Mark Carney won the race to become Canada’s new Prime Minister
Former central banker Mark Carney won the race to become the leader of Canada’s ruling Liberal Party and will succeed Justin Trudeau as prime minister, official results showed on Sunday.
Carney will take over at a challenging time for Canada, which is facing a trade war with longtime ally the United States under President Donald Trump and must hold a general election soon.
The 59-year-old took 86% of votes cast to beat former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in a contest in which just under 152,000 party members voted.
Carney could legally serve as prime minister without a seat in the House of Commons but tradition dictates that he should seek to win one as soon as possible.
Trump refused to rule out a possible recession in the US
Donald Trump on Sunday refused to rule out the possibility that the US economy will head into recession this year and that inflation will rise, as his chaotic trade tariffs policy causes uncertainty and market turbulence.
The US president predicted that his economic goals would take time and a period of transition to bear fruit. But when asked in an interview with the Fox News show Sunday Morning Futures “Are you expecting a recession this year?” he avoided giving a direct answer.
“I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing. And there are always periods of… it takes a little time. It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us,” Trump said.
When asked whether he thought his tariffs on US imports would fuel inflation, he said: “You may get it. In the meantime, guess what? Interest rates are down.”
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China’s inflation declined below zero for the first time in a year
China’s consumer inflation dropped much more than expected to fall below zero for the first time in 13 months. While this reading was affected by seasonal factors, it also indicates ongoing deflationary pressures in the economy.
The consumer price index declined 0.7% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday, compared with a 0.5% gain in the previous month. This was lower than almost all forecasts from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, who had expected a 0.4% drop on average.
Even after accounting for the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday, which came earlier than usual this year, consumer inflation was still among the weakest in months, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Falling services prices and a rare negative reading for core inflation point to weak consumer spending.
China’s core CPI, which leaves out changing items like food and energy, decreased for the first time since 2021, dropping 0.1%. This is only the second time this measurement has shown a decrease in over 15 years. Meanwhile, factory prices have been falling for 29 straight months.
NBS said petrol imports jumped 105% to N15tn
Nigeria’s petrol imports surged in 2024, doubling despite an increase in domestic refining capacity, highlighting the country’s continued reliance on imported fuel.
The latest data from the foreign trade statistics report of the National Bureau of Statistics showed that the cost of petrol imports rose by 105.3 per cent to N15.42tn in 2024 from the N7.51tn recorded in 2023.
The start of operations at the 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Petroleum Refinery last year and ongoing efforts to revive other local refineries were supposed to reduce the need for imports.
However, current data shows these refineries haven’t yet reached the production levels needed to meet Nigeria’s domestic fuel needs.
Looking at the past five years, Nigeria’s spending on fuel imports has consistently increased. In 2020, the country spent N2.01tn on fuel imports, which more than doubled to N4.56tn in 2021.
By 2022, this amount grew further to N7.71tn before slightly dropping to N7.51tn in 2023. However, in 2024, fuel import spending jumped to a record high of N15.42tn, the largest petrol import bill in Nigeria’s history.
The US Embassy will reschedule interviews due to a system glitch
The United States Department of State has attributed recent challenges Nigerians face applying for US visas to a partial systems outage.
Press Officer, Office of Public and Congressional Affairs, Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State, Jennifer Johnson, made this known in response to an inquiry made by The PUNCH.
There were many reports of technical problems faced by Nigerian visa applicants who complained that the US Embassy didn’t interview people with scheduled appointments, which is a required part of the visa application process.
Responding to the situation, the State Department spokesperson, on Saturday, acknowledged the issues but assured that things were back to normal.
Johnson further assured that affected visa applicants will have their interviews rescheduled.
Johnson stated: “The U.S. Department of State experienced a partial systems outage which has since been restored. All consular operations have resumed as normal. “Visa applicants, whose interviews must be rescheduled due to the outage, will be notified.”
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