After 55 years, it was time to call it a day—the end of a beautiful friendship. The UAE’s decision to leave both OPEC and OPEC+ can be described as a seismic change, though not in the short term. The UAE is one of only two oil-producing nations, alongside Saudi Arabia, with a substantial supply cushion.
The main news of the morning is how the Bank of Japan left interest rates alone and stuck with the current rate of 0.75 percent. All rather uninteresting then. Well, no. More will be revealed during the press conference from Kazuo Ueda, the Governor of the BoJ, but the shuttering of any decision can undeniably be traced back to the influence of the Iranian war. Keeping a hawkish stance allows for the Central Bank to remain prepared for any exaggerated inflation bearing in mind Japan’s vulnerability in having to import nearly all of its fuel needs.
A quiet weekend, at least by recent standards, saw an alleged assassination attempt against US government officials, including the President himself, foiled, and yet another setback in the truce talks between the US and Iran. In another example of Donald Trump’s whimsical policymaking, he abruptly called off plans to send his team of negotiators to Islamabad, Pakistan, for the next round of talks with the Persian Gulf nation.
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