World & Politics
India to cut oil refining - 08/08/2019
India intends to reduce capacity of the new largest oil refinery, as the country needs to lower spending. The need to comply with stringent environmental measures when acquiring land resulted in an increase in total costs to $ 60 billion from $ 44 billion. India, together with the state-owned oil companies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, plans to build a giant refinery in the state of Maharashtra on...
Hong Kong increases consumption during anti-government protests - 08/05/2019
Hong Kong Government Statistics Agency (C&SD) published data showing that mass protests in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) affected macroeconomic indicators in the local economy. Hong Kong's GDP growth rate in the second quarter of 2019 was 0.6% year-on-year, while it almost reached 5% in 2018. The city, which was under British control until 1999, has been a refuge for Chinese political...
Saudi Arabia budget deficit rises to $ 8.9 bln - 08/01/2019
Saudi Arabia’s budget deficit grew larger in Q2 as officials are ramping up spending to spur a weak economy. The budget deficit reaches 33.5 billion riyals ($ 8.9 billion), compared with 7.4 billion riyals for the same period last year, the ministry said in a statement. Costs increased by 5% compared with the II quarter of last year. This can be explained by a significant increase in capital...
Scotland booes Johnson for no-deal Brexit - 07/31/2019
Boris Johnson chose Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales for his first visits. On July 29, he visited Edinburgh, where he met with First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon. Against the background of the looming no-deal Brexit, the new Prime Minister should really pay more attention to these regions. After Britain leaves the European Union without a deal, Northern Ireland and Scotland may say...
Lighthizer calls on Vietnam to reduce trade surplus with the US - 07/30/2019
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said that Vietnam should take steps to reduce its trade surplus with the US, reports Bloomberg. The US has a growing trade balance deficit with Vietnam, and the government "made it clear to Vietnam that it should take measures to reduce its unsustainable trade deficit," said Lighthizer in comments to the Senate Finance Committee. Measures to be taken by...
North Korea's GDP hits record low since 1990s famine - 07/29/2019
In 2018, North Korea’s GDP fell by 4.1%, which was the strongest decline since 1997. The main reason for the decline in the economy was tightening of sanctions in 2017 in connection with development of the DPRK nuclear program. At the same time, according to experts, the current decline in GDP is unlikely to result in devastating consequences like in the 1990s, when famine killed several million...
Will Italy suffer the fate of Greece? - 07/25/2019
Italy is going through difficult times. Poverty and unemployment rates in the country are rising, the national debt has reached inconceivable proportions, the economy is almost in stagnation. Now, experts are afraid that the fate of Greece befalls Italy. In 2018, 1.8 million households in the country lived in absolute poverty, the national statistical agency had previously calculated. This is...
UK chooses Boris Johnson to finish Brexit - 07/24/2019
Former Foreign Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson will now have to finish the issue with Brexit as he won the fight for the chair of the Conservative Party of Great Britain and, accordingly, the Prime Minister of the country. Boris Johnson promises that the United Kingdom will leave the EU on October 31, "with a deal with Brussels or without it." Boris Johnson has become the new leader...
European Commission is preparing multi-billion aid to Ireland in case of no-deal Brexit - 07/23/2019
The European Commission is busy preparing a package of assistance to Ireland in the amount of several billion pounds in compensation for the economic losses that may arise in the event of the UK leaving the European Union without a deal, writes The Times, referring to high-ranking officials in the European Union. It is specified, the European Union "will spend what is necessary" to support of the...
France is counting losses from the Yellow Jackets - 07/22/2019
The Saturday’s rally of the “Yellow Vests” turned out to be numerically insignificant and gathered 10.3 thousand people throughout France. The center of the protests was the city of Montpellier, where the protesters and their fellow antiglobalists staged a rally. The events in Montpellier will add to the government’s bill to the demonstrators. The report “The Effect of Yellow Vests”, made under...