{"id":7354,"date":"2026-04-27T03:13:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T03:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/?p=7354"},"modified":"2026-04-27T12:01:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:01:33","slug":"mbs-last-week-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/2026\/04\/27\/mbs-last-week-today\/","title":{"rendered":"MB&#8217;s Last Week Today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Last week (<strong>20 April \u2013 26 April 2026<\/strong>) was a watershed moment for the global economy, dominated by the escalating economic and inflationary fallout of the Middle East conflict. The narrative shifted from &#8220;resilient growth&#8221; to &#8220;crisis management&#8221; as supply chains and energy prices hit critical levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Last Week By Continent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Asia:<\/strong> <strong>Refinery Runs Slashed Amid Feedstock Scarcity.<\/strong> Major Asian hubs, including Singapore and South Korea, saw refinery runs cut by nearly 6 million barrels per day as Middle Eastern supplies remained constrained. China added 40 million barrels to its emergency reserves, signaling a pivot toward a long-term energy defense strategy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Europe:<\/strong> <strong>Energy Vulnerability &amp; Fiscal Stress.<\/strong> Germany and France faced deepening stagflation risks as higher energy costs collided with existing budget deficits. While Spain and the Netherlands showed relative resilience, the Eurozone as a whole entered a &#8220;high-alert&#8221; phase for energy-driven industrial contraction.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>North America:<\/strong> <strong>The US &#8220;Safe Haven&#8221; Dollar &amp; Debt Dilemma.<\/strong> The US Dollar strengthened significantly as investors fled to safety. However, Treasury yields spiked as the market priced in increased deficit spending for defense and the potential for &#8220;sticky&#8221; inflation, delaying long-awaited Fed rate cuts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Africa:<\/strong> <strong>Fertiliser &amp; Food Security Crisis.<\/strong> Low-income nations across the continent faced a severe blow. The reliance on imported gas (for fertiliser) and oil caused a spike in agricultural production costs, threatening a renewed food security crisis just as many economies were beginning to stabilize.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Last Week By Key Countries<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Malaysia:<\/strong> <strong>Ringgit Resilience Amid CPO Upside.<\/strong> The Ringgit closed the week around <strong>3.95\u20133.96<\/strong> against the USD, buoyed by high Crude Palm Oil (CPO) prices (averaging <strong>RM4,200\/tonne<\/strong>). Domestic focus remained on e-Invoicing compliance and major infrastructure positioning ahead of the Labour Day lull.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>China:<\/strong> <strong>Industrial Stabilization vs. Trade Friction.<\/strong> China showed signs of export-led stabilization, but faced rising tensions with the EU over industrial &#8220;overcapacity&#8221; in EVs and semiconductors.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>India:<\/strong> <strong>The Rupee Under Pressure.<\/strong> Despite robust domestic demand, India\u2019s heavy dependence on imported energy led to a sharp depreciation of the Rupee and a cooling of its red-hot equity markets.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Japan:<\/strong> <strong>Yen Watch &amp; Monetary Bind.<\/strong> Japan faced a resurgence of inflation. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) remained under immense pressure to defend the Yen without triggering a domestic debt crisis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Last Week By Bloc<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>ASEAN:<\/strong> <strong>The &#8220;QR Settlement&#8221; &amp; Regional Integration.<\/strong> ASEAN leaders pushed forward with the &#8220;ASEAN QR&#8221; initiative for cross-border digital payments to buffer against FX volatility. However, the region remains hyper-sensitive to the Middle East conflict&#8217;s impact on petrochemical and aviation feedstocks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>NATO \/ EU:<\/strong> <strong>The Defense Spending Boom.<\/strong> Geopolitical tensions prompted a massive scaling up of defense spending across the bloc. A new IMF study released last week warned that while this boosts activity in the short term, it risks &#8220;crowding out&#8221; social spending and worsening medium-term fiscal sustainability.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>OPEC+:<\/strong> <strong>Production Tightrope.<\/strong> OPEC+ maintained its supply discipline, but infrastructure damage and feedstock supply disruptions in member nations (like Iran) have effectively tightened the market beyond planned quotas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Last Week Commodities<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Energy (Brent Crude):<\/strong> <strong>The Physical-Futures Disconnect.<\/strong> Physical crude prices surged toward <strong>$150\/bbl<\/strong>, significantly outpacing futures markets as refiners scrambled to replace Middle Eastern cargoes. Middle distillate (diesel\/jet fuel) cracks in Singapore hit all-time highs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Agriculture (CPO):<\/strong> <strong>Biofuel Economics Re-Ignited.<\/strong> The &#8220;palm-gas oil&#8221; (POGO) spread narrowed significantly. Firmer Brent crude has made Indonesia\u2019s potential <strong>B50 biodiesel mandate<\/strong> more economically viable, providing a strong price floor for Malaysian planters.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Critical Minerals:<\/strong> <strong>The Scarcity Alliances.<\/strong> Governments began formalizing &#8220;Critical Mineral Alliances&#8221; to bypass China-dominated supply chains, treating rare earth elements as a top national security risk.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Strategic Bottom Line<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We are in a <strong>&#8220;Geopolitics of Scarcity&#8221;<\/strong> phase. For the coming week, Malaysian firms should focus on <strong>energy hedging<\/strong> and <strong>supply chain diversification<\/strong>. The strength of the Ringgit provides a temporary buffer, but the volatility in global energy suggests that inflation may remain higher for longer, necessitating a &#8220;Wait-and-See&#8221; approach for large capital expenditures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week (20 April \u2013 26 April 2026) was a watershed moment for the global economy, dominated by the escalating economic and inflationary fallout of the Middle East conflict. The narrative shifted from &#8220;resilient growth&#8221; to &#8220;crisis management&#8221; as supply chains and energy prices hit critical levels. Last Week By Continent Last Week By Key [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mb-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7355,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7354\/revisions\/7355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}