The Lastest Macroeconomic News
26.02.2017 20:05 Euro zone economy: real recovery or another Sirens` song?
Over the years, euro zone economic growth has been a bit like the Sirens in Homer`s Odyssey: singing a song of promise, only to end up pulling you onto the rocks. Will it be different this time? The strong growth registered in numerous data releases and surveys at the beginning of this year has surprised many. One eye-opening example was the release of flash purchasing managers indices for France, Germany and the euro zone on Feb 21. Of nine indexes, eight registered growth and six did so at a higher level than any economist polled by Reuters had imagined. Not surprisingly, economists and policy-makers are now looking for firm proof that the euro zone`s apparent rebound this year is sustainable, as well as noting a variety of potentially destructive economic and political hazards ahead.
24.02.2017 10:02 Increasing female employment rates will boost the GDP in OCED countries by 12%
The Global Women Principal PwC has released its `Women in Work Index` research stating the progress made and emphasizing the need to make more attempts in increasing female employment rates. The research highlights the ups and downs in the Index across OCED (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries. Gradually, OCED maintained the legacy of trotting towards progress; this year`s Index states. It is rapidly progressing towards greater female economic empowerment. The Nordic countries Iceland, Sweden and Norway occupy the top position in the Women in Work Index in terms of gender pay gap. Some very developed countries Korea, Japan and Germany lags behind in this list; having a very high pay gap. By fully closing the gender pay gap, we could increase the female earnings by $2 trillion; an increase of 23%.
21.02.2017 13:52 GDP growth is vital for China
The Chinese economy could be the world`s most perplexing phenomenon. Although a number of experts and columnists have repeatedly forecast that China`s economy would collapse, it has grown steadily to become the second largest in the world in terms of GDP and is set to overtake the United States` economy to become the largest. Chinese people have now become familiar with the China-collapse rhetoric, from the collapse of the Chinese society as a whole two decades ago to the more recent forecast of a financial and economic crisis triggered by its high debt levels and the bursting of real estate price bubbles. Contrary to such projections, the country`s economy has been resilient since the reform and opening-up were launched over 35 years ago.
19.02.2017 18:23 Where next for the world economy?
Just when you thought the future looked somewhat predictable, 2016 throws up a couple of major surprises. It seemed as though the world was on a path towards increasing globalization which would eventually see national governments replaced with political unions. Similarly, climate change was becoming more central to economic decisions, and a world where fossil fuels were no longer used did not seem all that far away. However, the UK`s decision to leave the EU and the election of Donald Trump as US President could change what appeared to be a relatively certain path for the world economy. Here`s how things could now work out.
16.02.2017 15:10 Russian Economy May Grow 2% in 2017
The Russian Economic Development Ministry expects the country`s economy to grow some two percent this year as the recovery begins to affect the broader population, ministry head Maxim Oreshkin said Wednesday. "In the start of 2017 the situation is also quote positive… In 2017 we expect growth to be broader, expanding into the consumer sector. We expect incomes to recover, there will be a positive tendency. We expect growth of some two percent in 2017," Oreshkin said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. So far, rail freight and the electricity sectors are showing the best growth figures, the minister added, noting that business confidence had reached the highest levels in over five years.
14.02.2017 10:17 E7 to reach 50% of world`s GDP by 2050, PwC says
The shift of global economic power to emerging economies is set to continue in the long run, with India, Indonesia and Vietnam among the star performers, professional services firm PwC Hungary says in a press statement sent to the Budapest Business Journal today. The long-term global economic power shift away from the established advanced economies is set to continue over the period to 2050, as emerging market countries continue to boost their share of world GDP in the long run, despite recent mixed performance in some of these economies, PwC says. This is one of the key findings of its latest report, entitled “World in 2050: The long view: how will the global economic order change by 2050?”
12.02.2017 11:57 Russia`s economy grows at $40 per barrel oil
The Russian economy will be on the positive side of growth even if the price of crude oil falls to $40 per barrel, the Central Bank of Russia said. Central Bank Gov. Elvira Nabiullina said Thursday the Russian economy stands to exhibit growth this year. The number of economic sectors expected to expand this year is not much greater than those in contraction, but losers are outnumbered. Much of the strength depends on the price of crude oil, however. "We will be in the positive zone in any scenario, even with $40 per barrel," she was quoted by Russian news agency Tass as saying.
09.02.2017 14:27 WHO: Global Cost of Smoking Nearly 2% of World GDP
The global economic cost of smoking accounted for nearly 2% of the world`s gross domestic product in 2012, or $1,436 billion U.S. dollars, according to "cost of illness" analysis from the World Health Organization (WHO). Around 40% of this cost was borne by developing countries, where the burden of smoking on health and disease continues to grow, stated Mark Goodchild, of WHO in Geneva, and colleagues noted in the BMJ journal Tobacco Control. The economic burden of smoking has been widely reported in the U.S. and other high-income countries, but Goodchild told MedPage Today that financial and statistical limitations have greatly limited the analysis of smoking costs in low- and middle-income regions. "We developed a consistent method using secondary data sources to measure the economic cost of smoking in a total of 152 countries representing 97% of the world`s smokers," he said.
07.02.2017 12:47 Italy Per-Capita GDP Lowest Since 1998
Almost two decades after the creation of the euro single currency, Italians are proving to be the big losers among the 19 member countries. Gross domestic product per capita in real terms shrank 0.4% in the last 18 years, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from the European Union statistics office up to 2015 and estimates for 2016. While Italy`s economy expanded 6.2% since 1998, its population increased by 6.6% over the period—thus accounting for the per-head drop. “The comparison with other countries clearly shows that the Italian economy has expanded at too-slow a pace over the period,” said Loredana Federico, an economist at UniCredit Bank AG in Milan. “It will be very difficult for Italy to close, in the years to come, the gap with other economies that already returned to the pre-crisis level or even surpassed it.”
04.02.2017 20:49 Euler Hermes: Global GDP expected to grow 2.8 per cent in 2017
Euler Hermes, a leading provider of trade-related credit insurance solutions, expects the world GDP to grow by 2.8 per cent year on year in 2017. With the smooth transition of the US presidency from Barack Obama to Donald Trump being completed, the focus on the global economy shifts now to the four blocks United States, Euro zone, China and the Emerging Markets. “This slight pick-up may be due to a large extent to the acceleration in the United States, the exit from recession in Russia and Brazil, and the resilience in Europe and Asia,” said Jules Kappeler, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Euler Hermes GCC. Jules added: “We expect that the GDP growth journey will continue in the GCC and particularly in the UAE, but at a slower pace due to the impact of the oil price and the time needed for the fiscal reforms to bear fruits.”