The African continent is characterised by numerous institutional and infrastructural weaknesses that has hindered strong economic growth in the past. Nevertheless, the region contains a great deal of promise with many of its countries forecasted to be among the fastest growing economies in the world.
New mining in Zimbabwe has quickly yielded millions of carats of diamonds and could help catapult the nation into the ranks of the world’s top diamond producers,
according to the head of a group of experts for the United Nations-backed effort to stop the trade in conflict diamonds.
But the new wealth has provoked fears that the riches will be used to subvert attempts
to bring democracy to a country that has long suffered under authoritarian rule, and also to finance conflicts.
Ever since we started here, we’ve been saying the “advanced” world – US / EU / Japan – are in a depression,
whatever good things – which we hope will continue – are happening in China, India, Brazil etc.
And we almost NEVER link to Paul Krugman, economics columnist of the New York Times,
because, as we’ve said, we think EVERY reader of Economy Watch should be reading his stuff regularly as well.
28 June 2010. By David Caploe PhD, Chief Political Economist, EconomyWatch.com
Once again, the US Congress has put together a behemoth legislative package, this one running close to 2000 pages – which brings up our first point:
1) Overall, think of this as the financial “reform” equivalent of the health “care” “reform” bill:
Turkey’s economy is quite interesting in that it is a complicated blend of modern commerce and industry, along with traditional sectors to include agriculture, fisheries, and farming. Today, this country has a strong sector that is growing quickly but even so, the government of Turkey is heavily involved with the basic industry, as well as financial services, financial institutions, banks, communication, and transport. Of all sectors in Turkey, textiles and clothing is without doubt the most significant, accounting for about 35% of employment opportunity.
Vietnam is a developing country that in the past three decades has spent tremendous effort in recovering from the devastation from the Vietnam War. Other challenges that this country has seen is the loss of financial support from the old Soviet Bloc and a centrally planned economy with too much rigidity. However, since 2001 the government of Vietnam has been dedicated to economic liberalization, along with international integration.
When it comes to a difficult economy, the Zimbabwe government realizes they have work cut out for them. One challenge is the financial deficit, which has been difficult to manage. In addition, the country’s currency exchange rate has been overvalued. Other issues currently being faced include low food stuffs for consumer use and high inflation rates. When Zimbabwe was involved with the war, literally hundreds of millions of dollars were siphoned from the economy. Since then, many obstacles must be overcome.
Thailand has a free enterprise economy, one with well-developed facilities and infrastructure. Overall, the country’s policy is pro-investment, making this country one of the top performers in Eastern Asia from 2002 to 2004. While the economy remained stable for many years, from 2005 to 2007 the Gross Domestic Product dropped significantly. The primary reason was an ongoing political crisis that put a temporary hold on major facilities and infrastructure projects, as well as a decline of consumer and investor confidence. With this, Thailand’s reputation began to decline.
While this interview does not take account of the massive explosion of labor militancy in China that has occurred during the past few weeks,
it does nevertheless provide some significant insights for any entrepreneurs who ARE interested in the in-many-ways-irresistible Chinese market.
The Chinese market is as vast as it is complex, warns James McGregor of APCO Worldwide,
in this International Herald Tribune interview that appeared in the New York Times.
24 June 2010
S. K. Sahai’s firm ships containers 2,400 nautical miles from Singapore to a port here in four or five days.
But it typically takes more than two weeks to make the next leg of the journey, 870 miles by rail to New Delhi.
For most of that time the containers idle at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port near Mumbai because railway terminals, trains and tracks are severely backlogged all along the route.
