The United Nations World Tourism Organization said Wednesday that international vacation travel could drop 2% this year as the global crisis worsens. This will be particularly evident following the bullish years, 2004/07 when growth averaged 7%.
Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will be holding a bilateral meeting next March 27th in Viña del Mar, Chile during the progressive leaders’ forum and most probably the Falklands/Malvinas claim issue will be on the table, according to reports in Buenos Aires daily La Nación.
The British government has offered a grant of up to £27 million to motor giant Land Rover to build a new vehicle. The company will make a decision later this year on whether to go ahead with the £400 million project at its factory at Halewood on Merseyside.
Chinese exports plunged by more than a quarter in February from a year ago as the world's third-largest economy was hit by a drop in demand for its goods. Exports dropped by 25.7% to 64.9 billion US dollars compared with the same month a year earlier, while imports fell by 24.1% to 60.1 billion according to official figures.
Norway’s Government Pension Fund suffered a 633 billion kroner equivalent to 92 billion US dollars loss on its investments in 2008. The loss, which amounts to some 125.000 kroner for every Norwegian, came after a sharp fall in global equity prices, head fund manager Yngve Slyngstad said Wednesday.
The head of the International Monetary Fund says the world economy is likely to shrink this year throwing millions into poverty, in what some are referring to as the Great Recession. IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told a conference in Tanzania Tuesday that sharp declines in world trade are likely to hurt African economies.
The global sea level looks set to rise far higher than forecast because of changes in the polar ice-sheets, a team of researchers has suggested. Scientists at a climate change summit in Copenhagen said earlier UN estimates were too low and that sea levels could rise by a metre or more by 2100.
The British Commonwealth Day which this year marks the sixtieth anniversary of its creation was celebrated on Monday 9 March throughout the 53 countries of the Commonwealth. Two Falkland Islands students participated in this year’s program.
The theme for the anniversary of the modern Commonwealth and underlined in Queen Elizabeth II message, was “The Commonwealth @ 60: serving a new generation”.
The global economy may soon see signs of improvement, according to the heads of the world's major central banks. European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet said that the world economy could be approaching a pick-up point.
Brazil should further reduce barriers to trade in order to boost its economy, particularly given the global economic downturn, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said in a report released Monday.