The UK Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors house price balance stood at -34% in April, down from the revised -25% in the previous month, according to residential market survey data released Thursday.
The latest reading missed the consensus estimate of -25% and was the weakest since November 2023.
For the next three months, house price expectations improved to -38% from -45%, suggesting a potential ease in downward pressure on prices.
The Indian government on Wednesday approved a 375 billion Indian rupee scheme to promote gasification projects in a bid to reduce the country's dependence on imported fuels such as liquefied natural gas (LNG), urea, ammonia, and methanol.The move comes amid India's gas imports being impacted by the Iran war and the geopolitical crisis in the Middle East. It aims to increase the conversion of coal into synthetic gas that can be used to produce power, fertilizer, petrochemical among other industrial applications.The total financial outlay of 375 billion rupees to incentivize new surface coal and lignite gasification projects for the production of syngas and its downstream products, targeting gasification of around 75 million tons of coal and lignite. This is expected to generate 63 billion rupees annually.The government expects the scheme to attract total investments of up to 3 trillion rupees.
Australia's household spending fell 1.2% in April, reversing a fuel-driven surge in March as lower spending on petrol and public transport weighed on transport and recreation spending, according to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (ASX:CBA) Household Spending Insights published Thursday."The oil shock resulting from the current Middle East conflict has not had the size of impact that was initially expected," CBA Head of Australian Economics Belinda Allen said.Six of the 12 spending categories fell in April, including rare declines in insurance and health, with health recording its first monthly drop since March last year.The transport category recorded the largest decline, driven by lower petrol prices following a fuel excise cut and the introduction of free public transport in Victoria and Tasmania."Petrol price movements continue to have a big impact on the month-to-month swing in household spending, and we expect households to do much of the heavy lifting over [the] coming months in slowing spending and cooling inflation," Allen added.Recreation spending fell by 2.6% in seasonally adjusted terms in April, making it the second-weakest category after transport, and it was the only category to record an annual decline in growth over the year.Annual spending growth slowed to 5.5% in April from an 8.5% surge in March, with utilities leading growth at around 18% after energy rebates ended.Tasmania recorded a 0.2% rise in spending in April, while South Australia and Victoria were unchanged, and Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory each declined by 0.2%.
India has banned the export of sugar with immediate effect on Wednesday till Sept. 30, in a bid to protect domestic supply and rise in sugar prices locally.According to an order issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday, the ban applies to raw, white, and refined sugar, as it moved the items from "restricted" to "prohibited" in the exports list.It said shipments will be allowed if loading had started before May 13 or if consignments had already been handed over to customs authorities before the order took effect."The export of sugar shall be allowed on the basis of permission granted by the Government of India to other countries to meet their food security needs and based on the request of their governments," the order said.However, the ban will not apply to sugar exports to the European Union and the US under existing tariff-rate quota and arrangements, the statement said.