Angola has announced it is leaving the oil producers’ organisation OPEC over a dispute on output quotas. It follows last month’s decision by the 13-member cartel and 10 allied nations to further slash oil production in 2024 to prop up volatile global prices. Angola currently produces about 1.1 million barrels per day, of the 30 million from the whole of OPEC. Oil prices fell on the news, with Brent prices down over $1 to $78.5 a barrel by 12:50 GMT, Reuters reports. Angola’s decision to withdraw from OPEC came at Thursday’s cabinet meeting. “We feel that at this moment Angola gains nothing by remaining in the organisation and, in defence of its interests, it decided to leave,” Mineral Resources and Petroleum Minister Diamantino Azevedo said afterwards. “If we remained in OPEC… Angola would be forced to cut production, and this goes against our policy of avoiding decline and respecting contracts.” The minister added that the decision was not taken lightly. Angola and Nigeria are the two biggest oil exporters in sub-Saharan Africa. Read more: BBC News
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has signed a deal which he said will make it easier for UK and Swiss financial firms to deal with one another. Trade in financial services between the UK and Switzerland is worth over £3bn. The new Berne Financial Services Agreement means that Switzerland and the UK will recognise and accept each other’s regulations. “We’re opening each other’s markets up to the other in a way that will boost competition and choice,” Mr Hunt said. The chancellor insisted that the agreement was only made possible by the UK being outside the EU. Read more: BBC News
Britain’s economy might be in a recession, according to data that showed it shrank between July and September, shortly after finance minister Jeremy Hunt took the rare step of suggesting the Bank of England might cut interest rates to boost growth. Gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.1% in the third quarter, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. It had previously estimated that the economy was unchanged from the previous three months and economists polled by Reuters had mostly expected another unchanged reading. Similarly, second-quarter GDP was now estimated to have been flat, a cut from a previous estimate of 0.2% growth. However, there were some more upbeat signs about the economy in separate data also published on Friday which showed retail sales in November jumped by much more than expected, increasing by 1.3% from October, boosted by discount sales. Read more: Reuters
US economic growth was slightly lower in the third quarter than previously reported, but still robust, underscoring the sheer strength of America’s economy during the summer. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic output, expanded at an annualized 4.9% rate from July through September, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. That’s a slower pace of growth than the 5.2% reported in the second estimate. Growth in the third quarter was the strongest in nearly two years as Americans spent on live concerts, films, and goods. The US economy has slowed from the red-hot pace set earlier in the year, but both hiring and spending remain solid. The department’s final estimate factored in weaker consumer spending, inventory investment and exports, while revising government outlays and business investment higher. Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of economic output, was revised down to 3.1% from 3.6%. Read more: CNN
|