Spain boosts Venezuela oil imports

MADRID: Spain’s crude oil imports from Venezuela this year have already topped 2023’s total, data released by Cores, an arm of the Energy and Environment Ministry, showed on Wednesday. In July, Spain imported 353,000 tons of crude from Venezuela, taking the January-July total to 1.7 million tons. That was almost triple the amount for the same period last year and topped 2023’s total of 1.4 million tons. OPEC member Venezuela posted a rise in oil exports in the first half of the year, helped by US licenses and authorizations to partners of state oil company PDVSA. — Reuters

German car sales plunge in Aug

FRANKFURT: Sales of new cars plummeted in Germany in August, official data showed Wednesday, dragged down by a record fall in demand for electric vehicles in Europe’s biggest auto market. A total of 197,322 new cars were registered in Germany last month, the KBA federal transport authority said, a 27.8-percent drop on a year earlier. The fall was led by a “historic decline” in sales in battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs), the VDIK car importers’ federation said, which plunged by 68.8 percent to just over 27,000 units. — AFP

Australia posts ‘soft’ growth

SYDNEY: Australia’s ailing economy recorded another quarter of near moribund growth, with data Wednesday showing second-quarter gross domestic product expanded just 0.2 percent from the previous three months. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said government spending had just about offset “subdued” consumer activity in the three months to June, as consumers continued to feel the pinch from high prices. Treasurer Jim Chalmers blamed the “soft growth” on “global economic uncertainty, higher interest rates and persistent but moderating inflation”. — AFP

Greece wraps up bank privatizations

ATHENS: Greece plans to conclude the re-privatization of its banks by early October with the sale of its last stake in National Bank, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. The planned sale marks a rebound for the Greek banking sector, which was bailed out during a debt crisis in which Greece nearly dropped out of the eurozone and international lenders imposed strict austerity measures in return for loans. It also means an end to the bailout fund, known as HFSF, which was launched in 2010 to protect Greece’s biggest banks and limit contagion across Europe’s financial system. The fund still owns 18.4 percent of National Bank (NBG), Greece’s largest lender with a market value of 7.2 billion euros. — Reuters