The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently released a report regarding which nations will suffer the most loss resulting from China’s slowing investment growth. According to the IMF, Australia will be the worst hit advanced economy, with only developing economies Iran, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Zambia, and Chile suffering a bigger loss.
Oil may rise to $80 a barrel if the global energy cartel has anything to say about it.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, announced that it would target $80 a barrel for oil, a price point nearly double current WTI futures. Oil has continued its downward slide in 2015, after a brief recovery earlier in the year, with prices briefly falling below $40 before recovering.
Due to lower commodity prices and routine power outages that disrupt business activity, Zambia’s economy will grow less than 5.0 percent in 2015, according to Reuters. Zambia’s woes drove the nation’s currency, the kwacha, to record lows as investors sell commodity-based currencies in a panic. Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa and is Africa’s second-largest copper producer.
India and the US have discussed a bilateral economic treaty at great length, but little actual progress has occurred. According to a senior US trade official, progress on the bilateral investment treaty has been “slow” due to the absence of economic reforms by India that would ensure ease of doing business. Until such reforms occur, the US estimates the likelihood of reaching an agreement on a bilateral trade agreement as “low.”
British workers are making more money as costs are growing at a lower rate in the Eurozone.
In the UK, earnings both including and excluding bonuses rose by 2.9% in the three months to July, above analysts’ expectations and at the fastest growth rate since 2009. According to the Office for National Statistics, workers are able to make more money in the UK.
The BOJ placed a hold on easing, hoping the economy will make a recovery. The Japanese economy contracted 1.2 percent from April to June amid such factors as China’s market turbulence, falling domestic demand and lagging exports. So far, the BOJ purchased 79 percent of quota-based bonds and assets in 2015, in order to inject more cash into the economy, notes Bloomberg.
Human rights campaigners have levied some serious accusations against the World Bank Group. The accusations assert that the World Bank has repeatedly either targeted or failed to protect individuals that have protested World Bank funded development projects, such as the construction of dams, roads, and other projects.
Key indicators of falling aggregate demand throughout the United States rang alarm bells with investors, who sold stocks off in early morning trading.
Wholesale prices in the U.S. saw little change, with lower fuel costs dragging total producer prices lower. Producer prices stagnated in August after showing a 0.2% advance in July. Despite the worrying indication of a deflationary trap stirring, the results were better than expected. Analysts had expected a 0.1% decline in prices.
Infrastructure projects keep Qatar’s economy afloat in the wake of low oil prices, according to AFP. The government is spending lavishly for the 2022 World Cup event, including massive railway and reservoir construction projects.
According to the Qatar National Bank, the economy will grow 4.7 percent in 2015 and roughly 6.4 percent in the next two years due to infrastructure spending. The combination of lower energy revenue and greater investment spending expects to produce a smaller fiscal deficit, and the rise in oil prices in 2017 will procure an economic surplus.
In March and June, Islamic extremists attacked popular tourist destinations in Tunisia, crippling its once vital tourism industry. Yahoo! News reports that despite this enormous economic setback, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged Tunisia to move forward with an enormous list of pending economic reforms the IMF believes may help right the North African nation’s sinking economy.
