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LONDON — Britain's economy has narrowly avoided recession, official data showed on Friday, but finance minister Jeremy Hunt warned it was "not out of the woods yet" over surging inflation.

Gross domestic product registered zero growth in the final quarter of last year, in line with expectations after shrinking 0.3 per cent in the previous three months, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Britain's flat growth in the fourth quarter contrasted with Europe's biggest economy Germany, whose GDP shrank 0.2 per cent in the same period on fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Overall, the UK economy expanded 4.1 per cent last year after growth of 7.4 per cent in 2021, the ONS added in a statement.

Sky-high consumer prices have sparked a cost-of-living crisis in Britain — and mass strikes.

Transport walkouts weighed on December's output, the data showed.

"We are not out the woods yet, particularly when it comes to inflation," Hunt said, but he noted that "our economy is more resilient than many feared".

'No celebrating in street' 

The technical definition of a recession is two straight quarters of negative growth.

"While we can't slap the badge of recession on the economy, it's clear the UK is struggling and everyone is feeling the effect of the malaise in the country's economy," said AJ Bell analyst Laura Suter.

"This economic no-man's land of no contraction or no growth won't have people celebrating in the street."

Bank of England (BoE) governor Andrew Bailey on Thursday expressed concern over persistently high inflation even if the rate of price increases shows signs of cooling.

His remarks to a cross-party committee of MPs raised expectations of more hikes to British interest rates, analysts said.

At its most recent regular monetary policy meeting last week, the BoE hiked its interest rate for a 10th time in a row as global authorities race to combat runaway inflation.

The bank lifted UK borrowing costs by a half-point to 4 per cent, the highest level since late 2008 during the global financial crisis.

That ramped up mortgage and other loan repayments, weighing heavily on economic activity and worsening the cost-of-living crisis.

Those who have spare cash to save, however, are gaining from rate rises.

Soaring inflation 

UK inflation slowed to 10.5 per cent in December — still around 40-year highs and more than five times the BoE's official target-level of two percent.

Central banks the world over are seeking to cool high energy and food prices, fuelled by Russia's invasion of Ukraine one year ago, by hiking interest rates.

Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, whose government is partially subsidising energy bills for businesses and households, has vowed to halve UK inflation this year — although much is down to central bank policy and market forces.

Sunak is seeking to turn around his government's currently dismal fortunes before a general election expected next year.

The Conservatives — in power since 2010 — are trailing the main opposition Labour party by wide margins, polls show.

Recession still looms — the BoE last week said the UK economy would shrink in every quarter of 2023. 

"We suspect the drags from high inflation and high interest rates will trigger a recession this year," Capital Economics analyst Paul Dales said Friday.

The International Monetary Fund delivered another blow to Sunak when it predicted the UK would be the only country in the group of seven rich nations with negative growth in 2023.

The UK in 2020 suffered the biggest contraction among the G-7 owing to Covid fallout. The nation is also the only G-7 member that has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic level of output.

British economic activity is 0.8 per cent below its 2019 level, the ONS confirmed on Friday.

KARACHI — Pakistan's government on Thursday remained locked in crunch talks with the IMF over the release of a crucial financial bailout on the last scheduled day of the global lender's visit. 

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation landed in Islamabad last week to thrash out tough conditions that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called "beyond imagination".

Pakistan's economy is in dire straits, stricken by a balance of payments crisis as it attempts to service high levels of external debt amid political chaos and deteriorating security.

"The IMF is clearly asking for much more than what the government is willing to do, even with a little bit of arm twisting," said economic analyst Abid Hasan, a former adviser to the World Bank, in the capital Islamabad. 

"Both sides are waiting for the other to blink."

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told reporters on Thursday that "a final round of talks is going on".

The IMF wants a boost to the pitifully low tax base, an end to tax exemptions for the export sector, and further hikes to artificially low petrol, electricity and gas prices meant to help low-income families.

It is also pushing for Pakistan to keep a sustainable amount of US dollars in the bank through guarantees of further support from friendly nations Saudi Arabia, China and the UAE, as well as the World Bank. 

"There is no deadlock", Pakistan Energy Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan told local media on Wednesday."Detailed and vigorous discussions have been held in the past 10 days."

"I have full hope that these talks will be concluded successfully."

Bowing to pressure 

Years of financial mismanagement and political instability have damaged Pakistan's economy — damage exacerbated by a global energy crisis and devastating floods that submerged a third of the country.

With the prospect of national bankruptcy looming, Islamabad in recent weeks began to bow to pressure, prompting the IMF's last-minute visit.

