globaleconomicnews

The global economy has fallen out of balance, and there are no signs yet that it will return to its original positions. Mohamed A. El-Erian, an American-Egyptian economist and professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, explained in a piece for Project Syndicate why today it is more important not to worry about where everything is heading, but to embrace the new reality with all its benefits of instability.

Fitch Ratings has lowered its global economic growth outlook while raising its oil price forecast, warning that the oil shock from the conflict between the US and Iran is causing widespread damage to the global economy.
Now the agency expects global economic growth to hit 2.4% this year, trimming the previous estimate by 0.2 percentage points. "Forecasts have been revised down across the board as inflation growth is squeezing real wages, stifling consumption, and ramping up costs for companies," says the report from Fitch economists.

October Brent oil futures during morning trading on August 26 were down 2.9%, trading at a low of $86.05 per barrel. Quotes for US WTI crude oil futures fell by 2.8% to $80.08 per barrel. The day before, both oil benchmarks had lost more than 3%.
Tehran announced the resumption of talks regarding shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz amid increased economic pressure from US President Donald Trump. Iran and Oman, which over the past few weeks periodically held talks to arrange traffic through the strait, finally agreed on August 25 to clear this waterway of mines, and also discussed setting up a “joint temporary shipping corridor” through it, Reuters reports. Before the start of the US-Iran war through the Strait of Hormuz, one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies passed through the strait.

Exxon Mobil (New York:XOM) and LyondellBasell NV (F:LYB) are among potential buyers of Shell's U.S. chemical assets, which could be sold for $8 billion. The British energy giant is looking to divest loss-making business units, Financial Times reported on Monday.

Iran should end its war with the United States while the country is «in a position of strength and dignity,» President Masoud Pezeshkian said. His remarks, cited with reference to Iran’s semi-official student news agency (Iranian Students’ News Agency, ISNA), are reported by Bloomberg. A similar quote, noting that this was a public statement, is provided by the Financial Times (FT).

On Friday, August 21, the price of gold futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) rose by 0.9%, to $4,612.4 per ounce. Prices for gold above $4,600 per ounce had not been seen for almost three months — since May 29, 2026.
As Reuters notes, gold is rising thanks to the weakening dollar and the U.S. Treasury Department’s decision to buy back bonds.

Turkey said it is ready to help Syria search for oil and gas resources, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Wednesday.
Turkey’s state-run oil company TPAO and private companies are ready to carry out seismic surveys and exploratory drilling both offshore and onshore in Syria, Bayraktar said at a joint press conference in Damascus with Syria’s energy minister, Mohammed al-Bashir.

Shares of Banca Generali rose by 1% on Wednesday after Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore reported that Monte dei Paschi (MPS) CEO Luigi Lovaglio is working on two potential stock-swap offers with Banco BPM and Banca Generali, considering them as an alternative to Intesa Sanpaolo’s takeover bid for MPS.

On Tuesday, European government bonds came under pressure: a sharp escalation of geopolitical risks in the Middle East and the steady rise in commodity prices forced participants in the debt markets to price in persistent inflationary pressure for the long term.

The head of the Central Bank of Brazil, Gabriel Galipolo, said on Monday that demand in the largest economy in Latin America is growing faster than supply across several components at once, underscoring the need to keep interest rates at a restrictive level.
Galipolo spoke at an event organized by Santander Brasil, where he highlighted indicators suggesting that the country’s economy is driven by strong demand. As evidence, he cited a current account deficit and inflation in goods and services that cannot be imported from abroad.

Canadian minister Dominique LeBlanc will meet with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik and U.S. Trade Representative Jamie Greer in Washington on Monday, LeBlanc’s press service said.
The meeting will take place at the Ministry of Commerce at 20:00 Moscow time. Canada’s chief trade negotiator, Janice Charette, will also take part in the talks.

The chief economist of the state corporation "VEB.RF" ("Vnesheconombank"), Andrey Klepach, was dismissed after quotes from his speech at the Nikitsky Club session widely circulated in the media, in which he said that Russia "will not win the competition" in a "war of attrition." This was reported on Sunday, August 16, by the Telegram outlet The Bell, citing two sources.

Canadian industrial and energy company Zimar Inc. will build an oil refinery and petrochemical complex worth $1.9 billion in Niger, Bloomberg reports citing Niger’s state radio and television.
The facility is planned to be built in Dosso, a city in the southwest of Niger. The expected production capacity of the complex will be 100,000 barrels per day.

German companies cut direct investments in the United States to a three-year low in the first half of 2026 amid rising uncertainty in transatlantic trade relations driven by the policies of the Trump administration, Reuters reports.
According to calculations by the German Economic Institute based on data from the Bundesbank, Germany’s direct investment in the United States fell by almost two-thirds compared with the same period last year—down to €4.3 billion ($5 billion).

Coffee has become one of the most profitable investments in the market over the past few months, outpacing even stocks tied to artificial intelligence, CNBC notes. Coffee is getting more expensive despite record production volumes: demand for it remains steady, and weather conditions are adding extra uncertainty for the market. Analysts have identified two stocks that could receive support from this trend.

During 2026, Russia sold significant portions of its gold reserves, seeking to raise funds to smooth out budget deficits. Recently, the Russian central bank announced that as of the beginning of July it held 73.4 million troy ounces of gold, or 2,282 tonnes. This means that, starting in January, Russia's gold reserves have fallen by about 43.5 tonnes.

The cost of freight for oil tankers operating from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean has reached a record level following a series of drone attacks, Bloomberg reports. This has led to lower prices for the main Kazakh export grade of oil, CPC Blend.
Daily profit for tankers on this route has risen to $440,948. This is the highest figure in the entire history of observations by the Baltic Exchange, which Bloomberg has been conducting since 2008. The rate is calculated for batches of 135,000 tons traveling from the Russian port of Novorossiysk to the Sicilian port of Augusta. Since the beginning of July, when the latest attacks on tankers took place, it has jumped by 140%.

The People’s Bank of China said today that it will continue pursuing a moderately accommodative monetary policy and, if necessary, will introduce new practical measures, according to a statement by the regulator.
The bank plans to strengthen coordination between monetary and fiscal policy to support economic growth and ensure stable functioning of financial markets, as noted in the central bank’s quarterly report on the implementation of monetary policy.

Shares of Russian aluminum producer Rusal (RUAL) on trading on the Moscow Exchange on Monday, August 10, rose by 5.32% and at the maximum reached ₽27.97. This is evidenced by data at 15:09 MSK.
The rise was supported by higher aluminum prices, as well as expectations of a recommendation from the board of directors of Rusal on dividends for the first half of 2026, writes analyst Yelena Kozhukhova of Veles Capital.

The copper market is rapidly tightening: a surge in shipments to the US and rising orders in China create the conditions for a rally that could push global prices to historical highs. This is reported by Bloomberg.
Futures in London this week have surpassed the $14,000 per ton mark — a ceiling that was only breached a handful of times this year. Many traders expect a quick breakout above the $14,500 record set in late January on the wave of speculative buying in China.