Argentine June tax revenue up 52.1% vs June 2018, driven by 57% 12-month inflation

BUENOS AIRES, July 1 (Reuters) – Argentine tax revenue was 454.442 billion pesos ($10.7 billion) in June, up 52.1% compared with the same month last year, the government’s AFIP tax authority reported on Monday.

Inflation in Latin America’s third biggest economy was 57.3 percent through May of this year, and is expected by analysts to have eased to 57 percent through June, on a 12-month basis.

GST collections dip below Rs 1 lakh cr-mark in June

The total gross GST revenue collected in the month of June, 2019 is Rs 99,939 crore

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

In signs of sluggish momentum in tax collections, Goods and Services Tax (GST) receipts in June fell to Rs 99,939 crore, down from over Rs 1 lakh crore in the previous month, the finance ministry said on Monday.

While the GST collections in June were lower than Rs 1,00,289 crore in May, they were higher than Rs 95,610 crore receipts in the same month of the previous year.

The collections comprise receipts by both the Centre and state governments of GST, which had two years back amalgamated 17 different indirect tax levies.

“The total gross GST revenue collected in the month of June, 2019 is Rs 99,939 crore of which Central-GST is Rs 18,366 crore, State-GST is Rs 25,343 crore, Integrated-GST is Rs 47,772 crore (including Rs 21,980 crore collected on imports) and cess is Rs 8,457 crore (including Rs 876 crore collected on imports),” the ministry said in a statement.

European Economics Preview: France’s Manufacturing Sentiment Data Due

Manufacturing confidence from France is due on Tuesday, headlining a light day for the European economic news.

At 2.00 am ET, Statistics Finland releases unemployment data for May. The unemployment rate had climbed to 8.0 percent in April from 7.0 percent in March.

At 3.00 am ET, Spain’s INE is scheduled to issue producer price figures for May.

At 2.45 am ET, France manufacturing sentiment survey results are due. The confidence index is seen unchanged at 104 in June.

At 3.30 am ET, Sweden’s producer price figures are due from Statistics Sweden.

At 6.00 am ET, the Confederation of British Industry is slated to issue monthly Distributive Trades survey results. The retail sales balance is seen at -8 percent in June versus -20 percent in May.

At 8.00 am ET, Hungary’s central bank is set to announce its rate decision. The bank is expected to hold its key rate at 0.90 percent.

Brazil posts $5.02 billion trade surplus in June: Economy Ministry

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil posted a trade surplus of $5.02 billion in June, the Economy Ministry said on Monday, narrower than May’s $6.3 billion surplus and down 4.2% from June last year.

It was also slightly narrower than the $5.4 billion median estimate in a Reuters poll of economists. Exports totaled $18.05 billion and imports totaled $13.03 billion, the Economy Ministry said.

Oscar Voting Ranks Expanded to Include More Women, Minorities

In this article

The people who award the Oscars are getting younger, less white and more female.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, whose 7,000-plus voter ranks had been dominated by older white men, added 842 new members from 59 countries as part of a push to diversify. Half are women, and 39% are people of color.

Singers Lady Gaga and Adele, as well as actors Sterling K. Brown and Letitia Wright, are among the new members who have increased the group’s share of women to 32% from 25% over the past four years, and doubled the people of color, the academy said Monday.

The aim is to bring along new members who will consider a wider selection of actors, directors and other creators when selecting Oscar nominees. The move was a result of activist April Reign’s #Oscarssowhite campaign, which highlighted the absence of minorities.

Until recently, the academy kept the makeup of its membership under wraps, leaving interested parties to rely on a 2012 Los Angeles Times study of the members that found 94% were white and 77% were male.

‘The Daily Show’ Finds No Difference Between Fox News And North Korea State TV

Although Fox News is a privately owned network, journalists like CNN’s Chris Cuomo have called it “state TV” for the way it aggrandizes President Donald Trump.

The claim may have some truth, according to “The Daily Show.”

The Comedy Central series posted a clip Monday morning comparing worshipful statements made about Kim Jong Un on North Korea State TV with obsequious comments made about Trump by Fox News hosts like Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro.

Spoiler alert: The similarities between the hyperbolic statements are uncanny.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=il-22Q8mECc

Tiny Tweak Can Boost Wind Power Even When the Breeze Is Calm

In this article

Turning a turbine just slightly away from the prevailing wind can boost output from a farm by as much as 47% when breezes are minimal.

The adjustment steers how the wind comes off one blade and into the next, according to the results of a 10-day test conducted at a TransAlta Corp. wind farm in Alberta by a Stanford University research team. In normal wind conditions, pushing the wind wake in slightly different directions boosted production by as much as 13%.

Turbulence from these wind-wakes can place extra strain on the blades and increase maintenance costs. Managing the air flow of upwind turbines can reduce stress as well as provide more power, John Dabiri, a professor and lead author of the study, said in an interview. The software his group developed to improve wind farm performance can be run on a laptop, he said.

“The potential gains are so significant that this should be rapidly deployed,” Dabiri said.