World & Politics
Ten countries drowning in debt - 07/17/2017
The international rating agency Fitch Ratings warned that the growing debt burden represents a serious threat to global financial stability. More than 20% of the countries assessed by the agency in 2017 will achieve the maximum debt-to-GDP ratio. It is expected that more than 75% of developed sovereign markets, estimated by Fitch, will have a weaker primary balance in 2017 compared to 2016. This...
Venezuelan opposition arranges informal referendum on Constitutional Assembly - 07/17/2017
The opposition forces of Venezuela held an informal national referendum yesterday. Although the results are still unknown, it is clear that the referendum will help to identify attitude of citizens to the authorities' attempts to establish a so-called Constitutional Assembly. The Assembly will be entrusted with making fundamental changes to the constitution. The plebiscite, organized by the...
Will Macron become Trump's first ally in Europe? - 07/14/2017
President of the United States Donald Trump has arrived in Paris on his first visit. Against the backdrop of growing “Russian” problems, Donald Trump is earning points abroad, namely in France, the country of which he has previously spoken derogatory. After Donald Trump nearly broke ties with another informal leader of the EU, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuelle Macron...
ESM: Euro area needs a joint budget in case of crisis - 07/13/2017
The euro area should have a limited joint budgetary capacity to support individual member states in the event of a sudden crisis, head of the block's rescue fund said on Thursday before a meeting of leaders of France and Germany. Answering the question of whether German Chancellor Angela Merkel should support French President Emmanuel Macron in his bid to introduce a position of a single...
Big data brings billions to Northern Europe - 07/13/2017
Energy-intensive data centers are necessary for all web platforms, be it small-scale services or Google and Facebook. Once the main criterion for placing data centers was proximity to the client, but as demand increased and telecommunication technologies developed, costs began to play a decisive role in the data center’s selection. Cheap, stable electricity produced by hydropower, as well as ice...
EY: Paris loses to Dublin in the fight for banks - 07/12/2017
Large banks, insurers and other financial services companies prefer to move their headquarters to Dublin after Brexit, says Ernst & Young consulting company in a report. EY’s report called "UK Attractiveness for Financial Services Investors", shows that of the 222 companies that provide financial services that cooperate with EY, 59 said they would like to transfer some employees or create a...
France to relax financial regulation - 07/11/2017
France will continue to lower taxes, thus fulfilling promise of the country’s new President Emmanuel Macron, a source in the Ministry of Finance said. Macron intends to proceed with the new policy despite the official state audit body’s warnings about a budget hole of € 8 billion ($ 9.1 billion), Reuters writes. At a rally on Sunday, President said that reducing the property tax and luxury tax...
Canada is becoming an oil superpower - 07/11/2017
BP Statistical Review of World Energy states that Canada holds the third largest oil reserves in the world after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. At the end of last year, proven oil reserves were 171.5 billion barrels (27.6 billion tons). However, Canada’s deposits mainly consist of superheavy oil, which is a mixture of natural bitumen with sand and clay. The extraction is carried out by open pit...
Labor crisis in Japan is around the corner - 07/07/2017
Japan is drowning in an abundance of jobs. Yet, however similar it appeared to capitalistic dreams, this is in fact a huge economic problem. The huge labor shortage can be explained by Japan's disappointing demographic data, which have been observed for decades. The unemployment rate may be staggeringly low - at around 2.8%, but the falling volume of workforce is retarding growth and causing...
Brexit and US elections dented the euro’s position in the global economy - 07/07/2017
In 2016, role of the euro in the world economy as a whole weakened under the influence of geopolitical and other non-economic risks. Namely, it is about elections in the EU countries, instability of economic policy after Brexit and change of administration in the US, as well as because of the quantitative easing’s long-term effect on European financial markets, according to the ECB report....
