AB InBev, the world’s leading brewer whose portfolio includes Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois, said revenue hit a record level in 2024 although beer volumes slid.
The Belgian-Brazilian firm posted a net profit of $1.77 billion for the year, up by six percent from 2023.
The company’s shares rose by more than six percent in morning trading in Brussels. Sales revenue increased by 2.7 per cent to $59.8 billion.
That came despite sales sliding 1.4 per cent by volume, with beer volumes down by 1.9 per cent. “While our overall volume performance this year was constrained by the soft consumer environments in China and Argentina, the global beer category remains vibrant with our volumes growing in the majority of our markets and by 0.9 per cent overall when excluding these two countries,” the company said in a statement. — AFP

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

ELON Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has sparked alarm by seeking access to a system with the US tax office that has detailed financial data about millions of Americans, US media reported.
Spearheaded by Musk, the world’s richest man, US President Donald Trump has embarked on a campaign to slash public spending deemed wasteful or contrary to his policies.
The Washington Post and others reported that the latest request is for DOGE officials to have broad access to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) systems, property and datasets.
This includes the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), access to which is usually extremely limited and which offers “instantaneous visual access to certain taxpayer accounts”, according to the IRS.
As of Sunday evening, the request had not been granted, the reports said. But it has sparked alarm within the government and among privacy experts who say granting Musk access to private taxpayer data could be extraordinarily dangerous, according to ABC News. — AFP

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

CHINA is accelerating the market-oriented re form of its renewable power pricing system in a bid to build a new power system and promote the sustainable development of renewable energy generation. 

The National Development and Reform Com mission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration (NEA) recently issued a joint notice on deepening the pricing re form for electricity generated from renewable energy.

 The reform focuses on three key aspects: allowing market forces to determine renewable power pricing, establishing a pricing and settlement mechanism that supports the long-term sustainability, and adopting differentiated policies for existing and new pro jects. 

“This new pricing policy will significantly accelerate the construction of a modern power system and ensure the sustainable development of renewable energy,” said Zhang Dayong, deputy secretary-general of the China Association for the Promotion of Indus trial Development. 

Industry experts believe this reform is essential as China enters a new stage of renewable energy development.

China highly values the new energy sector, such as wind and solar power, rolling out an array of favourable pol icies spanning pricing, finance and industry. The supportive measures, including a fixed pricing mechanism, have led to exponential growth in re newable energy capacity. 

At the end of 2024, the country’s total installed renewable power capacity reached 1.41 billion kilowatts, accounting for over 40 per cent of its total electricity capacity and surpassing coal-fired power installations. 

Despite this rapid expansion, the existing fixed-pricing mechanism for renewable power has struggled to reflect real market supply and demand dynamics. 

Conditions are now ripe to shift to market-based pricing, analysts said, citing falling power generation costs and an evolving market and predicting that the re form will enhance industry efficiency and ensure sustainable high-quality growth. — Xinhua

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

SAUDI Arabia’s pavilion at the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka will offer visitors a window into how the kingdom is evolving beyond oil dependency while preserving its cultural heritage, the country’s ambassador to Japan said. 

“What’s exciting for Saudi Arabia is to have a comprehensive transformation that involves not just the economy, but culture, life, and the environment,” Saudi Ambassador Ghazi Binzagr, who also serves as commissioner general of his country’s Osaka expo exhibitions, said in a recent interview. 

Designed by British architecture company Foster and Partners, the pavilion will highlight Saudi Arabia’s diverse landscape from green mountains to coral reefs, he added. 

“What the visitor will experience is a taste of what it’s like to have a country in the middle of a transformation,” the ambassador said. 

Saudi Arabia is one of around a dozen countries set ting up a so-called “Type A” self built pavilion, considered the highlight of the expo. 

The pavilion’s structure embodies the country’s trans formation, featuring sustainable elements like solar panels along with cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence and virtual reality experiences, according to Saudi officials. 

It draws on the architecture in the country’s traditional villages, designed to lead visitors through a forecourt planted with Saudi Arabian flora and narrow streets to the courtyard where performances and events will be held, according to Foster and Partners. 

The structure’s cladding is made from lightweight Saudi stone and can be deconstructed and reassembled, or reconfigured, for use in a future location. — Kyodo

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

A severe egg shortage is gripping California and the western United States as a deadly avian flu outbreak continues to decimate poultry flocks, driving egg prices to record highs and forcing food businesses to adapt their operations.

 The price for cage-free large white eggs reached US$8.65 per dozen in California when delivered wholesale, while organic brown eggs were sold at US$9.39 per dozen, said the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Daily National Shell Egg Index Report on Friday.

 The report shows that egg prices in California have more than doubled since 2024. 

Beth, a Bay Area resident who gave only her first name, shared her recent struggles with egg shopping. “I checked several grocery stores in my neighborhood, but eggs were either sold out or too expensive,” she told Xinhua on Friday. 

A trip to a Costco store proved fruitless, with empty shelves greeting her as well. Store staff advised her to return early in the morning to improve her chances. — Xinhua

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

The currency swap arrangement will enhance financial cooperation, promote trade, investment, and stabilize financial markets. THE People’s Bank of Chi na (PBOC), the country’s central bank, has renewed a bilateral currency swap agreement with the Bank Indonesia. 

