World & Politics
Japan increases consumption tax from 8% to 10% - 10/01/2019
Starting from October 1, Japan increases its consumption tax from 8% to 10%, despite concerns that this would worsen the country's economy. Most of all, the tax hike is expected to affect poor families who have so far barely made ends meet, Kyodo News notes. Despite the fact that the majority of foodstuffs and drinks were taken out of the high taxation, the increase in prices for other everyday...
Kristalina Georgieva elected as IMF Head - 09/26/2019
Kristalina Georgieva, the sole candidate from the European Union, was elected for the post of managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for five years. The representative of Bulgaria was previously a member of the European Commission, and recently was the Executive Director of the World Bank. Georgieva, who will be the first leader from a country with a developing economy in...
States renew climate promises at UN Climate Action Summit - 09/25/2019
The UN climate summit ended in New York on Tuesday. No serious new promises were made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but many countries and companies announced renewal of renewable energy development plans, investments in the green economy and UN climate funds. From the results of the summit it follows that the climate agenda is still listed among the priorities of international politics,...
Lagarde: Trade war is the biggest threat to the global economy - 09/24/2019
Christine Lagarde, who is preparing to take the post of chairman of the European Central Bank, considers the trade war between the US and China the biggest threat to the global economy. Lagarde, who has been heading the International Monetary Fund since 2011, and will head the ECB on November 1, said the mutual duties between the United States and China would reduce global economic growth by 0.8%...
En + calls on aluminum producers to disclose emission figures - 09/23/2019
En + Executive Board Chairman Greg Barker has called on the London Metal Exchange (LME) to oblige aluminum producers who use the site to sell metal to disclose their carbon footprint. “As a first step towards significant emission reductions, every company in the sector should be much more transparent in disclosing carbon emissions from aluminum production,” Lord Barker, formerly UK Energy...
Companies increase climate commitments in the lead-up to Global Climate Strike - 09/20/2019
The global climate strike, scheduled for September 20, is expected to be held in 160 countries. Employees from major global corporations will take part in the event: for instance, more than 15 thousand employees of Amazon and employees of Microsoft are planning to join the protest in New York. Meanwhile, Head of Amazon spoke about the company's efforts to preserve the climate and the transition...
Allianz: China's slowdown and general economic uncertainty froze middle class growth - 09/20/2019
The slowdown in the growth of the global economy pinned the size of the global middle class at around 1 billion people. The growth of this part of the world's population stopped for the first time in the last ten years, Allianz experts note. Besides, total size of global financial assets of households froze at the level of € 172.5 trillion due to disruptions in the usual economic order. Financial...
Central Bank of Japan maintains monetary policy, notes possibility of easing - 09/19/2019
Following a two-day meeting, the Bank of Japan left the monetary policy unchanged, but signaled the possibility of expanding incentives. As expected, the interest rate on deposits of commercial banks with the Central Bank was maintained at minus 0.1%. The target yield of 10-year government bonds in Japan remained at about 0%. 7 out of 9 members of the Board of Governors voted for this decision....
US, Japan announce initial agreement on custom duties - 09/16/2019
Donald Trump announced final signing of the agreement in the coming weeks. The White House has published a statement by US President Donald Trump addressed to the US Congress. The statement reads that the negotiation process is nearing successful completion. "I am pleased to inform that my administration has reached a preliminary trade agreement on tariff barriers with Japan, and I intend to...
Experts’ debate: what does a cashless society mean? - 09/16/2019
The phenomenon is only just coming into debate but has been underway for many years: as time goes by, economies resort less and less to cash for payments, and increasingly to digital means. If cash is no longer king, what can we expect our societies and economies to look like tomorrow? The lay of the land A century ago, purchases as large as houses were often still made with cash,...
