Australia’s government says it will spend more than $1 billion on converting research ideas into commercial hits as it looks to improve the economy with an election looming.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said a new program called Australia’s Economic Accelerator would focus on commercializing research in six areas: defense, space, minerals, food, medical products, and clean energy.

“The key policy challenge surrounds the so-called ‘Valley of Death,’ where early stage research is frequently not progressed to later stages of development because of the risk and uncertainty about commercial returns,” Morrison said.

He said the new program would help bridge that gap by investing in programs with strong commercial potential. It will work in stages by providing lots of small grants initially and then fewer but more valuable grants in subsequent rounds of funding. It is worth 1.6 billion Australian dollars ($1.1 billion) and is part of a larger 2.2 billion Australian dollar package.

Morrison was speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, where he also reflected on the challenges he’s faced since winning the last election in 2019.

“The past three years have been some of the most extraordinary that our nation has ever experienced,” he said. “Younger generations have never known anything like it. The succession of natural disasters — from drought to flood, fires, pestilence, a once-in-a-century global pandemic, the recession it caused — has pushed our country to the very limits.”

He said his government had been too optimistic about the pandemic ahead of the Australian summer and then had to make “massive changes” when case numbers skyrocketed with the omicron variant of coronavirus.

Morrison faces a tough election challenge from opposition leader Anthony Albanese, whose Labor Party has been leading the government coalition in some opinion polls. Morrison has yet to announce a date for the election, which must be held by May 21.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban lobbied for a higher volume of Russian natural gas shipments to Hungary during a meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary’s prime minister lobbied for larger shipments of Russian natural gas Tuesday during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow amid high tensions over Russia’s buildup of troops along Ukraine’s borders.

During a news conference following their meeting in the Kremlin, Hungary’s right-wing nationalist leader Viktor Orban said he had requested the expansion of Hungary’s 15-year gas contract with Russian energy company Gazprom to ensure larger-volume deliveries amid ballooning energy prices in Europe.

While no formal agreement was reached, Orban’s request underscored the close economic and diplomatic ties that Hungary — a member of both the European Union and NATO — has pursued with Moscow. Those actions have raised eyebrows in some European capitals where Russia is viewed as a malign actor and threat to the security of the whole 27-nation EU.

Orban’s Tuesday meeting with Putin, his 12th since he took power in Hungary in 2010, was Putin’s first in-person meeting with a Western leader since the escalation of tensions over a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine began last fall. Hungary has avoided taking a definitive stance on the buildup, which involves some 100,000 Russian troops along the borders of Ukraine, Hungary’s neighbor to the east.

But on Tuesday, Orban urged a diplomatic resolution to the tensions, which have sparked worries over a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“I viewed my current visit as a peace mission as well,” Orban said. “I was able to tell the president that the European Union is united, and that there is not a single European Union leader who wants a conflict with Russia.”

A vigorous advocate of national sovereignty, Orban regularly accuses the EU of overstepping its bounds when it comes to exerting its influence in the affairs of the bloc’s 27 nations.

But he has been careful not to assert a position on Russian demands that NATO pull its weapons and forces out of allied countries in Eastern Europe — something that would have a direct impact on Hungary.

NATO members in Europe have signaled they would send troops, warplanes and ships to Eastern European allies in response to Russia’s military buildup.

Yet in a radio interview with Hungarian broadcaster InfoRadio on Thursday, Hungary’s defense minister, Tibor Benko, said that the Hungarian armed services “do not consider it appropriate, nor do we require the deployment of NATO reinforcement forces here. We can perform these tasks ourselves.”

Orban’s trip to Moscow amid the standoff over Ukraine was criticized by his political opponents at home as a betrayal of Hungary’s interests and alliances. In a statement, a coalition of six Hungarian political parties aiming to defeat Orban in Hungary’s April election urged the prime minister to cancel his trip, arguing that Russia’s actions had been an attack on Hungary’s sovereignty.

“In this tense situation, it is treasonous to go to Moscow,” the opposition alliance wrote.

Budapest has argued that its approach to Russia is based on purely pragmatic considerations, and that its interests in the areas of energy, trade and security are best served by strong bilateral relations with Moscow.

Orban has argued against sanctioning Russia at the European level, and on Tuesday said that such penalties “have been more damaging to Hungary than to Russia.”

“In my opinion, (sanctions) are a tool doomed to failure in international politics. Neither in the case of Russia nor in the case of any other country do I consider them to be effective,” Orban said.

At the news conference in Moscow , Putin signaled that he was ready to increase gas supplies to Hungary from 4.5 billion to 5.5 billion cubic meters per year, adding that Hungary would be insulated from future energy price spikes in Europe by its long-term contract with Russia.

The two leaders also discussed the potential for Hungary to manufacture Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V, and the progress of a 12 billion-euro ($13.6 billion) Russian-backed project to add two nuclear reactors to Hungary’s only nuclear power plant.

Turkey’s president has fired the head of the Turkish Statistical Institute, which is responsible for posting official inflation statistics, among other data.

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s president has fired the head of the Turkish Statistical Institute, which is responsible for posting official inflation statistics, among other data, at a time when prices have skyrocketed in Turkey.

Tukish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision was announced Saturday on the Official Gazette. He replaced Sait Erdal Dincer less than a year after his appointment with Erhan Cetinkaya, who served as vice president of Turkey’s banking regulation agency. No reason was given for the move.

Turkey has experienced economic turmoil with an unstable national currency, triggered by massive interest rate cuts. Erdogan stands strongly against high interest rates, claiming they cause inflation, a stance that contradicts established economic theory. Since September, the Central Bank has cut rates by 500 basis points to 14%, but stopped its cuts in January.

