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KABUL — Afghanistan's currency dived to a record low against the US dollar on Monday, taking its losses over the last week to 30 per cent as an economic collapse and humanitarian crisis grip the country.

There has been an enormous shortage of dollars since the Taliban seized power in August as international donors suspended billions in aid provided annually to the previous US-backed regime.

Afghanistan's Money Exchange Commission said it has urged the central bank to intervene in the market to shore up the afghani, which sagged to 130 against the dollar in Monday trade, down from around 100 a week ago.

"We asked them to interfere in the market and distribute dollars," said Haji Zeerak, a spokesman for the commission.

Since the Taliban takeover, the central bank has been cut off from nearly $10 billion in reserves it held overseas, mainly in the United States.

The afghani's depreciation began gathering pace early last week, propelled by market fears that a major bank might collapse.

Banks have placed severe restrictions on customer withdrawals, rocking confidence in the financial system.

The country's cash crunch has fed into an economic collapse that has left it facing a deepening humanitarian crisis.

Many people in the capital Kabul have resorted to selling personal items to feed themselves.

"I have sold my gold jewellery to have some dollars for the expenses of our house," said housewife Khalida, lamenting a surge in prices for cooking oil and flour.

More than half of Afghanistan's 38 million people face "acute" food shortages, according to the United Nations, with the winter forcing millions to choose between migration and starvation.

By Sophie Makris
Agence France-Presse 

WOLFSBURG, Germany — After her apprenticeship at Volkswagen (VW), Michelle Gabriel was a master at welding, cutting, bending and stretching metal, but just a few years later it is not chassis but software frameworks she is piecing together after a speedy change of career.

The 24-year-old's professional journey reflects the transformation the auto sector is undergoing, moving away from its traditional focus on building combustion engines to developing software.

Germany's new government led by Olaf Scholz, which took office on Wednesday, wants to speed up this pivot with the aim of having 15 million electric vehicles on its roads by 2030 from just over 500,000 today.

But the upheaval being caused by the electric revolution is putting in doubt the livelihoods of thousands of employees in jobs where their skills may no longer be needed.

Managers are now confronted with the challenge of preparing their workforce to build the car of tomorrow.

Despite thinking the welding work during her apprenticeship was "super", Michelle Gabriel could not imagine entering a profession that "could disappear in five years", she said.

But "construction mechanic was a job already in the process of disappearing when I finished my training," said Gabriel, who like all apprentices began work on the factory line.

When the auto giant presented her with the opportunity to join its "Faculty 73" programme, intended to train software developers, Gabriel signed up.

Open to VW employees as well as outside applicants — who must sit a series of tests but do not need a degree — the new kind of apprenticeship is the storied carmaker's response to the need for new skills.

Electric cars require fewer employees to assemble units on the factory line and more IT technicians and electrochemists to develop the batteries that power them.

With around 100 students a year, the Faculty 73 programme launched in 2019 at VW's flagship plant in Wolfsburg in the north of Germany. Yet the initiative still will not cover the manufacturer's needs for new skilled workers. 

Digital drive 

That has prompted VW, like many other German carmakers and their suppliers, to launch an unprecedented internal drive to update existing roles.

Depending on the employee, the digital course could last between a few weeks and a year, time enough to acquire the knowledge needed. 

"There are masses of people that we have to get qualified and we will not achieve it using just traditional methods," said Ralph Linde, director of the Volkswagen Group Academy.

Instead of teaching in classrooms, VW is using online resources that can be rolled out on the scale necessary, without which VW "would not be able to manage this big task", Linde said.

The group plans to offer employees a personalised online platform to identify potential career development opportunities.

One issue, Linde conceded, is that "rapid technological developments" mean it is sometimes difficult to anticipate what skills the group's workers will need even in the next year or two.

Electric vehicles and the increasing role of software in the auto industry represent a "fundamental paradigm change" for workers, even if it "does not mean fewer jobs overall but different ones", said Johannes Katzan, a representative for the IG Metall union in the states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.

