State of emergency in New Caledonia: Violence hits archipelago’s struggling economy • FRANCE 24

State of emergency in New Caledonia: Violence hits archipelago’s struggling economy • FRANCE 24

[Music] time now for a check of what’s happening in the world of business yukar Roya joins me now hi there Yuka we’ve been talking a lot about the French territory of new calonia swept with violence in recent days uh the economy also looks like it’s it’s really struggling well shops and businesses have been looted and set a blade in the ongoing unrest even as the Pacific Ocean archipelago had already been facing severe economic challenges for years Brian Quinn has the details outside bakeries Andes in Numa long lines Wednesday morning as shortages of Staples like rice and bread hit the French overseas territory of new calonia after a night of riots and looting car dealerships and big box stores among the businesses targeted by riers the damages from 3 days of unrest estimated at some € 150 million EUR uh we have more than 100 businesses factories shops looted burnt destroyed 1,500 jobs will be lost it’s a new Dark Cloud over the new Caledonian economy after years of structural challenges the unemployment rate has risen to 11% Four Points higher than in Mainland France hardest hit are the indigenous kanak population 16% of whom are jobless more than one in five new caledonians live below the poverty level it’s a recipe for unrest and it’s territory where consumer prices are 31% higher than the mainland it’s clear from the paper we’re seeing at the roadblocks these rights come from social inequality a lack of opportunity downward Mobility the situation is exacerbated by a crisis in the nickel industry which is responsible for up to 25% of the territory’s jobs and 97% of its exports the world’s number three producer of the metal critical for battery production new calonia has been hit by a steep drop in commodity prices amid competition from neighboring Indonesia meanwhile energy costs for its processing have skyrocketed Paris has offered energy subsidies and Loans to Stave off a collapse the local government though has so far rejected the deal okay so now we’re moving on to the playmaker Boeing which could be criminally charged over two fatal crashes that involve its passenger Jets tell us more well the US justice department said Boeing had breached its obligations under a deal made in 20121 which shielded the planmaker from Criminal prosecution over two 737 Max crashes that killed a total of 346 people back in 2018 and 2019 in a court filing in Texas on Tuesday the doj said that Boeing had failed to quote design Implement and enforce a compliance and Ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the US fraud laws throughout its operations Boeing denies it has violated any terms of the agreement which it signed to avoid being prosecuted on a charge of conspiring to defraud the us civil aviation Authority as part of the deal it also agreed to pay $2 and a half billion dollar which included compensation payments to victim’s families and promised to overhaul its compliance practices however a series of major incidents including the inflight blowout of a door panel in January have exposed continuing safety and quality issues at the plan maker Boeing has until June the 13th to respond to the justice department Tom okay got some new uh economic data out today that suggests that inflation is cooling off in the US after a stickier than the expected first quarter us consumer prices price index Rose 0.3% in April after climbing 0.4% in two previous months on an annualized basis the rise was 3.4% the four CPI that excludes volatile food and energy stood at 3.6% year onye inflation has dropped considerably from a peak of 99.1% in June of 2022 but progress has sold in recent months and shares on Wall Street are rallying uh as the April data fued hopes that inflation is finally heading back in the in the right direction the S&P has broken above 5,300 points for the first time the NASDAQ is also trading above above its previous record while yields on US Treasury bonds ye eased on expectation that the new CPI data could persuade the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this year okay uh here in Europe it seems that prices are going to come down faster this year the European commission says uh it expects inflation to fall to 2 and a half% in 2024 down from a previous forecast of 2.7% the eu’s Eon economy commissioner says it’s on track to meeting the European Central bank’s Target of 2% in the second half of next year but warned about potential impact of geopolitical turmoil let’s take a listen of course downside risks and uncertainty remain they are very elevated and they are uh mostly connected to the wars in uh our borders and in the Middle East well the new inflation forecast comes as fresh data shows the EU economy grew. 3% in the first three months of this year after shrink shrinking 0.1% in the previous two quarters consecutively Germany and France both Grew 0.2% From the previous quarter Spain was the strongest performer among major Euro Zone economies

France has declared a state of emergency in its overseas territory of New Caledonia. Violence over a planned constitutional reform is threatening its already struggling economy. Plus, Boeing may face the criminal prosecution it had avoided back in 2021, with the US Justice Department accusing the planemaker of violating the terms of the deferred prosecution deal. 

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