Economic Recovery May Come Too Late For Obama

The green shoots of recovery are growing a little taller. Newly released gross domestic product estimates   measuring consumer and government spending, investments and net exports   show the economy growing at 2 percent in the third quarter, up from 1.3 percent in the second. In normal times, this would be nothing to get excited about; average GDP growth between […]

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Africa’s Big Boom

Africa is undergoing a period of unprecedented economic growth. According to The Economist, six of the ten fastest-growing countries in 2011 were in Africa. Average external debt on the continent has fallen from 63% of GDP in 2000 to 22.2% this year, while average inflation now stands at 8%, down from 15% in 2000. This positive trend […]

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Slowdown In China Is Pushing World Towards New Crisis

A hard landing in China could expose a large number of countries to unforeseen consequences and dash hopes of a global recovery. China’s plight also drives the final nail into the coffin of the once fashionable theory of “decoupling”, which argued for an autonomous economic sphere around China that could soar even as the US […]

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How’s India’s Economy Going to Grow Now? Look to Its Farms

Its economic growth is stalling. So it may be time for India to squeeze more productivity out of its large, poor, sleepy and over-subsidized agricultural sector. Unlike China, India forgot to urbanize, researchers at Gavekal point out in a note.  And the first step of urbanization should have been land reform. Industrial economies often get there by handing farmers […]

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As China Slows, Australia Feels The Pain

The last time Australia was mired in recession, Boris Yeltsin had yet to stand on a tank in Moscow, and the Clinton era hadn’t begun. In 1991, Australian trade with China was a modest A$3.6 billion (about the same in U.S. dollars). In the preceding decade unemployment had averaged 7.8 percent, as Australia struggled to develop tourism […]

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How Politics and Perceptions Trump Economics (In Russia)

If you were to measure the recent economic performance of the world’s major countries — say, those that comprise the Group of 20 — you might be surprised to find Russia among the top performers by most common metrics. This outcome is a fact. For example, based on data compiled by The Economist, Russia’s real growth in gross domestic product in the first half of 2012 at 4.4 percent exceeded all […]

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