In all, including its vast web of suppliers, the car industry in Germany employs 830,000 individuals directly and 1.3 million indirectly.

Experts' estimates for how many of these jobs may be threatened by the digital switchover vary from 180,000 to as many as 288,000. 

Yet a report by the Fraunhofer Institute, commissioned by VW last year, found that massive layoffs could be avoided — on condition that it accelerated its training programmes.

NICOSIA — US giant ExxonMobil and Qatar Energy signed a contract on Friday for oil and gas exploration and production-sharing off the divided island of Cyprus.

Cypriot Energy Minister Natasa Pilides, Varnavas Theodosiou, CEO of ExxonMobil Cyprus, and Ali Al Mana, director of Qatar Energy's International Upstream and Exploration, signed the contract in Nicosia.

It is the second gas exploration contract that the consortium has signed for Block 5 in the island's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

In February 2019, the consortium discovered a huge natural gas reserve off Cyprus in Block 10, the island's largest find to date, holding an estimated 5 to 8 trillion cubic feet.

The consortium plans to drill an appraisal well on Block 10 in late December, with results expected by the end of February.

Oil and gas drilling off Cyprus has been interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Despite the increasingly difficult working environment for the global oil and gas industry, today we are taking a decisive step towards enhancing our mutually beneficial partnership," Pilides said at Friday's signing ceremony.

The deal was clinched although Turkey was against it.

Asked about Turkey's negative reaction to the licencing of Block 5, Pilides said: "We proceed based on international law and the Law of the Sea; this has always been our principle."

Fieldwork on Block 5 will begin in the second half of 2022, she said.

Turkey has threatened to prevent ExxonMobil's search for oil and gas off Cyprus after Nicosia awarded it the rights to Block 5.

Last week, the Turkish foreign ministry said a sector of the licenced area violates Turkey's continental shelf in the eastern Mediterranean.

"Turkey will never allow any foreign country, company or ship to engage in hydrocarbon exploration activities in its maritime jurisdictions," the ministry said.

Ankara would "defend" its rights and those of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), it said.

The breakaway TRNC, recognised only by Ankara, lays claim to energy resources discovered off its coast, insisting the island's natural resources belong to both communities.

The eastern Mediterranean has become an energy hot spot, with significant natural gas finds for Cyprus, Israel and Egypt.

Ankara was accused of "gunboat diplomacy" in February 2018 when the Turkish navy prevented a ship leased by Italy's ENI from reaching its drilling target in Cyprus's Block 3.

The European Commission has urged Turkey to de-escalate and vowed to defend the interests of member states Greece and Cyprus.

Turkey was widely condemned for sending its own drillships into Cypriot waters for energy exploration, with the EU slapping sanctions on Ankara.

In the first half of 2022, ENI and France's Total are expected to drill in their licenced blocks.

Cyprus has been divided since Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third in 1974 in response to a Greek-engineered coup aiming to annex the island.

Nicosia has pushed ahead with offshore energy exploration despite the collapse in 2017 of UN-brokered talks to end the country's decades-long division.

FRANKFURT — TUI, one of the largest tourism operators, said on Wednesday it expects to see a return to pre-pandemic booking levels in the summer of 2022, after running up a heavy loss in its last financial year.

TUI, which runs its business year from October to September, said it booked net loss of 2.48 billion euros ($2.8 billion) for the year just ended, following a record loss of 3.1 billion euros the year before, as the coronavirus pandemic virtually shut down the tourism industry.

Nevertheless, Chief Executive Friedrich Joussen said the group's operating business was "back" and he expected "booking levels similar to pre-corona 2019" in the peak travel season of the European summer next year.

In the period from July to September, traditionally the strongest period for the industry, the Hanover-based group said its revenues nearly tripled to 3.5 billion euros. 

At an operating, or underlying level, it booked a loss of 97 million euros for the three-month period compared with a loss of 570 million euros previously.

Hotels, crusies and chartered flights — the core of TUI's business — have been severely impacted by the crisis.

