“The world is in a dangerous place,” Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesia’s finance minister, said in her closing remarks to the joint meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), held in Washington, DC, 10 through 16 October.
Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT
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WHEN THE ECONOMY FALLS JOBS GO WITH IT
The world is headed into Dragflation: Declining economic growth and rising inflation. This combination of rising prices and rising interest rates whereby people pay more to buy less has resulted in companies in many sectors to lay off employees.
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SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
The value of mergers and acquisitions that companies announced during the first nine months of this year is 34 percent below those making the news during the same period in 2021, data service Refinitiv reported.
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CHINA HALTS SALES OF LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS TO EUROPE
China will no longer ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe to help ease the continent’s energy crisis, the government has told gas exporters, Bloomberg reported.
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YEN SINKS TO LOWEST VALUE IN 32 YEARS
The Bank of Japan’s insistence on holding its key interest rate at -0.25 percent has driven the yen down still further, sinking it to ¥146.95 to the dollar on 12 October, the lowest since 1998, and driving it down to ¥148.90 on 17 October, its weakest since 1990.
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“BREATHTAKING” DROP IN DEMAND SHOCKS CHIP COMPANIES
Earlier this month, leading computer chip makers Samsung Electronics and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) reported earnings that fell far short of expectations, which many analysts interpreted as a sign that a lasting economic rebound is further away than previously thought, Bloomberg reported.
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TRUSS SACKS FINANCE CHIEF, BACKTRACKS ON MASSIVE TAX CUTS
After barely five weeks on the job, U.K. finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng got the boot from prime minister Liz Truss last Friday and was replaced by Jeremy Hunt, a veteran Conservative party politician and former foreign minister who immediately set about righting his predecessor’s wrongs.
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U.S., GERMANY CALL FOR “FUNDAMENTAL REFORM” OF WORLD BANK
At the World Bank’s annual meeting last week, Germany and the U.S. presented a proposal calling for “a fundamental reform” of the institution.
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ALMOST HALF OF CANADIAN HOUSEHOLDS NEARING INSOLVENCY
Forty-six percent of Canadian households report approaching “insolvency,” defined as no more than $200 away from being unable to meet their routine basic financial obligations, according to the quarterly Consumer Debt Index compiled by MNP, a Canadian bankruptcy and insolvency counseling firm.
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STRONG DOLLAR MEANS WEAKNESS IN EMERGING NATIONS
Sri Lanka and Zambia have defaulted on their debts, with another dozen countries at, or already tipping over, the edge of insolvency, Reuters reported.