1. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, also known as RCEP, will enter into force on January 1, 2022 for Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

2. Korea Radio: Korea Fair Trade Commission tentatively approves the merger of Korean Air and Asiana Airlines. At present, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines compete on the route between Incheon and Los Angeles, which will be monopolized if the two companies merge. The Justice Commission believes that after the merger of the two companies, competition on a large part of the routes will be restricted.

3. On December 30th, crude oil futures contract 2202, the main contract, closed at 498.6 yuan per barrel, up 5.60 yuan, or 1.14%. The total number of contracts was 226469, and the position was reduced by 638 to 69748. The main contract turnover was 183633, and the position was reduced by 3212 to 35976.

4. The sharp rise in the price of used cars has played a big role in the latest inflation rate in the United States, which has reached its highest level in more than 30 years. Due to the shortage of chips under the epidemic and speculation in the market, the price of used cars has even outperformed the US stock market in recent months. Since the beginning of this year, the price of used cars in the US market has risen by nearly 50%. It has risen by more than 20% in the past four months.

5. Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye was granted amnesty and was released from prison at 00: 00 local time on December 31. She was detained in March 2017 for involvement in the case of “cronies meddling in politics” and has so far been jailed for four years and nine months, more than four years and one month as president, becoming South Korea’s longest-serving former president.

6. World Health Organization (WHO): the overall risk of Omicron strain is still very high. Compared with Delta strain, Omicron strain has the advantage of transmission, and the incidence rate of Omicron strain has increased rapidly in some countries. Omicron strain has become the main epidemic strain in the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries, but the incidence of South Africa has decreased. According to a paper in the British journal Nature, the Omicron mutant can completely or partially resist the neutralization of all monoclonal antibodies in the experiment.

7. The country’s unemployment rate fell to 12.1% during the statistical cycle from August to October 2021, according to data released by the Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) of the Brazilian Ministry of economy on December 28th local time. The employment situation has improved compared with the unemployment rate of 13.7 per cent in the previous cycle and 14.6 per cent in the same period in 2020, but the number of unemployed is still as high as 12.9 million.

8. EU Economic Commissioner: the EU is considering raising the debt ceiling of its member states. EU Economic Commissioner Gentilone said in an interview on December 29 local time that the EU is considering amending the Stability and growth Pact to no longer set a unified debt ceiling and allow member states to set their own reasonable borrowing scale according to their own national conditions. In fact, since March 2020, EU member states have unanimously decided to suspend the implementation of the EU Stability and growth Pact until the end of 2022. Subsequently, in response to the epidemic, EU countries issued a large number of subsidies and significantly increased public spending on health care and other public expenses, and the debt scale of all countries exceeded the 60% limit set by the Convention for no more than 60% of GDP.