The government loosened controls on the rupee to rein in a rampant black market in US dollars — a step that caused the currency to plunge to a record low — and hiked petrol prices by 16 per cent.

A government official, who asked not be named, told AFP that the "IMF is not satisfied with the current prices of petroleum and energy".

Fears of a further price hike have seen hoarding in the country's largest province of Punjab, pushing the state minister Musadik Malik to report that the government had "no plans to increase the fuel price".

Meanwhile, struggling industries are battling for the government to unblock imports, with thousands of shipping containers held up at Karachi port.

The steel industry has warned the government that unless scrap metal imports are restarted, there will be a cascading effect on employment.

Pakistan had sketched out a $6.5 billion loan package with the IMF, which has so far paid out roughly half that amount.

MUMBAI — India's central bank slowed the pace of interest rate hikes on Wednesday but warned that core inflation in the world's fifth-biggest economy remained stubbornly high.

Central banks around the world yanked up borrowing costs last year to arrest soaring prices due to the Ukraine war, but many have now slowed the pace of rate hikes as inflation cools.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday raised the benchmark repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 6.5 per cent, the sixth and smallest increase since May when it stood at 4 per cent.

The move was in line with most analysts' expectations.

Most had also expected the RBI to change its policy stance from neutral to accommodative, meaning it would be the last hike in the current cycle, but bank governor Shaktikanta Das kept the door open for further tightening.

"Consumer price inflation in India moved below the upper-tolerance level during November and December 2022... core inflation, however, remains sticky," Das said in a webcast.

"Looking ahead, while inflation is expected to moderate in 2023-24, it is likely to rule above the 4 per cent target."

Das added that the outlook was clouded by "continuing uncertainties from geopolitical tensions, global financial market volatility, rising non-oil commodity prices and volatile crude oil prices".

The US Federal Reserve has reduced the size of its rate hikes in recent months, while the European Central Bank has remained hawkish.

Fed chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that further tightening would be needed if data showed a strengthening jobs market, adding that inflation "has a long way to go".

Elsewhere in Asia, Malaysia's central bank in January kept rates unchanged, while Indonesia and the Philippines signalled they were nearing the end of their rate-hike cycles.

In India, consumer inflation eased to 5.72 per cent in December from 5.88 per cent in November, just below the RBI's upper band of 6 per cent. Inflation had soared as high as 7.79 per cent in April.

The South Asian nation of 1.4 billion people was the fastest-growing major economy, expanding at a pace of 8.7 per cent in the 2021-22 financial year.

But the booming economy is expected to have slowed — albeit to a still robust 7 per cent — for the financial year ending March 31, according to a forecast released by the National Statistics Office in January.

The Indian government said last week during its annual budget announcement it would cut income taxes and boost infrastructure and welfare spending, but also pare down the fiscal deficit ahead of national elections next year. 

BENGALURU — The energy industry must play a role in the campaign to tackle global warming, the president of this year's UN climate talks said on Tuesday, denying any "conflict of interest".

Sultan Al Jaber, who heads oil giant ADNOC and is the United Arab Emirates' special envoy for climate change, also called for "policies that are pro-growth and pro-climate".

"The energy transition will require every segment of society working together in an inclusive effort, and that surely means including the efforts of the energy industry," he told the India Energy Week conference in Bengaluru.

"It's not a conflict of interest, it is in our common interest to have the energy industry working alongside everyone on the solutions that the world needs."

Climate activists have criticised the decision to hold COP28 in the UAE, a major oil producer, and the choice of Jaber as the meeting's president.

The Gulf monarchy, which will host COP28 in Dubai in November and December, argues that oil remains indispensable to the global economy.

Jaber added that the energy transition could bring "the greatest leap in economic prosperity since the first industrial revolution".

"The world still needs hydrocarbons and will need them to bridge from the current energy system to the new one," he said. 

"We cannot unplug the current energy system before we have built the new one. As such, we must minimise their carbon footprint (and) only invest in the least carbon-intensive barrels".

Jaber promised to use his experience and connections to "convene the entire energy industry to speed things up".

COP27, held in Egypt in November, concluded with the adoption of a hotly contested text on aid to low-income countries affected by climate change, but failed to set new ambitions for lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

"We must eliminate energy poverty, while keeping 1.5 alive," said Jaber, referring to the goal of restricting global warming to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels.

"And we need to move from talking about goals, to getting the job done."

