Italy's parliament approves 35 billion euros 2023 budget
Italy's Senate, the upper house of parliament, gave its final approval to the government's 2023 budget that worth 35 billion euros (37.3 billion U.S. dollars).
The budget package allocates 21 billion euros in tax breaks and bonuses to soften the impact of the energy crisis on companies and families.
Other key measures include the lifting of the ceiling on annual income of self-employed people taxed with a flat 15 percent rate from 65,000 euros to 85,000 euros.
The budget also allocates 4.2 billion euros to reducing the so-called "tax wedge"-the difference between what an employer pays as salary and the actual amount a worker gets after tax-to benefit low-income workers, in favor of people earning up to 20,000 euros (by three points) and up to 35,000 euros (by two points).
Mongolia logged 71.1 million head of livestock, a record high since the nomadic country began a livestock animal census in 1918, said a senior expert of the National Statistics Office (NSO) Wednesday.
A preliminary result of the annual livestock census by the NSO showed that the number of livestock in 2022 increased by 3.8 million, or 5.6 percent, from the previous year, Erdene-Ochir Myagmarkhand told a press conference. Sheep accounted for 46.0 percent of all livestock, goats 38.8 percent, cattle 7.7 percent, horses 6.8 percent and camels 0.7 percent, said Myagmarkhand.
Mongolia is one of the world's last surviving nomadic countries. The promotion of livestock husbandry is seen as the most viable solution to diversify the landlocked country's miningdependent economy.
A total of 1,919.2 kg of scrap paper were collected with a nationwide recycling day initiative being held in Brunei on Saturday, said the country's Department of Environment, Parks and Recreation under the Ministry of Development.
According to the department, with the cooperation and support of four local recycling companies, 1,919.2 kg of scrap paper, 134.3 kg of cardboard boxes, 417.8 kg of plastic bottles, 224.7 liters of used cooking oil and 428 units of e-waste were collected during the event. The waste was transported to recycling companies to be processed either domestically or exported overseas for further recycling processes.
The yen held onto gains and equity markets were mixed after plunging the day before in response to the shock Bank of Japan decision to shift away from its ultra-loose monetary policy.
The move to allow yields on certain government bonds to move in a wider band was seen as a precursor to a possible interest rate hike next year, finally bringing the central bank in line with others around the world.
Tuesday's announcement sent the yen soaring from above 137 to the dollar to just above 130 -- its strongest since August-while it also rallied against other peers including the euro. And it managed to hold on to most of the advances.
And some observers say the Japanese unit could strengthen further to around 120, saying it remained relatively cheap, having tumbled for most of the year against the dollar owing to the divergence of Fed and BoJ policies.
"It would be safe to assume that the BoJ shift will likely fuel further yen strength on repatriation flows as local bond yields rise," Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said.