World & Politics
US revises policy toward Iran - 02/03/2017
The US administration of President Donald Trump started to re-build relationship with Iran, one of the main geopolitical rival of Washington. Mr. Trump yesterday criticized Tehran for test firing with medium-range missiles. Besides, he made it clear that he is extremely unhappy with terms of the nuclear agreement concluded in 2015, which previous President Barack Obama considered one of the major...
British Parliament launches the Brexit process - 02/02/2017
Yesterday, British MPs finished two-day debate on a bill, which opens a way for negotiations between London and Brussels on Brexit conditions. The majority voted in favor of a "civilized divorce", which can officially start on March 9th. British Prime Minister Theresa May is charged with a difficult task to defend the government’s positions on two fronts. Not only has she to persuade European...
India is dissatisfied with leading rating agencies - 02/01/2017
India questioned methodology used by international rating agencies. The country expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that ratings of the third largest Asian economy have not increased despite acceleration in the economic growth and improvement of main indicators, Bloomberg reported. "The rating agencies have conflicting standards", - said Chief Economic Adviser to the Ministry of Finance...
Saudi Arabia says farewell to tax-free life - 01/31/2017
Tax-free life may soon become history for people of Saudi Arabia, as the country's government approved introduction of value added tax, proposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), reports The Guardian. The 5% tax will be applied to certain products in accordance with agreement on cooperation of the six Gulf countries, which was reached in June 2016. Residents of the region have long...
PwC: 2017 will be a year of uncertainty for many countries - 01/31/2017
PwC released its annual economic outlook for 2017, which indicates the main trends to be tracked in the global economy in the current year. Analysts of the agency believe that such forecasts are important for business planning and future investing. Globalization recedes According to PwC’s expectations, the world trade will be growing slower than world production for the third consecutive year....
Benoît Hamon turns France left - 01/30/2017
France has had the second round of party primaries. Now, there are two candidates left out from seven - former Prime Minister Manuel Valls and former Minister of Education and Science Benoît Hamon, who won with a convincing advantage of preliminary 58.65% in his favor. 7,5 thousand polling stations had been opened since nine in the morning across France. From 1.9 million to 2.1 million people...
What to expect from Theresa May's visit to the United States? - 01/27/2017
British Prime Minister Theresa May and US President Donald Trump are meeting in Washington this Friday, 27 January. There’s no surprise in the fact that Mrs. May is the first foreign leader to hold talks with the new master of the White House. Both countries have a long history of cooperation and traditionally occupy similar positions on global policy. For this reason, the US-British relations...
Demographia: Housing in Hong Kong is the most expensive in the world - 01/25/2017
According to annual report of Demographia research company, housing in Hong Kong was the least affordable in the world in 2016. Average cost of real estate there was 18.1 times higher than average annual household income. In total, Demographia’s analysts have studied more than 400 cities in nine countries. Of them, New Zealand (5.9) and Australia (5.5) are noted as states with the most expensive...
Ten facts about Barack Obama’s presidency - 01/24/2017
Barack Obama was the 44th US president, and his 8-year presidential term ended on January 20. During these eight years, the country was faced with the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. As a result, the U.S. has changed its economy and political system. In addition, during all eight years the country has been at war with different groups and for different reasons. All changes,...
Depleted oil fields are a stumbling block to Scotland's independence - 01/23/2017
Over the past 40 years, oil and gas fields in the North Sea have been one of the major "cash cows" of the British Treasury. However, new calculations show that the situation can soon change dramatically. Decommissioning of old wells would require a total of about £ 24 billion of taxpayers' money, which is more than expected profit from extraction of remaining resources in the fields (and more...
