World trade is expected to grow by a modest 4.7% in 2014 and at a slightly faster rate of 5.3% in 2015 World Trade Organization economists announced on Monday. The 4.7% forecast is more than double the 2.1% increase of last year, but remains below the 20-year average of 5.3%. For the past two years, growth has averaged only 2.2%.
The Argentine government said on Friday there is no turning back of current policies despite the massive national strike that paralyzed the country on Thursday and insisted that the real impact was the result of the roadblocks in the accesses to the main cities.
The following article from the Sydney Morning Herald was written by Chris Zappone, who recently visited the Falkland Islands as a guest of the local government and the Foreign Office.The Falkland Islands are not an easy place to reach. Flights come only weekly. Cruise ships making the trip brave frigid seas, freezing nights and recently, harassment from Argentine dockworkers.
Finance chiefs from around the globe gave the United States until year-end to ratify long-delayed reforms to the International Monetary Fund and threatened to move forward without it if it fails to do so.
Two years after it nearly crashed out of the Euro zone, Greece returned to the bond market this week with yield-hungry investors rushing to buy its debt in a 3-billion Euro deal that could mark the beginning of the end of its bailout. Athens offered a yield of just 4.95% to sell five-year bonds, the second lowest borrowing costs for a bailed-out Euro zone state returning to market.
Brazil has enough coffee stocks to supply exports and domestic demand this year even though a severe drought will result in a lower-than-expected harvest, the nation's coffee industry association Abic said on Thursday.
US oil giant Chevron and state-controlled YPF unveiled plans Thursday to spend another 1.6 billion dollars to develop Argentina's Vaca Muerta shale formation for oil and gas projects. The investment comes on top of 1.2 billion Chevron agreed to spend last year for a shale pilot project.
China's exports and imports fell sharply in March, adding to recent indicators pointing to a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy. The country's exports fell by 6.6% in March when compared with the previous year, while imports dropped by 11.3% in the same month, when compared with the same time last year.
United States beef shipments to Japan may drop after the largest Asian buyer inked this week a deal with Australia to begin reducing import tariffs as early as next year, the Japanese agriculture ministry said.
UK interest rates have been held at their record low of 0.5% for another month by the Bank of England. On Thursday the Bank also kept the size of its bond-buying stimulus program unaltered at £375bn. No changes had been expected to either rates or the bond-buying measure, despite recent evidence that the UK economy is continuing to recover.