The U.S. dollar is getting cheaper against the euro, the yen and the pound sterling in trading on Monday.
The ICE-calculated index showing the dollar’s dynamics against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and Swedish krona) lost 0.12% in trading, while the broader WSJ Dollar Index lost 0.21%.
The euro/dollar pair is trading at $1.0606, up from $1.0587 at the close of the previous session. The pound rose to $1.2175 versus $1.2141 at the close of trading on Friday.
Traders continue to follow the statements of the representatives of the Federal Reserve System (FRS) and wait for the next statistical data on the American economy.
This week, the U.S. Commerce Department will release final data on the country’s GDP dynamics in the third quarter. Experts polled by Trading Economics do not expect to revise their estimate of GDP growth from the previously announced 2.9%.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRB) President John Williams told Bloomberg on Friday that the U.S. central bank will raise rates as high as necessary to bring “stubbornly high” inflation under control.
According to Williams, for the Fed’s actions to be successful, the rate will have to exceed the U.S. inflation rate at some point. At the same time, he noted that he does not expect it to rise to 6% (the October rate of growth of the PCE consumer price index), but rather expects inflation to slow down.
Mary Daley, president of the San Francisco Fed, still believes that the Fed is a long way from meeting the goal of substantially lowering the rate of inflation in the U.S.
“We still have a long way to go,” Daley said at an American Enterprise Institute event Friday. – We’re a long way from our goal of achieving price stability.”
The yen rose Monday on a Kyodo report that the Japanese government and the country’s central bank may revise its approach to the inflation target, making it more flexible. Japanese authorities are currently aiming for a 2% inflation target “as soon as possible.”
A more flexible wording of the inflation target would pave the way for the Japanese central bank to tighten monetary policy, Bloomberg notes.
Kyodo report, however, was refuted by Japan’s Cabinet Secretary General Hirukazu Matsuno, who said there are no plans to change the government’s approach to inflation target. According to Matsuno, he hopes that the Bank of Japan will continue its policy moving toward the inflation target.
The Bank of Japan will hold a two-day meeting Dec. 19-20 to decide on key parameters of its policy in the near future.
The dollar-yen exchange rate fell to 136.09 yen from 136.7 yen at market close on Friday.
The supervisory board of the Kametstal plant of the Metinvest mining and smelting group, which was created on the capacities of Dniprovsky Iron and Steel Works (DMK, Kamenskoye, Dnipropetrovsk Region), has replaced the general director of the company.
According to the official information of the company, the general council dismissed Dmytro Lyppa from the position of the general director by his own will as of December 24 this year.
It is specified that the personnel decision was made on December 14, 2022.
Alexander Tretyakov, who previously served as acting general director of Zaporizhkoks and first deputy general director and director of production at Zaporizhstal, was appointed acting general director.
In its turn, the Zaporizhkoks board of directors instead of Tretyakov entrusted Alexander Bekhter, who previously held the positions of deputy head of the production and technical department and director of production at the same plant, with the duties of general director.
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated mining group of companies that manages assets in each link of the production chain, from iron ore and coal mining and coke production to semi-finished and finished steel production, pipe rolling and coil production and other high value-added products. The Group consists of mining and metallurgical enterprises located in Ukraine, Europe and the USA and has a sales network covering all key global markets.
The main shareholders of Metinvest are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%) that jointly manage the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the managing company of Metinvest group.
JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” appointed another train in popular communication Kiev – Chisinau.
“Thus, the communication between the capitals of Ukraine and Moldova becomes daily”, – reported on the page of UZ in the social network Facebook on Sunday.
It is noted that the first trip train №351/352 will depart from Kiev on December 20, and from Chisinau – on December 21 and will run every other day.
The train will depart from Kiev at 17:02 and arrive in Chisinau at 10:38.
In the opposite direction the train will depart at 17:45 and arrive in the capital of Ukraine at 11:48.
The train will make stops at the stations: Koziatin, Vinnitsa, Zhmerinka, Bar, Kopai, Kotiuzhary, Vendichany, Mogilev-Podolsky, Velchinets, Ocnita, Belets Orash, Ungheni.
“Tickets are already in the app and chatbot,” stressed in the message.
As of Sunday, all nine nuclear power units in the government-controlled territory of Ukraine were operating, but the work of several of them was being limited due to the unreadiness of the energy system to accept all the energy produced from them, the nuclear power plant operator NAEC Energoatom said.
“On December 18, 2022, as of 13:00, all nine nuclear power units located in Ukraine-controlled territory were operating. However, the total capacity of the two units is limited by more than 600 MW due to the unpreparedness of the energy system to receive from them the full possible amount of electricity, as the energy infrastructure facilities have not yet been restored after the shelling of December 16,” the report says.
It specifies that the NAEK expects the infrastructure to be restored as soon as possible to “enable the full available capacity from domestic NPPs as soon as possible.
All nine nuclear power units located in Ukraine-controlled territory are operating in the power system as of 6 p.m. Saturday, nuclear power plant operator NAEC Energoatom said in a telegram.
“Unfortunately, now the capacity of one of the power units is limited by 600 MW due to the unpreparedness of the power system to take all possible amount of electricity from it, as the energy infrastructure facilities were again damaged as a result of yesterday’s shelling,” Energoatom specified.
The Company reminded that another six power units of the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP are stopped and their switching on is blocked by the “Rashites,” while the plant continues to constantly consume about 100 MW for its own needs from the power system of Ukraine.
As reported, after the November 23 shelling, all power units of Ukrainian nuclear power plants were disconnected from the grid. On December 13, after remedial repairs, the ninth 1000 MW unit was connected to the power grid, and by the new massive Russian shelling in the morning of November 16, all nine units of the Pivdenno-Ukrainian, Rivne and Khmelnitsky NPPs, which are located in Ukraine-controlled territory, were in operation.
According to Jakob Hartmut, vice president of NAEK Energoatom, the December 16 shelling resulted in the total operating capacity of the plants under control decreasing from 7 to 1.5 thousand MW.
There are four operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine, including 15 units, equipped with water-water power reactors with a total installed electric capacity of 13.835 GW. Apart from ZNPP with six 1000 MW units, there is Rivne NPP (four units, two 1000 MW and two 440 MW), Pivdenno-Ukrainian NPP (three 1000 MW units) and Khmelnitsky NPP (two 1000 MW units).
The leaders of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary have signed an agreement on laying a submarine electric cable under the Black Sea to supply Azerbaijani energy to Europe.
Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission (EC), considers the Black Sea electricity cable project, which will supply Azerbaijan with electricity to Europe, ambitious.
“I can only say: what an ambitious project (of the Black Sea electric cable). It will connect us on both sides of the Black Sea and go further toward the Caspian Sea – both for digital communications and energy,” von der Leyen said Saturday at a signing ceremony in Bucharest for the “Strategic Partnership Agreement on the Development and Transmission of Green Energy between the governments of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary.”
She said the implementation of the agreements will help the European Union strengthen security of supply by transmitting electricity from renewable sources to the EU through Romania and Hungary. “A cable under the Black Sea could supply electricity to our neighbors in Moldova and the Western Balkans and, of course, to Ukraine,” the EC head said.
According to EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Oliver Varghea, an agreement between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary on a submarine cable for electricity transmission via the Black Sea (Black Sea Energy) was signed as part of a EUR 17 billion European investment plan.
The nearly 1,200-kilometer cable will transmit electricity from Azerbaijan and Georgia to Romania and Hungary. The project is to be implemented within six years.
