Germany’s Federal Statistical Office, Destatis, reported on Tuesday that beer sales across the country continued to decline in 2021, falling 2.2% year-on-year due to coronavirus-related restrictions. Statistics showed that sales had already been down 5.5% in 2020 from the previous year.
According to Destatis, German-based breweries and distributors sold about 8.5 billion liters (2.2 billion gallons) of beer in 2021.
Beer sales have been declining in the country for years as a result of health concerns and other factors, but lockdowns have added to a downward trend. Сlosed restaurants and canceled major events and festivals where large amounts of beer are usually consumed impacted sales, the agency said.
There were particularly steep year-on-year drops of 27% and 19.1% respectively in January and February, when full lockdown measures were in place across the country.
Domestic sales are most important for Germany’s breweries, as they make up around 83% of the total. The statistics office said that beer sales inside the country were 3.4% lower than in 2020 and 8.6% lower than in 2019.
Beer exports to other countries in the European Union plunged 4%, while exports to countries outside the trade bloc were up 12.7%.
The Covid-19 pandemic fueled the US budget deficit and government borrowing
US national debt exceeded $30 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, spurred on by high borrowing during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from the US Treasury Department.
Japan and China remain the top foreign creditors, holding $1.3 trillion and $1.08 trillion in US Treasuries respectively, and are owed interest on all the money that has been borrowed. Nearly $8 trillion of the US’ debt is owed to foreign entities, which – aside from Japan and China – also include major creditors like the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Ireland, Brazil, Canada, France, India, and Belgium, as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong.
A further $6.5 trillion is owed by the US federal government to itself, mostly to Social Security trusts and the Military Retirement fund. Over the course of the pandemic, the Federal Reserve also doubled its balance sheet to $8.9 trillion by aggressively buying trillions of dollars in Treasury bonds and securities.
The shocking number was reached far sooner than anticipated, with US officials and economists failing to predict the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent response, which inflated government spending, and subsequently, national debt by as much as $7 trillion since the end of 2019.
The US budget deficit totaled $2.77 trillion for fiscal year 2021, falling just short of the previous year’s record-breaking numbers, but still in line with the massive Covid-era spending. For the fiscal year of 2020, the US posted an eye-watering deficit of $3.13 trillion.
The $30 trillion mark “arrived years earlier than previously projected,”according to the New York Times, due to government coronavirus programs which “funded expanded jobless benefits, financial support for small businesses and stimulus payments” – all of which was paid for with borrowed money.
David Kelly, the chief global strategist for JPMorgan Asset Management, told CNN that the debt means the US is “going to be poorer in the long term” and claimed “American taxpayers will be paying for the retirement of the people in China and Japan, who are our creditors.”
Peterson Foundation CEO Michael Peterson, however, explained that the “structural problems we face fiscally existed long before the pandemic” and that Covid-19 merely “exacerbated the problem.”
National regulator NHTSA deems the ‘rolling stop’ function in Elon Musk’s company’s ‘full self-driving’ software to be unsafe
Electric car maker Tesla will recall all 53,822 vehicles with the ‘full self-driving’ feature, as they do not always come to a complete stop at intersections under certain conditions.
The move will affect Model S, X, 3 and Y vehicles, which are fitted with the company’s Full Self-Driving Beta (FSD Beta) software, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The agency said the assist feature has resulted in the cars at times performing ‘rolling stops’ instead of coming to a complete stop at intersections, posing a safety risk.
Tesla agreed to disable the function following meetings with NHTSA representatives last month. ‘Rolling stops’ will be removed from the program as part of a software update planned for release online later in February.
The function is not a glitch – the FSD Beta has been able to slowly roll past stop signs since the release of the first version in October 2020. It was only activated in situations of good visibility with no moving cars, bicyclists, or pedestrians around.
“There were no safety issues” with the rolling stop function, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted. “The car simply slowed to ~2 mph & continued forward if clear view with no cars or pedestrians.”
Tesla said it was not aware of any warranty claims, crashes, injuries, or fatalities caused by the function.
The company has always insisted that its ‘full self-driving’ feature requires a human driver to be ready to take control of the vehicle at any point. Tesla already recalled almost 12,000 in the US last November over a communication error that could cause a false forward-collision warning or unexpected emergency brake activation.
Last week, the NHTSA also requested additional information as part of an investigation into Tesla’s decision to enable passengers to play video games on the front center touchscreen, which could allegedly distract the driver. The massive probe affects around 580,000 vehicles.
Germany’s household energy costs saw the greatest rise in 2021
The cost of heating and electricity in Germany increased by 107% and 41% respectively over the past year, Der Spiegel reported, citing a spokesperson of the Check24 portal, which compares prices for goods and services in the country.
According to data, the average household in Germany had to pay €1,193 for gas and fuel oil in January 2021, with the cost rising to almost €2,472 last month. The main reason for that was the sharp rise in energy prices, the newspaper said, adding that high wholesale gas prices have affected end-user prices.
The price for 5,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity hit a record high of €2,130 in January 2022. That is 41% higher than in the same month last year, Der Spiegel wrote.
According to the Check24 spokesperson, the dramatic rise was the result of the increased cost of generating electricity from coal and gas power plants, as well as a decline in production of renewable energy and higher domestic demand.
European countries haven’t been boosting purchases of Russian gas beyond existing contracts despite energy crisis
Gazprom has resumed gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine, booking 109 million cubic meters of daily pipeline capacity, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Under the five-year contract, which expires in 2024, the company is expected to deliver 40 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Europe via Ukraine. The news triggered a long-anticipated decline in gas prices, with March futures dropping below $900 per thousand cubic meters.
January sales of Russian natural gas outside the former Soviet Union saw a massive drop of 41.3% year-on-year, while the country’s overall production has increased, Russian energy major Gazprom reported on Tuesday.
European inventory levels have reportedly sunk to historic lows over the past several months, sending energy prices in the region soaring, while some EU officials are accusing Gazprom of deliberately withholding supplies. However, Gazprom says additional supplies were not booked before February 2.
“The Company’s gas deliveries are carried out as requested by consumers in full compliance with contractual obligations,” Gazprom said in a press release.
Gazprom said earlier this month it hadn’t booked any monthly transit capacity via the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline for February. However, the company may still book the route via daily auctions.
The pipeline, which usually accounts for about 15% of Russia’s annual gas exports to Europe and Turkey, has been working in reverse mode since late December, putting additional pressure on European energy prices.
Meanwhile, working gas inventories in Europe’s underground gas storage facilities were lagging behind last year’s level by 27.2% as of January 30, Gazprom said on Tuesday, citing data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.
Over 81% of the fuel delivered during the summer is already pumped out from the facilities, according to the company, while “the total amount of working gas inventories in European UGS facilities was as low as 38.1 billion cubic meters on January 30, falling by 2.7 billion cubic meters below the historical minimum for this date.”
Separately, data of the booking platform seen by Reuters confirmed that Gazprom was set to resume westbound gas flows from Poland to Germany this week via the Yamal pipeline, restoring the normal flows after the route was reversed. Moreover, data from German network operator GASCADE reportedly confirmed the expectations for renewal of the westbound flows for eight hours initially.
Brussels and Washington have repeatedly raised concerns over potential disruptions in Russian energy supplies in response to sanctions the US and its allies are threatening to impose on the country in the event of a military assault on Ukraine. The Russian government denies having plans to invade the neighboring state, accusing the West of ramping up tensions through its provocative rhetoric.
European officials have protracted the certification of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which could have alleviated the energy shortages on the continent.