In 2020, the German group responded by announcing plans to cut costs by 400 million euros each year by 2023.

The first quarter of its current business year, the three months to December was "almost fully booked", said Joussen and the group was now operating at "69 per cent of the pre-crisis level capacities". 

The spread of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus is among the factors that could affect the group's plans for the year ahead, as governments reintroduce measures to rein in infections.

In October, TUI raised 1.1 billion euros in capital to refinance and begin repaying massive government loans it received towards the beginning of the pandemic.

RIYADH — Saudi Aramco said it has signed a $15.5 billion lease and leaseback agreement for its gas pipeline network with a consortium led by BlackRock Real Assets and Hassana Investment Company in its second major infrastructure deal this year.

The deal signed on Monday underscores how Aramco is seeking to monetise its once-untouchable assets to generate revenue for the Saudi government as it accelerates efforts to diversify the oil-reliant economy.

In June, Aramco sold a 49 per cent stake in its oil pipeline business to a consortium led by US-based EIG Global Energy Partners for $12.4 billion.

Under the new deal, a newly formed subsidiary, Aramco Gas Pipelines Company, will lease usage rights in Aramco's gas pipeline network and lease them back to Aramco for a 20-year period, the Saudi oil firm said in a statement.

In return, Aramco Gas Pipelines Company will receive a tariff payable by Aramco for the gas products that flow through the network, backed by minimum commitments on throughput.

Aramco will hold a 51 per cent stake in Aramco Gas Pipeline Company and sell a 49 per cent stake to investors led by BlackRock and Hassana, a Saudi state-backed investment management firm. 

"With gas expected to play a key role in the global transition to a more sustainable energy future, our partners will benefit from a deal tied to a world-class gas infrastructure asset," Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser said in a statement.

"BlackRock is pleased to work with Saudi Aramco and Hassana on this landmark transaction for Saudi Arabia's infrastructure," BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink said.

"Aramco and Saudi Arabia are taking meaningful, forward-looking steps to transition the Saudi economy toward renewables, clean hydrogen and a net zero future."

Aramco, the world's biggest oil producer, has pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions in its operations by 2050. 

Saudi Arabia has also pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2060.

"Saudi Arabia is restructuring Aramco by exiting sectors and focusing on and investing in others, such as hydrogen production," Cairo-based independent analyst Mahmoud Negm said.

"The shift is happening in a non-abrupt manner, with Aramco maintaining 51 per cent stake and clear agreements that no restrictions can be placed on it." 

According to Ibrahim Al Ghitani, from the Abu Dhabi-based Future for Advanced Research and Studies, the kingdom is restructuring to generate liquidity and attract foreign investments. 

"Saudi Arabia is not completely abandoning these assets... but continues to maintain the status quo of control," Ghitani said.

"It is trying to change the local economy's image... with messages and signs that it continues to open the economy for the private sector and foreign investors." 

Long seen as the kingdom's "crown jewel", Aramco and its assets were once under tight government control and considered off-limits to outside investment.

But as Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, is pushing to implement his "Vision 2030" reform programme, the kingdom has shown readiness to cede some control.

Aramco sold a sliver of its shares on the Saudi bourse in December 2019, generating $29.4 billion in the world's biggest initial public offering.

KUNMING, China — Boxes of roses, lilies and carnations pile up as influencer Caicai speaks into her smartphone from a small studio at Asia's "biggest" flower market — with thousands of customers eagerly awaiting her view on the best deals.

E-commerce is big business in China and influencers and livestreamers have made their fortunes showcasing products for luxury brands and cosmetics firms.

Now the country’s horticulture industry, worth an estimated 160 billion yuan ($25.1 billion), is getting in on the action. While people used to visit markets and florists themselves, they are now increasingly shopping for blooms via their smartphones. 

Online retail now represents more than half the sector's turnover.

"Five bouquets, only 39.8 yuan [$6.25] for those that order right away," the 23-year-old says — a sales pitch she hones for eight hours a day delivered at lightning speed.

