India’s sovereign credit rating may fall below investment grade within the next 12-24 months, warned Fitch Ratings on Monday, as the country continues to struggle with an uncertain investment climate, which has deterred several foreign investors.
As we mark the fifth-year of the global financial crisis today, experts from the United Nation’s food agency have warned that soaring world food prices could lead to a repeat of the 2007/08 food crisis which hurt some of the world’s poorest communities.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, global food prices surged 6 percent in the month of July after three months of decline.
According to a recent report by UNICEF, “the simultaneous adoption of fiscal austerity in countries worldwide is driving the global economy toward recession, imposing human costs that are detrimental to high-income and developing countries alike.”
Yet the world remains fixated on austerity and cost-cutting measures to boost recovery, which in turn has made the economic crisis even worse than it already is.
Resources should be a blessing, not a curse; yet contrary to common sense, resource-rich countries in Africa have tend to experience less economic growth in the long run than those deprived of natural riches. The new discoveries of natural resources in several African countries – including Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, and Mozambique – thus raises an important question: will these newly enriched countries be able to avoid the “resource curse”?
Residents in China’s Huaxi village, located in the east of Jiangsu province, will now be able to enjoy free helicopter rides around their region, reported the China Daily on Tuesday, after Huaxi village officials set up the nation’s first ever village-owned aviation company, with an initial investment of 100 million yuan ($15.7 million).
Regardless of who wins the upcoming U.S. presidential elections, the next American president will only have limited room for manoeuvre on economic policy. The real choice as such should concern the social policies that accompany a broadly similar set of economic measures; and, here, the differences between the candidates are highly consequential.
With most of the second-quarter central bank meetings and bank results reporting concluded, we are looking at a relatively slow week ahead. However, markets will be watching Spanish and Italian bond yields closely, as well as any comments from ECB chief Mario Draghi, who stoked speculation that the bank many resume its bond-buying activities to lower borrowing costs.
Related News: ECB Will Do “Whatever It Takes” To Save Euro… Just Not Now
August has been a dangerous month in European history, but this year it could be the turning point for the eurozone – and perhaps for the world economy. That depends on whether – and how – the European Central Bank makes good on official pledges to do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro.
In an interview with German weekly, Der Spiegel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti declared that his country does not need German cash. Instead, he says Italy needs the moral support of his European friends, especially Germany.
Pointing out that while five eurozone economies have requested and received international bailouts, Monti said Italy has not received “a single euro” of bailout monies.
He told Der Spiegel:
Chinese consumers are far more familiar with foreign brand names compared to their own home-grown companies, reported the China Daily on Monday, after just three local brands managed to make it among the top twenty most recognised brands in a consumer awareness survey.
The latest Campaign Asia-Pacific 2012 Asia’s Top 1,000 Brands report showed that Apple Inc. was the most recognised brand in China for 2012, after piping Nestle, Chanel, Sony and Samsung for the top spot.