Turkey relies heavily on imports for its energy needs and consumer goods. Inflation on consumer prices for December was officially announced at 36.08%, up from 21.31% in November.

But opposition parties have questioned the Turkish Statistical Institute’s independence and its data is being challenged. Independent experts at Inflation Research Group, or ENAG, say Turkey’s actual annual inflation for December was 82.81%.

On Saturday, Erdogan acknowledged the effects of high inflation, blaming it on “artificial fluctuations” of the Turkish lira in December. He said Turkey had taken precautions and stabilized the currency.

“You know our fight against interest rates. We will lower interest rates and we have done so,” he told supporters in northern Giresun province. “Know that inflation will also drop, it will decrease more.”

Turkey’s Central Bank revised its inflation predictions this week to 23.2% by the end of 2022 and down to 5% by the end of 2024. The statistics agency will announce the next round of inflation data on Feb. 3.

Erdogan also announced that former Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag would return to his post, replacing Abdulhamit Gul, who had served as minister since 2017 but resigned without saying why.

India’s economy is projected to grow 8% to 8.5% in the financial year beginning April 1, signaling a strong recovery after it was slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

NEW DELHI — India’s economy is projected to grow 8% to 8.5% in the financial year beginning April 1, signaling a strong recovery after it was slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government’s annual economic survey, released Monday, comes a day before Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is due to present the national budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year.

The survey also forecast that India’s economy will expand at a 9.2% annual pace in the current financial year. That would make Asia’s third-largest economy one of the fastest growing major economies after it suffered a 7.3% contraction the year before, its worst performance in 40 years.

Almost all indicators show that the economic impact of the COVID-19 surge last year, driven by the Delta variant, was “much smaller than that experienced during the full lockdown phase in 2020-21 even though the health impact was more severe,” the report said.

Agriculture did best, followed by industries including manufacturing, mining and construction.

The economy grew at an 8.4% annual pace in the July-September quarter after contracting by over 7% in the same quarter the year before.

Activity was supported by rising vaccination rates, which helped instill confidence in reopening businesses, and pent-up demand after months of restrictions and varying shutdowns. Over half of India’s nearly 1.4 billion population is fully vaccinated, with about 20% still awaiting their second shots.

Some vulnerable groups began getting booster shots in January, but there has been no official word yet on boosters for the wider population.

New coronavirus infections have jumped due to the omicron variant of the virus, though health officials said last week there signs they may be plateauing in some areas. They warned that cases were still surging some other states. In the capital, New Delhi, pandemic restrictions have been relaxed to allow restaurants, bars, and movie theaters to operate at half capacity.

Experts have warned that as states relax restrictions, infections could start rising again. And even though the economy has picked up, multiple waves of outbreaks have battered the country’s large informal sector and contact-intensive services like restaurants, hotels, retailing and tourism.

Unemployment rose to nearly 8% in December, a four-month high, according to data from the think tank Center for Monitoring Indian Economy.

A powerful winter storm has swept through northern Europe over the weekend.

HELSINKI — A powerful winter storm swept through northern Europe over the weekend, killing at least four people, destroying houses and cars, closing bridges and causing flooding and halting transport while leaving thousands of households without electricity.

Storm Malik was advancing in the Nordic region on Sunday, bringing strong gusts of wind, and extensive rain and snowfall in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Malik reached the Nordic region and northern Germany late Saturday after moving in from Britain where it caused havoc with material damage and transport chaos, hitting Scotland particularly bad.

In the U.K., a 9-year-old boy in Staffordshire, England, and a 60-year-old woman in Scotland were killed Saturday by falling trees as strong winds battered northern parts of Britain.

Wind gusts of more than 100 mph (160 kph) have been reported in parts of Scotland, causing widespread disruption to transport and leaving tens of thousands of homes without power.

Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon said that while scores have had power reconnected, power disruptions will continue for many because another storm is due to hit the region on Sunday.

In Denmark, strong winds with heavy rain caused the temporary closure of several bridges on Saturday including the key Oeresund road and rail bridge connecting Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmo.

Danish media reported that a 78-year-old woman died from severe injuries after falling in strong winds. In neighboring Germany, local media reported that a man was killed on Saturday after being hit by a billboard that was loosened by the storm.

Flooding in many parts of Denmark caused substantial material damage. Several traffic crashes caused by falling trees and flying debris were reported to police.

Southern parts of Sweden were badly hit, too, and thousands of households were without electricity by Sunday afternoon. Ferries to the Baltic Sea island of Gotland were canceled because of strong winds.

Severe damage to houses, cars and boats, among other things, were reported in Norway while heavy snowfall throughout Finland caused road crashes and disrupted bus and train traffic in parts of the country.

Mexico’s economy entered a technical recession at the end of last year with two consecutive quarters of contraction.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s economy entered a technical recession at the end of last year with two consecutive quarters of contraction despite annual growth of 5% for 2021.

Continuing issues with the global supply chain have been a problem for Mexican assembly plants. Despite COVID-19 infections falling late last year and there being few health-related restrictions, the economy struggled.

“The weakness of domestic production capacity has to do more with the structural damage caused by the pandemic and the lack of mitigation policies to help restore the level of productive investment,” said Alfredo Coutiño, Latin America director at Moody’s Analytics.

In the last three months of 2021, the economy dropped 0.1% compared to the previous three months, when it shrank 0.4%, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography.

Coutiño warned that the weakening in the latter half of last year could have consequences for growth in 2022, adding that government measures to limit competition have slowed private investment.

The 5% overall growth in 2021 followed an 8.4% contraction in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic gripped Mexico.

The International Monetary Fund has forecast that Mexico’s economy will grow 2.8% this year, while other analysts have said 2.7%.

Mexico Treasury Secretary Gabriel Yorio said last week that the economy would continue feeling the effects of COVID-19 this year.