"When you sell something for a long time, the words come naturally," she said.

Earnings can be unreliable, however.

"Flower sales vary in busy and slack seasons, so a livestreamers' daily income is very variable. All I can say is that the more you work, the luckier you will be," she explains, as colleagues next to her put the bouquets in cardboard boxes ready to be shipped.

Demand for cut flowers has soared in China as standards of living have risen, with the southern province of Yunnan at the epicenter of that boom thanks to its all-year mild climate.

Provincial capital Kunming boasts the biggest flower market in Asia — the second biggest in the world after Aalsmeer in The Netherlands. 

'Flowers are vital' 

Everyday at 3:00pm, a rose auction starts in a huge room where over 600 buyers share the day's supply behind their screens.

"Yunnan represents around 80 per cent of flower production in China and 70-80 per cent of the flowers on sale pass through our auction room," says Zhang Tao, responsible for the market's logistics — a crucial role when the goods are so perishable.

"That represents on average more than four million flowers sold every day. For Chinese Valentine's day, we sold 9.3 million in a day."

They are shipped across China within 48 hours.

On the retail side of the market, another influencer, Bi Xixi, showcases flowers and bouquets from stalls to sell on to her own online subscribers. 

Wearing a traditional Chinese dress known as a hanfu, passing from one stand to another with her phone at the end of a cane, the 32-year-old has racked up around 60,000 subscribers.

She picks up flowers, shows them on her screen while followers hurry to place their orders.

Bi Xixi started livestreaming early last year, when China was paralysed by the COVID pandemic. That's when she realised people were eager to see online the flowers they could no longer buy outside.

Now, on a good day, she says she manages to sell 150,000 yuan ($23,500) worth of flowers in three hours of livestreaming.

She takes around ten per cent commission and is optimistic about the future of the trade.

"People appreciate rituals more and more. Flowers give them a feeling of being happy and young people are beginning to like buying flowers," she says. 

The market is still very far from saturation, says Qian Chongjun, head of the Dounan Flower Corporation, one of the largest entities on the market.

"Buying flowers every week has become a habit in many families," says Qian. "I think that one day they will become a vital need, like air and water."

NEW YORK — The Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing's announcement that it will delist its shares from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) marks the end of a cushy relationship between Wall Street and Chinese tech giants, who are under siege from authorities in Beijing and regulators in America.

Only five months transpired between Didi's going public in New York in June and word Friday that it will prepare a Hong Kong listing. During that time, its market value has fallen by 63 per cent.

Didi's move comes in the wake of a sweeping Chinese regulatory crackdown in the past year that has clipped the wings of major Internet firms wielding huge influence on consumers' lives — including Alibaba and Tencent.

After Friday's announcement, heavyweight Chinese online retailers whose stocks are sold on the New York exchange, such as Alibaba, JD.com and Pinduoduo, dropped sharply.

Shares in Alibaba — whose arrival on Wall Street in 2014 to a loud fanfare kicked off the parade of Chinese firms listing in the Big Apple — fell to their lowest level in nearly five years as rumours circulated that, after Didi leaves, Alibaba might be next.

Technically, even as Didi Chuxing moves its listing to Hong Kong, holders of its shares in New York retain those stakes. Their investment does not simply vanish.

But "people are very fearful about regulations and the Chinese government", said Kevin Carter, portfolio manager at EMQQ. "And that has really, really affected sentiment. People are scared."

Coincidentally, on Thursday US market regulators announced the adoption of a rule allowing them to delist foreign companies if they fail to provide information to auditors.

The move is aimed primarily at Chinese firms, and requires them to disclose whether they are "owned or controlled" by a government.

"While more than 50 jurisdictions have worked... to allow the required inspections, two historically have not: China and Hong Kong," Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said.

'Sensitive data'

The Global Times, a newspaper close to the Chinese Communist Party, criticised the new US regulation in an opinion piece on Friday.

