs in March, evidently confident that they could find a better opportunity elsewhere.

Still, the nation remains 1.2 million jobs short of the number it had in February 2020, just before the pandemic tore through the economy.

Chronic shortages of goods, supplies and workers have contributed to skyrocketing price increases — the highest inflation rate in 40 years. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February dramatically worsened the financial landscape, sending global oil and gas prices skyward and severely clouding the national and global economic picture.

In the meantime, with many industries slowed by labor shortages, companies have been jacking up wages to try to attract job applicants and retain their existing employees. Even so, pay raises haven’t kept pace with the spike in consumer prices.

That’s why the Fed, which most economists say was much too slow to recognize the inflation threat, is now raising rates aggressively. Its goal is a notoriously difficult one: a so-called soft landing.
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Experts warn that the Federal Reserve’s efforts to tamp down inflation in the United States could have damaging effects, perhaps lasting several years, on developing economies around the world by encouraging capital flight, raising the rates on sovereign debt and destabilizing their currencies.

On Wednesday, the central bank announced that the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets the benchmark federal funds rate, had voted to increase the target rate by one-half of 1%, to between 0.75% and 1%. Further, the Fed indicated that it aimed to impose a series of additional half-point increases through the remainder of the year.

“Inflation is much too high, and we understand the hardship it is causing, and we are moving expeditiously to bring it back down,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a news conference after the committee meeting Wednesday.

When Powell said that increases of more than 50 basis points were not currently part of the central bank’s plan, he offered some relief to those wondering whether the Fed might be considering even larger increases. Nevertheless, the prospect of the Fed going into full inflation-fighting mode has many concerned about the impact its actions might have on developing countries.

Multiple concerns

There are a number of reasons emerging markets might suffer when U.S. interest rates rise.

One is the prospect of capital flight. Investors who have invested in emerging markets to take advantage of higher rates of return may find investment in the U.S. more attractive as rates rise, prompting them to move capital to the U.S.

Higher interest rates in the U.S. can also result in higher rates globally. In April, the International Monetary Fund issued a report that found that 60% of low-income developing countries were either already experiencing debt distress or were at high risk of doing so. The report warned, “Past episodes suggest that rapid interest rate increases in advanced economies can tighten external financial conditions for emerging market and developing economies.”

Another danger to emerging economies in a rising interest rate environment is currency depreciation, which reduces purchasing power and increases the difficulty of servicing debt denominated in foreign currencies, such as the U.S. dollar.

Historical perspective

Economic historian Jamie Martin, an assistant professor at Georgetown University, told VOA that there is a strong historical correlation between sharp interest rate increases in the U.S. and catastrophic economic consequences in the developing world.

In the years after World War I, a rise in rates orchestrated in part by the Fed and the Bank of England helped reverse a recession in major industrialized countries. However, it resulted in several years of curtailed growth in nonindustrialized countries.

Similarly, the Fed’s aggressive rate hikes in the early 1980s successfully tamed double-digit inflation in the U.S. but pushed global interest rates so high that numerous developing countries, particularly in Latin America, defaulted on their debts.

In 2013, when then-Fed Chair Ben Bernanke hinted that rate increases were on the horizon, the impact on emerging markets was instant, with capital rapidly flowing out and currency instability setting in.

“History should counsel extreme caution,” Martin said. “Because, over as long as a century, when the U.S. Fed and other kinds of globally systemic central banks have moved to aggressively tighten monetary policy, almost every time, it’s had dramatic global effects. Particularly in what we have come to call developing economies.”

Fed research supports concern

The impact of U.S. rate increases on the developing world has not always been well understood. Paul Volcker, the Federal Reserve chairman who orchestrated the increasing of interest rates to nearly 20% in the 1980s, would later say that his focus had been on the U.S. and that the impact on the developing world hadn’t been part of his calculus.

“Africa was not even on my radar screen,” he said.

Now, though, the connections between actions by the Fed and the broader global economy are better understood.

In a 2021 article published by the central bank, Fed economists Jasper Hoek and Emre Yoldas, and Steve Kamin of the American Enterprise Institute noted that there are multiple instances in which rate increases in the U.S. have been shown to “increase debt burdens, trigger capital outflows, and generally cause a tightening of financial conditions that can lead to financial crises.”

While they didn’t find that economic crises in emerging markets always resulted from U.S. rate hikes, one of their observations would seem to apply to the current circumstances: “If higher rates are driven mainly by worries about inflation or a hawkish turn in Fed policy … this will likely be more disruptive for emerging markets.”

Pushed ‘over the edge’

Organizations that track the indebtedness of developing countries warn that conditions across the developing world are already dire. In particular, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic as well as a global spike in food prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine have already created severe economic disruption.

A recent debt default by Sri Lanka has some concerned that further defaults may be coming.

“Many lower income countries have already been pushed into (a) deep debt crisis by the pandemic and rising energy and food prices,” Jerome Phelps, head of advocacy for the London-based Jubilee Debt Campaign, told VOA in an email exchange.

