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Japan can expect a freezing cold winter with lots of snow due to an apparent La Nina weather phenomenon likely to last until the season's end, the Japan Meteorological Agency announced on Nov. 10.
La Nina causes abnormal weather worldwide and occurs when a lower-than-average surface sea temperature is observed for a prolonged time in an area stretching from the Peruvian coast to the equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean. With La Nina, the winter-type pressure pattern--high to the west and low to the east--becomes more intense in Japan, and tends to bring temperatures down due to cold air flowing in. One recently hit Japan from summer 2020 through the spring of 2021, resulting in temperatures tending to be lower than average across the country in the first half of last winter.
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The Chinese government has told families to keep daily necessities in stock in case of emergencies, after COVID-19 outbreaks and unusually heavy rains that caused a surge in vegetable prices raised concerns about supply shortages. The commerce ministry directive late on Monday stirred some concern on domestic social media that it may have been triggered by heightened tensions with Taiwan, while some said people were rushing to stock up on rice, cooking oil and salt. As soon as this news came out, all the old people near me went crazy panic buying in the supermarket," wrote one user on China's Twitter-like Weibo.
Local media has also recently published lists of recommended goods to store at home including biscuits and instant noodles, vitamins, radios and flashlights. The public response forced state media on Tuesday to try to soothe fears and clarify the ministry's statement. The Economic Daily, a Communist Party-backed newspaper, told netizens not to have "too much of an overactive imagination" and that the directive's purpose was to make sure citizens were not caught off guard if there was a lockdown in their area. The People's Daily said the ministry issues such notices every year, but had issued its instruction earlier this year because of natural disasters, the surge in vegetable prices and recent COVID-19 cases. The ministry's statement late on Monday urged local authorities to do a good job in ensuring supply and stable prices, and to give early warnings of any supply problems. Extreme weather The government typically makes extra efforts to boost fresh vegetable and pork supplies before China's most important holiday, Lunar New Year, which in 2022 falls in early February. But this year those efforts have become more urgent after extreme weather in early October destroyed crops in Shandong - the country's biggest vegetable growing region - and as outbreaks of COVID-19 cases stretching from the northwest to the northeast of the country threaten to disrupt food supplies. Last week, prices of cucumbers, spinach and broccoli had more than doubled from early October. Spinach was more expensive than some cuts of pork at 16.67 yuan ($2.60) per kg, a vegetable price index in Shouguang, a trading hub in Shandong, indicated. Although prices have eased in recent days, economists expect a significant year-on-year increase in consumer price inflation for October, the first in five months. The pandemic has brought an increased focus on food security, with the government drafting a food security law and outlining new efforts to curb food waste. The commerce ministry said local authorities should buy vegetables that can be stored well in advance and also strengthen emergency delivery networks. Information about prices and supply and demand of commodities should be released in a timely manner to stabilise people's expectations, it added. China also plans to release vegetable reserves "at an appropriate time" to counter rising prices, according to a state TV report late on Monday. It is not clear which vegetables China holds in reserves and how big those reserves are. The state planning body has called for the timely replanting of vegetables, urging local governments to support fast-growing produce, according to the report. In October 2021, the gold purchase of the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) was 3.2 tons, raising the BoM’s total precious metal purchase of 2021 to 18.1 tons. The figure shows a fall of 1.08 tons as compared with the same period of previous year.
In October, the BoM branches in Darkhan-Uul and Bayankhongor aimags bought 168.2 kg and 249.8 kg precious metals respectively. The average price of BoM’s purchase of 1 gram of gold was MNT 162,456.30 in October. |
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