Latest news with #geopoliticalvolatility
Arab News
13-07-2025
- Business
- Arab News
EU and Indonesia announce ‘political agreement' on trade deal
BRUSSELS: EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Sunday announced a 'political agreement' to conclude a long-awaited free trade deal, as US leader Donald Trump upends global commerce. 'We're living in turbulent times and when economic uncertainty meets geopolitical volatility, partners like us must come closer together. So today we're taking a big step forward in this partnership,' von der Leyen told journalists in Brussels. 'I am very pleased to report that we have just reached a political agreement on an ambitious Free Trade Agreement.' The 27-nation European bloc and Southeast Asia's largest economy have been negotiating since 2016 to agree a deal that is expected to increase trade and investment. A European Commission statement called Sunday's agreement a 'decisive milestone' toward striking the deal — which is to be concluded in September by EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic and Indonesia's chief economic minister Airlangga Hartarto. 'There's a lot of untapped potential in our trade relationship. And therefore this agreement comes at the right time, because the new agreement will open new markets,' von der Leyen said. 'It will create more opportunities in key industries, in business activity and agriculture, in automotive and in services.' Brussels has stepped up efforts to improve ties with key potential partners around the world as Trump threatens a trade war with sweeping tariffs. 'This big and important political agreement on the free trade agreement with Indonesia is today a huge milestone forward, and shows that we're looking for new markets, open markets,' von der Leyen said. Prabowo called the announcement in Brussels a 'breakthrough.' 'After 10 years of negotiations, we have concluded the agreement to have a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which basically is a free trade agreement,' he said. The president said 'we consider Europe still a very important factor, and we would like to see a very strong Europe.' But he insisted that 'the United States will be always a very important leader in the world.' The European Union is Indonesia's fifth-largest trading partner with bilateral trade between them reaching $30.1 billion last year. Ties had been frayed by a proposed EU import ban on products linked to deforestation that has angered Indonesia because it is a major palm oil exporter. That legislation has been delayed to the end of this year.
RNZ News
04-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Rotorua tourism, hospo businesses concerned about exchange rate fluctuations
The Rotorua Museum - Most survey respondents were from tourism, accommodation, or hospitality and food service. Photo: LDR / Laura Smith The latest Rotorua business sentiment survey shows local companies are not immune to global instability. Geopolitical volatility was the highest-ranked concern for business leaders, with 43 percent very or extremely concerned about its effect on their business. This was the first time global concerns had outweighed local issues, such as finding skilled staff, the survey showed. RotoruaNZ chief executive Andrew Wilson said this showed many business leaders were very connected with their global markets. Most respondents were from tourism, accommodation, or hospitality and food service. While these might be less affected by tariffs then export-led industries, Wilson said geopolitical volatility led to fluctuations in exchange rates, which effected the value of a visitor dollar. "Obviously, when we've got a weaker New Zealand dollar, we look very favourable for international tourism." He said the key for businesses riding out this volatility was having diversity in the markets they targeted. "Within those international markets, have you got a good spread in terms of the types of countries you are focused on, so you're not ending up in a scenario where you've got all your eggs in one basket." This was similar to other industries, like agriculture , which was also encouraged to look for new markets. Wilson said he wasn't completely surprised to see the survey result. "We've got a local economy, which is quite export-focused, so from that perspective, whether it is tourism or forestry or wood processing, what's happening in that global environment is really important for local businesses." RotoruaNZ began the business sentiment survey three years ago to get a better view of what was happening in the city's economy. "A lot of banks do business confidence surveys, but we found a lot of the data was aggregated up at a regional or national level, so it was really about making sure we've got a view about what is going on in our local economy here in Rotorua," he said. Business sentiment was up 14 percent since the last survey in October 2024, but was still a net negative of minus-11 percent - higher than the national figure of minus-29 percent, but Wilson said the trend toward positivity was a good sign. "Certainly, that advance-metric of the positivity trend up is a really good signal in terms of what we will start to see over the next 12-24 months in terms of business activity." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
31-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Rotorua tourism, hospo businesses concered about exchange rate fluctuations
The Rotorua Museum - Most survey respondents were from tourism, accommodation, or hospitality and food service. Photo: LDR / Laura Smith The latest Rotorua business sentiment survey shows local companies are not immune to global instability. Geopolitical volatility was the highest-ranked concern for business leaders, with 43 percent very or extremely concerned about its effect on their business. This was the first time global concerns had outweighed local issues, such as finding skilled staff, the survey showed. RotoruaNZ chief executive Andrew Wilson said this showed many business leaders were very connected with their global markets. Most respondents were from tourism, accommodation, or hospitality and food service. While these might be less affected by tariffs then export-led industries, Wilson said geopolitical volatility led to fluctuations in exchange rates, which effected the value of a visitor dollar. "Obviously, when we've got a weaker New Zealand dollar, we look very favourable for international tourism." He said the key for businesses riding out this volatility was having diversity in the markets they targeted. "Within those international markets, have you got a good spread in terms of the types of countries you are focused on, so you're not ending up in a scenario where you've got all your eggs in one basket." This was similar to other industries, like agriculture , which was also encouraged to look for new markets. Wilson said he wasn't completely surprised to see the survey result. "We've got a local economy, which is quite export-focused, so from that perspective, whether it is tourism or forest or wood processing, what's happening in that global environment is really important for local businesses." RotoruaNZ began the business sentiment survey three years ago to get a better view of what was happening in the city's economy. "A lot of banks do business confidence surveys, but we found a lot of the data was aggregated up at a regional or national level, so it was really about making sure we've got a view about what is going on in our local economy here in Rotorua," he said. Business sentiment was up 14 percent since the last survey in October 2024, but was still a net negative of minus-11 percent - higher than the national figure of minus-29 percent, but Wilson said the trend toward positivity was a good sign. "Certainly, that advance-metric of the positivity trend up is a really good signal in terms of what we will start to see over the next 12-24 months in terms of business activity." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