“They are diverting crucial resources away from healthcare and the needs of communities to debt payments, often to U.S. and European banks who stand to make large profits if repaid in full,” Phelps wrote. “Rising U.S. interest rates will push many over the edge by making their debt payments suddenly more expensive, for no fault of their own. We need urgent debt cancellation so that countries can prioritize recovery from the multiple crises they face.”
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Asian equities tumbled Friday following a rout on Wall Street fueled by worries over rising interest rates and surging inflation, while the pound extended losses the day after taking a beating on fears of a U.K. recession.

Global markets have been battered this year by a series of crises including surging inflation, rising interest rates, China’s economic slowdown and the war in Ukraine.

There was some relief after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday lifted borrowing costs 50 basis points — the most since 2000 — but suggested a feared 75-point lift was not on the agenda for now.

However, U.S. traders ran for the hills Thursday as they contemplated a period of fierce monetary tightening by the U.S. central bank as it struggles to contain inflation running at a more than 40-year high.

The Nasdaq — dominated by tech firms particularly sensitive to higher rates — lost 5%, while the Dow and S&P 500 fell more than 3%.

“Valuations become even more sensitive, very sensitive, when rates are going up and that is what we are experiencing,” Kristina Hooper, at Invesco, told Bloomberg Television.

“It’s just getting exacerbated as we get into the thick of monetary-policy tightening in the U.S.”

That sell-off filtered through to Asia, where Hong Kong tanked more than 3% as tech firms took a hit. Meanwhile, the European Chamber of Commerce in the city called the finance hub’s stringent pandemic travel restrictions and frequent flight bans a “nightmare” for businesses.

The remarks come a week after the Australian Chamber of Commerce recommended that Hong Kong follow the lead of Singapore or Japan by lowering quarantine requirements for business travelers.

Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Wellington, Taipei and Manila also tanked. However, Tokyo ended the morning slightly higher.

Adding to the selling pressure was ongoing weakness in China’s economy caused by strict lockdowns and other containment measures as officials struggle to bring a COVID flare-up under control by sticking to a zero-COVID policy.

Various districts in Beijing told residents on Thursday to work from home, while Shanghai, the biggest city in the country, remains essentially shut down.

On currency markets the pound continued to struggle a day after plunging more than 2% in reaction to the Bank of England’s updated forecast that warned annual inflation would top 10% and the economy would contract later this year.

Crude rose after key oil producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia refused to lift output more than their planned marginal increase as they weighed tight supply concerns caused by the Ukraine war.

“OPEC’s inability to ramp up production when desperately needed by the market is compounding an already dangerous supply deficit,” said Stephen Innes, of SPI Asset Management.

“This means geopolitical tensions will remain high, and while there are some demand-side risks at the moment, it seems likely that the threat of supply disruption will be the dominant driver at this time,” he said.
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A sharp sell-off left the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 1,000 points lower Thursday, wiping out the gains from Wall Street’s biggest rally in two years, as worries grow that the higher interest rates the Federal Reserve is using in its fight against inflation will derail the economy. 

The benchmark S&P 500 fell 3.6%, marking its biggest loss in nearly two years, a day after it posted its biggest gain since May 2020. The Nasdaq slumped 5%, its worst drop since June 2020. The losses by the Dow and the other indexes offset the gains from a day earlier. 

“Yesterday’s sharp rally was not rooted in reality, and today’s dramatic selloff is a reversal of that misplaced exuberance,” said Ben Kirby, co-head of investments at Thornburg Investment Management. 

Wall Street’s breakneck day-to-day reversal reflects the degree of investors’ uncertainty and unease over the array of threats the economy is facing, starting with inflation running at the highest level in four decades, and how effective the Federal Reserve’s bid to tame higher prices by jacking up interest rates will be. 

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced a widely expected half-percentage point increase in its short-term interest rate. Stocks bounced around following the move but then sharply rose as bond yields fell after Fed Chair Jerome Powell reassured investors by saying the central bank wasn’t considering shifting to more aggressive, three-quarter point rate hikes as the Fed continues with further rate increases in coming months. 

But whatever relief Powell’s remarks gave stock investors vanished Thursday. Stocks slumped and bond yields climbed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.04%. Rising yields are sure to put upward pressure on mortgage rates, which are at their highest level since 2009. 

Investors remain uneasy about whether the Fed can do enough to tame inflation without tipping the economy, which is showing signs of slowing, into a recession. In addition to high inflation and rising interest rates, investors are grappling with uncertainty over lingering supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions. 

“The biggest issue is there are just a lot of moving parts and the unanswered question is to what extent as the Fed attempts to tame inflation will that result in economic slowing, and perhaps, a recession,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. 

The S&P 500 fell 153.30 points to 4,146.87, while the Nasdaq slid 647.16 points to 12,317.69. The Dow briefly skidded 1,375 points before closing down 1,063.09 points, or 3.1%, to 32,997.97. 

Smaller company stocks also fell sharply. The Russell 2000 fell 78.77 points, or 4%, to 1,871.15. 

 
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