The total value of the agreement is 400 billion yuan (about US$ 55.79 billion), or 878 trillion Indonesian rupiah, the PBOC said in a statement on its website.

The agreement is valid for five years and can be renewed upon mutual consent, according to the statement. The currency swap arrangement will strengthen financial cooperation between China and Indonesia, promote and facilitate bilateral trade and investment, and safeguard the stability of the financial markets, the statement added. — Xinhua

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

OTTAWA will file a World Trade Organization claim against US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and also seek redress under a regional free trade deal, a Canadian official said Sunday.
“The Canadian government clearly considers these tariffs to be a violation of trade commitments that the United States has taken,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told a briefing.
After weeks of threats, Trump on Saturday signed off on 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian imports except energy resources, which will be hit with a 10 per cent levy.
“We will obviously pursue the legal recourse that we believe we have through the agreements that we share with the United States,” the official said, citing the WTO and US-Mexico-Canada agreement (CUSMA) that Trump himself signed in 2018.
A review of the pact, which a Canadian official called a “gold standard agreement”, was due to be held next year.
Ottawa also unveiled on Sunday a list of 1,256 American goods it plans to target in a first round of counter tariffs worth Can$30 billion starting on Tuesday.
The list includes cosmetics, appliances, tires, tools, plastics, furniture, coffee, wines and spirits, dairy and fruits. Officials said the Canadian tariffs do not target specifically Republican states, but aim to put pressure on lawmakers with influence over Trump, who are more likely to be Republicans.
A second round of counter tariffs could be announced in the coming weeks, when total amount of the products targeted would rise to Can$155 billion (US$106 billion).
“Our hope is that the actions we have taken already will be sufficient to persuade the United States that it has gone down the wrong path and that they will reach out to work with us on how to get back to a more normal state,” an official said. — AFP

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

INDIA and the United States reaffirmed their commitment to fostering secure, reliable, and interoperable digital connectivity and ICT infrastructure during the US-India Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Working Group meeting.
The discussions held in New Delhi on Friday highlighted areas of collaboration, including advancements in 5G and 6G networks, artificial intelligence, cross-border data flows, and the promotion of Open Radio Access Networks (Open RAN). The US Department of State in a joint statement said, “The United States and India renewed our shared commitment to open, interoperable, reliable, and secure digital connectivity and ICT infrastructure to support the growth of the digital economy during a meeting of the US-India Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Working Group in New Delhi on 17 October 2024.”
“The 2024 ICT Working Group included discussions with private sector representatives from both countries on the promotion of secure and resilient 5G and 6G wireless networks, including through open and interoperable approaches like Open RAN and quantum communications; digital talent, collaboration on artificial intelligence (AI), expanding opportunities for Indian and US Information Technology, telecommunications, electronics manufacturing, and semiconductor companies in both countries; and support for trustworthy cross-border data flows, data protection, and data privacy measures,” it added. — ANI

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

AS of 2024, BMW Group had delivered over 400,000 new energy vehicles in the Chinese market, the German automaker said on Monday. In the same year, the company sold more than 714,000 BMW and MINI vehicles in China, with electric vehicle sales rising by 7.7 per cent year on year and accounting for 15 per cent of total sales. To capitalize on the vast opportunities in the Chinese market, BMW continues to introduce new models tailored for the country. Last week, the company announced that the new model BMW X3 has officially entered mass production at its manufacturing facility in Shenyang in northeast China’s Liaoning Province. The vehicle is scheduled for its official launch this February. — Xinhua

Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar

THE US economy faces risks from President-elect Donald Trump’s policy proposals on trade, immigration, tax and fiscal spending, as well as regulation, said a top expert of JP Morgan. 

The US economy probably would grow by around two per cent in 2025, lower than that in the previous two years, said Joyce Chang, chair of JP Morgan Global Research, on Sunday at a show organized by the US National Retail Federation (NRF). 

Speaking at NRF 2025: Re tail’s Big Show, Chang said the United States could lose about 100,000 payrolls each month if the country has lower immigration, and lower immigration flows also mean lower productivity and less consumer spending. 

The trajectory of US fiscal spending is unsustainable and US treasury yield is going to stay elevated, said Chang.

 “We have treasury (yield) trading in a completely different range of four per cent to five per cent,” Chang added. 

She noted the US treasury market could face a test like what happened in August 2023 when treasury yields ticked up and the US dollar gained.

 Moreover, Trump’s tariff proposals on Mexico, Canada and China would lift US inflation by one percentage point and reduce US economic growth by 0.7 percentage points, according to Chang. 

If the United States imposes a 10-per-cent universal tariff, it would add about US$1,250 of costs to an average US household, added Chang. 

A lot of people think the tariff proposals are used to gain negotiation leverage, “but it raises the level of uncertainty”, she said. 

Consumer discretionary bears the most substantial headwinds related to tariff and immigration policies with toys, consumer electronics and home furnishings at the top of a list demonstrated by Chang. 

With the tariffs now being talked about to be expanded to other parts of the world, “the whole issue of how do you diversify your supply chain is gonna be much more of a question mark going forward,” said Chang. — Xinhua