Syria has refused to grant entry visas for Western aid workers despite the escalating humanitarian crisis, said a senior U.N. official to Reuters on Monday, with an estimated 1.5 Syrians now believed to be in desperate need of food and medical assistance.
In a bid to stimulate its slowing economy, China has announced that it will cut taxes on the profits of foreign companies by up to 50 percent.
A commentary that appeared in the China Daily today has said that China’s tax revenue is “too high”.
Nearly three-quarters of the United Arab Emirates’ total oil exports will now leave the country via the newly opened Fujairah export terminal on the Gulf of Oman, said UAE government officials on Sunday, with the new route set to bypass the volatile Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has threatened to block.
After the slew of negative reports from China last week, investors will be looking towards the United States for some better news this week. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will present his semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress early this week, and many are hoping that the US central bank will take steps to ease monetary policy even further.
Related News: US Banks Are Fine, Worry About the EU: Bernanke
The 2020 Summer Olympics could be one of the least expensive ever undertaken in the 21st century, reported the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, after the Spanish capital of Madrid – a finalist to host the games along with Istanbul and Tokyo – vowed to organize the event on a shoestring budget amid tough economic times.
China’s economy grew at 7.6 percent in the second quarter of 2012, marking its sixth straight consecutive quarter of decelerating growth, its slowest pace in three years.
The decelerating growth confirms fears of a so-called hard landing in China, and heightens worries over its subsequent impact on the rest of the world.
China is the world’s second largest economy and accounts for about a fifth of the world’s total economic output.
Italy’s national statistics body, the ISTAT, may cease publishing data on the economy beginning from next year, reported Reuters on Thursday, after ISTAT’s President Enrico Giovannini threatened to go on strike following the government’s decision to cut more money from the agency’s budget.
America is in the midst of a natural gas boom and about 200,000 gas wells have been drilled in the last decade. In fact, the Marcellus shale formation alone created 123,000 new jobs and contributed nearly $10 billion in value to the Pennsylvanian economy in 2011.
The U.S.-China rivalry took an unfashionable sporting twist on Thursday after a report by ABC News revealed that American athletes were being decked out in made-in-China uniforms for the upcoming Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies.
Spain has announced another sweeping round of budget cuts, as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned that the country would struggle to meet its debt reduction targets mandated by the European Union.
In a six-hour address to parliament, Rajoy called on Spaniards to back the new austerity measures which include a value-added tax increase to 21 percent from 18 percent, as well as a reduction of unemployment benefits and public sector wages.
Spain currently has the highest unemployment rate in the eurozone, a staggering 25 percent.