MUMBAI — Shares in the flagship firm of troubled Indian conglomerate Adani rose almost 15 per cent on Tuesday, clawing back some of its recent huge losses after saying it would repay more than $1 billion in loans.

Investors wiped out around $120 billion in value from the group owned by tycoon Gautam Adani after claims of accounting fraud by short-seller US investment group Hindenburg Research on January 24.

The collapse raised concerns about the group's ability to raise fresh financing to pay down its debts. It cancelled a share sale, and reportedly also a bond issue, last week.

But India's biggest conglomerate said Monday it was repaying early loans worth $1.1 billion, in a move meant to reassure investors.

The Adani Ports subsidiary said Tuesday it would also repay debts of around 50 billion rupees ($605 million) and slash by half its capital expenditure in the next financial year.

Adani Enterprises, the group's flagship firm, soared as much as 25 per cent on Tuesday, with trading suspended three times on the way up.

The shares closed up 14.6 per cent — although they are still down by more than half since the start of the year.

Other group companies were mixed, with Adani Transmission rising 5 per cent but closing 0.77 per cent lower, and Adani Total Gas down 5 per cent and trade suspended again.

"The markets are happy that they prepaid a chunk of their borrowings. This is a refreshing sign of confidence," markets commentator Srinath Sridharan told AFP.

Fitch Ratings said Tuesday that Indian banks' exposure to the Adani group was "insufficient in itself to present substantial risk to the banks' standalone credit profile".

'Largest con' 

Hindenburg accused Adani of a "brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme" in "the largest con in corporate history".

Adani artificially boosted the share prices of its units by funnelling money into the stocks through offshore tax havens, Hindenburg said.

The conglomerate has rejected the claims as a "maliciously mischievous" reputational attack.

Last week tycoon Adani, 60, insisted the "fundamentals of our company are very strong, our balance sheet is healthy and assets robust".

His personal wealth has more than halved, seeing him fall from number three in the Forbes real-time list of the richest people in the world to 17th as of Tuesday.

India's political opposition says Adani's closeness with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with both men from Gujarat state, has allowed him to win contracts unfairly and avoid proper oversight.

Parliament has been adjourned several times in recent days with opposition parties calling for a probe into Modi and Adani's links.

Rahul Gandhi from the Congress party, which staged protests Monday, told parliament on Tuesday that the two men already had close ties when Modi was Gujarat's chief minister. 

"The result of that was tremendous growth and expansion of his businesses in Gujarat," Gandhi said.

"Then the real magic began in 2014 when Modi comes to Delhi [as prime minister] and Adani — who was number 609 on the global rich list — reached number two within a few years."

LONDON — French automaker Renault and Japanese partner Nissan said on Monday they were opening a "new chapter" in their tension-marred alliance as they signed a deal to reboot their 24-year relationship.

The "rebalanced" partnership approved by their boards will end Renault's dominant position, reducing its stake in the Japanese firm from 43.4 per cent to 15 per cent, the same size as Nissan's share in its French counterpart.

The agreement includes Nissan taking a stake of up to 15 per cent in Renault's new electric vehicle venture Ampere, the companies said in a joint statement.

They also announced joint projects in Latin America, India and Europe for the production of vehicles ranging from pick-up trucks to SUVs and electric cargo vans.

The alliance began in 1999, when Renault rescued Nissan from bankruptcy. They were joined by Mitsubishi Motors in 2016, when Nissan took a 34 per cent stake in its struggling Japanese rival.

Tensions erupted in 2015 when the French state increased its stake in Renault. It was later reduced and an agreement was reached to cap the government's ability to interfere in the alliance's affairs.

The union was shaken again by the 2018 arrest of Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, who claimed the charges against him were intended to prevent him from bringing the Japanese and French automakers closer together.

The Renault board approved the overhaul on Sunday while Nissan signed off on it on Monday, a week after the agreement was announced, following months of painstaking negotiations.

Analysts have described the rebalancing of the deal as a way to build confidence between the two carmakers, especially after the fallout from the Ghosn scandal.

"We must build a strong culture of transparency and respect," Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida said at a press conference held on neutral ground in London.

The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance — which today counts 375,000 employees worldwide — was the world's top carmaker by sales in 2018 but has since fallen behind Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai-Kia.

"The basis of this deal is that we are reactivating business operations like at the beginning of this alliance," Renault CEO Luca de Meo said in English.

"We will be consistent, result focused, generous and fair, as we have been on our side" of the negotiations, he said.

'New agile partnership' 

Monday's statement said the overhaul would "open a new chapter" for the alliance.

