World & Politics
South Korea is getting ready for election with COVID-19 outbreak - 03/19/2020
84 new cases of infection with coronavirus were registered in South Korea on Wednesday; the total number of cases rose to 8320 people. Although the peak of the epidemic is over, the authorities are tightening the procedure for entering the country and postponing the start of the school year for the third time. At the same time, the general elections scheduled for April 15 will be held on time. As...
Iran demands to lift US sanctions because of medical reasons - 03/18/2020
The coronavirus epidemic in Iran, which is becoming increasingly rampant, has forced Tehran to launch a diplomatic counteroffensive. The goal is to get rid of unilateral US sanctions against the Islamic Republic. The country’s government appealed to the UN Secretary General and world leaders, urging them to intensify their efforts to abolish Washington's punitive measures that prevent an...
Fitch: Coronavirus spread in EU adds to the region’s economic risks - 03/06/2020
Spread of the coronavirus COVID-2019 in the EU poses risks to the Eurozone economy, where Italy suffered the largest outbreak, analysts at Fitch, the international rating agency, say. The experts note the importance of urgent political measures for economic growth. The number of cases in Europe is relatively less than the total in the world: about 4.2 thousand in the EU and the Eurozone,...
Number of super-rich people grows by 6.4% worldwide in 2019 - 03/05/2020
According to Knight Frank consulting company, in 2019 number of people with net wealth of $ 30 million and above grew by 6.4% despite the slowdown in economic growth. Now there are more than 513 thousand of them around the world. In 2019, another 31 thousand people with net worth of $ 30 million or more appeared in the world. The growth was 6.4%. As Knight Frank consulting company noted in its...
"A feasible idea": World Bank introduces paper on universal basic income - 03/04/2020
A group of economists under the auspices of the World Bank Group issued a report systematizing the current state of the idea of “universal basic income”. Eventually, they concluded that the basic income and its analogues are practically feasible; it is more complicated and significantly more expensive than existing models as a means of improving the social protection. Perhaps, the idea does not...
Germany left without ice wine because of warm winter - 03/03/2020
For the first time in history, German winemakers were unable to harvest grapes for the production of ice wine (Eiswein), which is made from berries frozen on the vine. “2019 will go down in history as the first year when there was no harvest for ice wine throughout Germany,” the German Wine Institute (DWI) said in a statement. According to DWI spokesman Ernst Büscher, because of the warm winter,...
BCG updates Global Manufacturing Cost-Competitiveness Index, USA and Vietnam win - 03/02/2020
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)’s 2019 industrial production cost competitiveness rating shows the effects of the trade wars of the last five years: the United States significantly improved its global competitiveness last year mainly due to increased labor productivity. In the trade dispute between the United States and China, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian economies became the winning parties....
Trump administration requests $ 2.5B to fight coronavirus - 02/25/2020
On Monday, February 24, the US Presidential Administration Donald Trump requested $ 2.5 billion from congress to fight against coronavirus, AP reports citing a statement from the White House budgetary office. These funds will be used to develop a vaccine, provide medical care and personal protective equipment. Donald Trump’s administration is asking for $ 1.25 billion to directly fight the...
IMF: Global GDP will lose 0.1 pp of growth due to coronavirus - 02/24/2020
The situation with the spread of coronavirus will cost the global GDP about 0.1 percentage points of growth, if events develop according to the baseline scenario. China will lose about 0.4 percentage points of GDP compared with the forecast of the fund in January, said Head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva. "In our current baseline scenario... the Chinese economy will...
Merkel's party ranks third in Hamburg parliamentary elections - 02/24/2020
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) won the parliamentary elections in the federal state of Hamburg, follows from the calculation of the statistical bureau. The ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) gained 11.2%, ranking third. The SPD received 39% of the vote, the Greens - 24.2%. Both parties were included in the former government of the land. According to Die Zeit, the CDU has gained...
