Day: 18 April 2017

There has been a continuation of growth in the Principality’s budget surplus, thanks to a marked increase in revenues and lower growth in expenditures, including ordinary expenses, Jean Castellini, Minister of Finance and Economy, told the press on Tuesday.

Providing an update on the results of the financial year 2016, and the draft budget for 2017, Minister Castellini said that the fiscal year 2016 had a surplus of €35,866,124, an increase of 22 percent compared to 2015. This outstanding result followed four previous years of budget surplus.

In more detail, the increase in tax revenues in 2016 (+ €45.4 million, or + 5.2 percent) was due mainly to higher revenue from transfer taxes (+€20 million) and VAT, which means that the Government’s attractiveness policy continues to bear fruit. There was also an increase in revenue from civil administrative fees (+ €4.5 million), customs duties (+€4 million) and mortgage fees (+€2 million) as well as that related to taxes on insurance (+€1 million).

Meanwhile, the draft budget for 2017, as voted by the National Council on December 15, 2016, was drawn up on a prudent basis, he said.

It has a projected surplus of revenue of €6.3 million compared to €5.8 million in the draft budget for 2016. This budget presents a forecast of revenue of €1,210,318,900, up +by 5.9 percent compared to the draft budget for 2016.

The minister added that at the end of March, 2017, tax revenues and income from tourism are in line with forecasts.

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An international multidisciplinary symposium on the role of the oceans in CO2 mitigation has been held as part of Monaco Ocean Week, with the support of the Prince Albert II Foundation and Solas (Safety of Life at Sea).

Dr Nathalie Hilmi, a specialist in Environmental Economics at the Monaco Scientific Centre (CSM) co-organised the event with Dr Christa Marandino of the Geomar Helmholtz Centre for Oceanic Research in Kiel, and Erik Van Doorn of Kiel’s Christian-Albrechts University.

The objective was to carry out an analysis of “Blue Carbon” at the boundaries of the natural and social sciences with an interface with policy makers and stakeholders. The added value has been to associate different disciplines in order to carry out research on this societally relevant subject, largely unexplored to date. The results will be summarised for policy makers and an article to be submitted to a special issue of Frontiers in Marine Science, entitled “The role of the ocean in mitigating CO2.”

Blue Carbon is defined as any carbon stored in the marine domain by processes whose absence would eventually lead to an equivalent amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, taking into account equilibrium absorption or emission associated with other climatic agents. This is why the role of the ocean is crucial in CO2 mitigation: ocean systems (including coastal areas) naturally absorb carbon, but many of these natural processes are disrupted by human activities (coastal development, global warming …) with implications for future storage capacity.

The economic assessment will take into account ecosystem services in coastal, continental shelf and open ocean areas to link them to financial instruments and mechanisms to motivate positive actions and interventions according to regional differences. Governance and legal issues ensure that nation-states benefit from economic mechanisms.

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Scorpio Bulkers Inc, which has its principal executive office in Monaco, announced on Tuesday, April 18, that it has entered into agreements with unaffiliated third parties to sell the SBI Charleston and SBI Cakewalk, two 2014 built Kamsarmax vessels, for approximately $45 (€42) million in total.

Scorpio Bulkers Inc is a provider of marine transportation of dry bulk commodities. Upon completion of the sales, Scorpio Bulkers Inc will own 46 vessels, consisting of 18 Kamsarmax vessels and 28 Ultramax vessels. The company also time-charters in one dry bulk Kamsarmax vessel. The owned fleet will have a total carrying capacity of approximately 3.2 million deadweight tonnes.

Scorpio Bulkers was incorporated in the Republic of the Marshall Islands on March 20, 2013.

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According to the latest poll by Kantar Sofres OnePoint for LCI, RTL and Le Figaro, the candidate of the centre-right, François Fillon is in third place at 18.5 percent, behind Emmanuel Macron (24 percent) and Marine Le Pen (23 percent), five days before the first round of the French presidential election.

The respected right-of-centre daily said that the poll result testifies to the uncertainties still plaguing the elections.

The survey showed that François Fillon has picked up 1.5 percent over the last two weeks, regaining the third position he lost to left-wing firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, now on 18 percent, suggesting that support for the former Socialist minister has reached a plateau.

The result that markets and investors have feared most, a run-off between Le Pen and Melanchon, appears to be receding, according to the poll. France votes in the first round on Sunday, April 23, with the second-round run-off between the top two candidates two weeks later, on May 7.

One out of four French voters remain undecided.

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Two 17-year-old African migrants were electrocuted and seriously injured while hiding on a TGV train in Nice on Monday evening.

The youths, from Guinea-Conakry, were discovered shortly after 10:30 pm, at the Saint Roch freight station in Nice, having travelled from Ventimiglia hidden between the engine and the first coach before climbing onto the roof of the train.

One was very badly burned in the legs, while the other escaped with less serious injuries. They were taken to Pasteur Hospital.

Last February, the body of a man was found at Cannes La Bocca station. He had also arrived from Ventimiglia and was electrocuted while holding on to the pantograph.

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