Consumer prices in Italy, harmonized with European Union standards, rose by 2.1% year-on-year in March, according to preliminary data from the Istat statistical agency. The rate of increase accelerated from 1.7% in February and became the highest in a year and a half (since September 2023).
Analysts on average had forecast a 1.9% rise this month, according to Trading Economics,
The increase in consumer prices in March compared to the previous month amounted to 1.6% (after an increase of 0.1% in February).
Consumer prices in Italy, calculated according to local standards, increased by 2% yoy (also the highest in a year and a half) after rising by 1.6% in February.
Energy prices went up by 1.3%, tobacco products by 4.6%, food by 3.3%, and communication services by 0.8%.
Core inflation (excluding volatile energy and food prices) amounted to 1.7% in annual terms this month.
http://relocation.com.ua/v-italii-v-berezni-pryskorylasia-inflia/
The opportunity to vote in elections through active registration may appear for Ukrainians abroad after the war, since only a small part of those who left are on consular registration, said the head of the Central Election Commission Oleg Didenko.
“There (abroad) now millions of Ukrainian citizens, and, according to the consular registration, there are less than 400 thousand. This clearly does not correspond to reality. For citizens abroad to be able to vote, they have to identify themselves in some way: to say their electoral addresses or place of voting. For them, we are now preparing a proposal to introduce another mechanism. If the Verkhovna Rada supports our idea, there will be a third opportunity to vote – the so-called active registration,” Didenko told Ukrayinska Pravda in an interview published on Monday.
He noted that overseas voting even in peacetime is a very difficult task because polling stations are few and far from voters. “And now the number of voters abroad has increased by a factor of 10, if not more. We have estimates that there are somewhere between 5-6 million voters abroad. We do not understand, of course, what migration will be in the post-war period, this figure may decrease, because some part of citizens will return. But nevertheless, we are talking about millions of people. It is clear that our 102 polling stations, which now exist on the territory of embassies and consulates, can’t solve the problem,” said the head of the CEC.
Therefore, according to Didenko, three groups have been created to work out possible changes to the legislation and one of them is focused on voting abroad.
“All agreed on such an option as the creation of additional polling stations outside embassies and consulates. And related to this is precisely the institution of so-called active registration. That is, the idea is that our citizens some time before the start of the electoral process can submit an application, physically to the embassy or online, that they are abroad and want to vote there and there. And already on the basis of these applications and additional information about the places of concentration of Ukrainians, our diplomatic missions will be able to offer the Foreign Ministry and us to create additional polling stations,” he said.
However, according to the CEC head, this requires changes in the legislation, as the law currently provides for the possibility to set up polling stations only on the territory of embassies and consulates.
Regarding internally displaced persons, he noted that there are already procedures when a voter can change the electoral address to the place of his actual residence. “This possibility was introduced with the adoption of the Electoral Code, and in 2020 in local elections it has already been implemented. Or, if we are talking about state-wide elections, a person can change the place of voting without changing the voting address. We are now working on proposals to the law on post-war elections and will propose to the Verkhovna Rada to further simplify and expand these opportunities,” Didenko said.
Also, he said, Ukraine needs much more time to prepare post-war elections than is now provided, and “the more time there is, the better the electoral process can be organized, the less time – the worse, respectively.”
“We have very many challenges. We need to pass a law on the peculiarities of post-war elections. And depending on what that law will provide, it will be possible to talk more specifically about the timing,” Didenko added.
Impact of electricity deficit on real GDP vs no deficit, % (forecast up to 2024)
The World Bank’s Board of Directors on Saturday night in Kiev approved a new $432 million support package “Building Resilient Infrastructure in a Vulnerable Environment in Ukraine (DRIVE)” aimed at helping the government improve the resilience of the national road network and operational efficiency in the transport sector.
The Bank told Interfax-Ukraine that DRIVE complements the existing project “Rehabilitation of Essential Logistics Infrastructure and Network Connectivity (RELINC)”, under which modular road bridges were delivered and 200 flatcars were manufactured to increase Ukrzaliznytsia’s freight capacity and export capability.
The World Bank noted that Ukraine’s transportation infrastructure has suffered significant damage since the war began in February 2022, disrupting key import and export routes. According to the recently published Rapid Damage and Recovery Needs Assessment (RDNA4), road infrastructure in the transport sector has suffered the most damage: 58% of the transport sector; 30% of state roads and bridges, 11% of local roads and bridges, and 17% of municipal roads suffered significant damage.
DRIVE financing includes a $212 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) under the ADVANCE Ukraine (ADVANCE Ukraine) Trust Fund, which was supported by the Government of Japan. The financing also includes a $210 million loan from the Special Program for the Recovery of Ukraine and Moldova (SPUR) and a $10 million grant from the Ukraine Support, Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reform Trust Fund (URTF).
The project will be implemented by the State Agency for Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Development of Ukraine.
The project page on the Bank’s website notes that it has three components, the first of which is the preservation of the national road network. This component includes two components. The first, a $270.48 million investment for national roads, finances the design, execution, and supervision of construction works aimed at maintaining certain sections of national roads in proper operational condition, including through operational maintenance, major road repairs, and major bridge repairs.
The second component, National Roads and Road Transport Reform, allocates $90 million for transportation sector performance with a results-based approach.
The second component for $39 million is periodic maintenance of the national road network, it also has two components: installation of emergency modular road bridges and climate-smart preservation of key links in the road network.
The third component is technical assistance and project management, which also has two components: technical assistance and project development ($9 million URTF grant), which complements the investment-oriented components, and project management ($1 million URTF grant), which finances eligible costs for implementation and project management support, training, and knowledge sharing.
The death toll in Myanmar as a result of a powerful earthquake has exceeded 1,000 people, Reuters reports citing government sources.
“International rescue teams began flying to Myanmar on Saturday to help search for survivors after Friday’s earthquake killed more than 1,000 people,” the agency said.
The military government on Saturday put the death toll in Myanmar at 1,002. The 7.7-magnitude quake reportedly damaged critical infrastructure amid an intense civil war.
At least nine people were killed in neighboring Thailand, where the magnitude 7.7 quake destroyed buildings and collapsed a skyscraper under construction in the capital Bangkok, 30 people were trapped under the rubble and 49 were reported missing.
