🔹India and Indonesia plan to use their local currencies in bilateral trade. India, 🇮🇳the most populated country and Indonesia 🇮🇩 the 4th most populated country in the world also plan to link up their fast payment systems. Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her Indonesian counterpart Sri Mulyani Indrawati had reviewed the proposals for the bilateral trade pact which had been completed. The plans are not public.

🔹Indonesia 🇮🇩 has so far linked its fast payments system with Singapore, and is in talks with several others, including Japan and France, for such fast cross border transactions. The Bank of Indonesia launched its domestic card payment system in May. Recently, India and Russia 🇷🇺 agreed to adopt the Russian financial messaging system (SPFS), for cross-border payments.

🔹An Indian 🇮🇳 official said that currency arrangement will be similar to the one with the UAE 🇦🇪, and could see Indian exporters settle their trade in Indonesian rupiah, while those exporting, say, palm oil can earn in Indian rupees. Indonesia is India’s largest trading partner in the ASEAN region.

🔹India in March approved the opening 60 special rupee vostro accounts in 18 countries for settling payments in Indian rupees. Presviously, Bangladesh's 🇧🇩 ministry of commerce have been looking at the possibility of using the Indian rupee instead of the US dollar with India. Both countries reached a deal that will see a small part of their bilateral trade transactions settled in their own currencies.

Video source - Mint

🔹Chinese investment is retreating from the West as hostility to Chinese capital has grown. Increasingly, Chinese 🇨🇳 companies are instead spending money on factories in Southeast Asia and mining and energy projects in Asia, the Middle East and South America.

🔹Change in share of Chinese overseas investment since 2016 (percentage points) in the USA is down🔻25% and in Europe down🔻10%. The opposite is true for East Asia which is up🔼almost 20% and similar for the Middle East and North Africa combined.

🔹Overseas investment by China 🇨🇳 fell to around $147 billion in 2022, a decline of 18% compared with a year earlier. It peaked at $196 billion in 2016. In 2016, Chinese companies and state-owned entities made 120 investments worth ($84 billion) in G-7 nations but only 13 last year worth $7.4 billion (18% of China’s total investments overseas).

🔹The yuan was used in 49% of China's cross-border transactions last quarter, topping the dollar for the first time. However, in June the yuan was used for 2.77% of total global trade through the SWIFT 🌐 system (excludes bilateral trade settlement systems). Yuan-denominated international payments last quarter grew 11% on the year.

🔹The IMF may have to accept the Chinese yuan as a currency for countries to settle their obligations with the IMF following Argentina’s 🇦🇷 recent debt repayment in yuan, since the yuan is part of the IMF's SDR basket of currencies.

Video source - Sean Foo

🔹An attempted coup is under way in the fragile state of Niger 🇳🇪, after members of the Presidential Guard detained President Mohamed Bazoum inside his palace in the capital Niamey. The palace and ministries next to it have been blocked off by military vehicles but there was calm elsewhere in Niamey. Rising costs of living and perceptions of gov't incompetence and corruption may have driven the guards’ move.

🔹Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane 🇳🇪 (video), said the country’s borders were closed and a nationwide curfew was in place. All institutions of the country were also suspended. The US 🇺🇸 has called for an immediate release of Bazoum. There was also a thwarted coup attempt in Niger in March 2021, when a military unit tried to seize the presidential palace days before Bazoum who had just been elected, was due to be sworn in.

🔹Niger is the world’s seventh-largest producer of uranium in 2022. French headquartered Orano controls a majority share of uranium in Niger. Over 50% (in 2019) of the uranium ore extracted from Niger is used for fuelling French nuclear ☢️ power plants as a third of all uranium for France’s reactors comes from Niger. Last month, the EU announced a €66 million package for Niger. France 🇫🇷 has stationed 1,500 troops in the country after being booted out from Mali and Burkina Faso.

🔹In the Sahel region, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mali, Niger and Chad have been facing terrorism from Islamic insurgents (Boko Haram, ISIS, Al-Qaeda) for years despite the presence of 'Western security forces'. Recent moves by Mali and Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 to invite Russia's 🇷🇺Wagner Group to help fight has shown success resulting in escaped insurgents fleeing east into Niger. Mali had accused France of arming Islamist fighters & carrying out acts of espionage against the Malian 🇲🇱 gov't.