"If the US sets unequal conditions on national security for competition between the two countries by demanding Chinese listed companies hand over audits for inspection so as to spy on China's internal situation and store huge amounts of sensitive data acquired by Chinese companies, China won't accept that," the unsigned piece said.

Many of these New York-listed shares are held not by private citizens but rather by institutional investors.

"Some funds can only have shares that are traded on US markets," said Gregori Volokhine, president of Meeschaert Financial Services. "This is what is putting pressure on shares."

For many market watchers, Didi, described as China's answer to Uber, will not be the last Chinese tech giant to delist from New York.

"It is not specific to Didi because for months we have seen the communist party's grip on companies tighten," said Volokhine.

Shortly after Didi went public in New York, the reservation platform Full Truck Alliance and the job-search site Kanzhun were investigated by China's cybersecurity watchdog.

The Chinese government has also tightened regulations on companies that offer families private tutoring. This has hurt companies listed in New York.

According to figures in May from a US government agency, a total of 248 Chinese companies are listed in the United States, with a combined market capitalization of 2.1 trillion dollars.

"After an active start to the year, Chinese companies have largely stopped tapping the US IPO market since June, due to regulatory and policy roadblocks in both countries," said Matthew Kennedy, a strategist with Renaissance Capital.

This week Spark Education, a big Chinese online small-class teaching firm, withdrew its planned initial public offering (IPO) in the US.

"The way things are, one can say there will be no more new Chinese IPOs and the ones in the pipeline will be withdrawn one by one," Volokhine said. Renaissance Capital says there are 35 companies in that pipeline.

In leaving the US market, Chinese companies are giving up an investor base like no other in the world — with $52.5 trillion in assets under management, compared to $7.1 trillion in China, according to a study last year by McKinsey and Company, a management consulting firm.

Carter said this political pressure on Chinese companies creates an odd situation in which the stars of the Chinese tech world are plummeting on the stock market, but not because of their earnings reports.

"And these companies are still making profits. And then those profits are still growing," he said.

"The revenue growth for the year is over 30 per cent. Not for every company, but a bit collectively. No matter where the stock is, no matter where the stocks trade, that's still the case," he said.

NEW YORK — Global stocks finished a volatile week on a downcast note on Friday, sunk by festering worries over the Omicron variant and disappointment at the most recent US job growth figures.

The latest COVID-19 variant has been detected in 38 countries but no deaths have yet been reported, the WHO said, as authorities worldwide rushed to stem the spread of the heavily mutated COVID-19 strain.

"Investors are clearly still anxious about the Omicron variant, despite anecdotal evidence suggesting symptoms are less severe" than first thought, said Craig Erlam, analyst at Oanda trading group.

"Heading into the weekend, when we could get more information on the new strain, it's natural that we're seeing more caution."

IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva warned the latest virus strain could slow the global recovery, noting that "a new variant that may spread very rapidly can dent confidence".

Bourses in Paris, Frankfurt and London all declined. 

Wall Street stocks also had a difficult day, with the tech-rich Nasdaq leading major indices lower.

All three US indices finished with weekly losses in a period that also saw the Federal Reserve signal a plan to accelerate the withdrawal of its monetary stimulus and potentially hike rates sooner.

Wall Street investors shunned highly valued tech shares after DocuSign offered a disappointing outlook and signalled that demand for its e-signature business was ebbing after a strong run during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shares of the company plunged more than 40 per cent, while other tech names like Adobe and several chipmakers were also hammered.

"The growth stocks are driving the declines," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare, who also cited lingering unease over the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and disappointment that Thursday's rally in equities was not extended.

Friday's much-anticipated jobs report showed the US economy added just 210,000 jobs last month, less than half the increase forecasters expected.

But analysts characterised the report as better than the headline figure, noting the unemployment rate dropped to 4.2 per cent, a decline of four-tenths of a point from the prior month. 

The labour force participation rate also rose to its highest level since the pandemic.

"Looking past the disappointing headline print, the details of the November jobs report painted a more optimistic jobs picture," Oxford Economics said in a note.