"This far-reaching programme paves the way for a renewal and strengthening of the 24-year partnership, creating a new agile spirit and harnessing the pioneering technologies of all three Alliance members," the statement said.

Renault will not immediately sell the remaining 28.4 per cent stake in Nissan, instead transferring the shares into a French trust because their current market value is lower than that registered in Renault's accounts.

They will be sold when it is "commercially reasonable" for Renault, with Nissan having a right of first offer.

In November, Renault announced it would split its operations in two — Ampere, and a separate subsidiary for petrol, diesel and hybrid cars that will pair up with China's Geely.

But concerns at Nissan about future technology transfers to the Chinese carmaker, as well as details over the sharing of electric vehicle intellectual property, complicated the negotiations.

Under the deal, Nissan will invest up to 15 per cent in Ampere, "with the aim to become a strategic investor".

Mitsubishi will also "consider investing" in Ampere, the statement said.

Global projects 

The agreement includes industrial projects that De Meo said could bring the companies billions of euros (dollars) each year.

In India, where Nissan has a factory, the Japanese and French companies will collaborate on several new projects including SUVs.

A new half-tonne pick-up developed by Renault and shared with Nissan will be launched in Argentina.

In Mexico, Nissan will produce a new model for Renault.

Renault will share its electric cargo van project in Europe, called FlexEVan, with Nissan. 

DOHA — Qatar's main international airport aims to pass a record 40 million passengers this year as the Gulf state seeks to build on staging the World Cup to bolster its reputation, its tourism chief said Sunday.

Hamad International Airport recorded 39.5 million passengers in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic struck, and last week announced that with the World Cup in November and December, numbers had recovered to 35.7 million in 2022.

Tourism minister and Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker said capacity restrictions at the airport held back numbers last year.

"If we did not have shortage of capacity we would have exceeded the 2019 figures," Baker told reporters on the sidelines of announcing a jewellery and watch show, the latest in a series of events aiming to draw international visitors.

"I am not satisfied with 39.5 million passengers," he added.

"We are hoping that this year we will break a record in the numbers of passengers that will pass through Hamad.

"Keep in mind that there is no more FIFA [World Cup] so crossing that record number will really be a big achievement and a lot of pressure on Qatar Tourism to bring people," he said.

The wealthy Gulf state is spending billions of dollars expanding capacity at Hamad airport to 70 million people a year and increasing Qatar Airways routes as it seeks to become a dominant player in international travel.

Arch-rival Dubai airport in the United Arab Emirates announced in November that it expected 64.3 million passengers in 2022.

BEIRUT — The French diplomat charged with coordinating international support for Lebanon, so it can receive International Monetary Fund (IMF) aid, on Friday criticised the slow pace of reforms in the crisis-hit country.

The IMF last April announced an agreement in principle with Beirut for $3 billion in aid spread over four years, but conditional on implementing crucial reforms.

"It's really slow," Pierre Duquesne told journalists in the Lebanese capital, at the same time highlighting "a few minor adjustments that go in the right direction".

Among the reforms demanded by the IMF is parliament's approval of the 2022 budget, which Duquesne said came "late".

Lebanon has been effectively leaderless for months, without a president and ruled by a caretaker Cabinet.

The IMF is also demanding reform of banking secrecy laws and a restructuring of the banking sector as a whole, as well as a law on capital controls.

"There is no other solution than the IMF to provide capital, credibility and confidence... and to reduce inequality," Duquesne said.

Paris will host an international meeting on Monday on how to end months of political deadlock in Lebanon, with representatives from France, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt.

Duquesne is in Beirut to provide French support for the recovery of Lebanon's energy sector, a mission that has already taken him to Egypt and Jordan.

"The two countries have expressed extreme goodwill and said they are technically ready to supply gas and electricity to Lebanon," which is almost completely without power, the diplomat said.

However, energy supplies would have to pass through Syria, which is subject to stringent US sanctions.

Duquesne said he would visit Washington over the next 10 days to discuss "exemptions" for Egyptian gas and Jordanian electricity supplied to Lebanon via Syria.

There, he will also meet officials from the World Bank, which is expected to finance energy deliveries.

Lebanon's political impasse has hampered efforts to resolve its worst-ever financial crisis.

The Lebanese pound has lost more than 95 per cent of its market value to the dollar since 2019, and more than 80 per cent of the population lives in poverty, according to the United Nations.

Last September, the IMF also criticised the Lebanese authorities, saying progress in implementing reforms remained "very slow".