Economics HL - Jacob Solomon's group - Year 1

This article provides evidence and data of Egypt's Export DEvelopment Fund and the promoting of exports in the first half of the fiscal year. Revenue from exports positively impacted the economy, and the EDF seeks to continue to improve the export benefits entering the nation.

This article suggests that export promotion might not always be beneficial for manufacturers that export their goods, even though this is often why it is implemented.

This article talks about India and its current account deficit. Import substitution is a good way to reduce current account deficit by reducing the import expenditure.

This article discusses the potential of European and Asian nations collaboration to achieve economic growth and face the problems of various nations. "Dealing with these problems and overcoming them requires cooperation, strengthening convergence, and utilizing regional potential properly." 

This article describes a perspective on economic growth and development in Nigeria. Particularly, it focuses on the development of the manufacturing sector in this country in an attempt to fuel economic growth and therefore contribute to development.

This article describes Bolivia's attempt to join the Mercosur trade bloc in South America, which we learned about this week. There are obvious benefits to the trade bloc that it wishes to exploit, but some people don't feel it is ready to join the trade bloc.

This article talks about the sad outlook of eurozone. Eurozone is an example of monetary union/currency union. We can clearly see that the effects of economic downturn affect different countries to a different degree. Greece, Spain, and Ireland are much more heavily affected than the rest. This is the same as the crisis mentioned in this article as the 70s to 80s crisis. Shocks will affect different countries differently--a shortcoming of monetary union.

Venezuela's ports were nationalised in 2010 during a recession. However, now especially during the festive period imports have almost doubled. This has caused a large build up in the ports. Venezuela have just joined the trade bloc, Mercosur. This will cause a larger increase in imports due to the removing of trade barriers. Therefore, the poor infrastructure must be improved. A new container terminal has been suggested to try to cope with this.

This article discusses the potential difficulties of the Mercosur trade bloc in South America. Disputes amongst the members is causing distress to the economic system, and political isolation and dispute are becoming obstacles to economic collaboration.

Slowing exports and foreign investment have widened the current account deficit. Global ratings agencies have repeatedly warned India that it faces a credit downgrade if it does not tackle a high debt burden and the fiscal deficit, which is the largest among major emerging economies.

The balance of payments records two different kinds of transactions: cross-border payments for goods and services (ie, exports and imports), which are recorded in the "current account", and cross-border payments for assets. China's current account is still in surplus, largely because its exports exceed its imports. China is also attracting plenty of direct investment from foreigners eager to buy or build companies on the mainland. But both these inflows of foreign exchange were outdone by a record outflow of other kinds of capital, amounting to a net $110 billion. This left China's overall balance of payments in deficit, diminishing China's international reserves by $11.8 billion (or just under 0.4%).

This article describes the Czech current account balance. The current account is experiencing a widening deficit, as a result of "the outflow of dividends outweighing the foreign-trade surplus". This means that, although this country is experiencing good trade, too much investment in the country is leading to outflow of money to foreign investors.

Eurozone's deficit has widened sharply in the past year impacting investors and trading partners.

This article explores the causes and outcomes of a rising current account deficit in Australia. The central bank is evaluating different options to try and balance the current account deficit by manipulating imports and exports, as well as adjusting the value of currency.

This article discusses the balance of payments in Ukraine, and details many of the various aspects of the balance of payments that we have studied this week.

A lot of movement in the reserve assets component of the financial account in India is causing stress for the balance fo payments. Demand for gold is increasing, and because of great returns on investment and the affinity for gold in India, demand is increasing. The determinants of demand are highly responsible for maintaining this instability in current account deficit and "stress on the system" for the Reserve Bank of India.

The article talks about how India's switch of economic policy led to a recovery and is now in rapid economic growth. "Even if capital flows were to reduce to zero as they did in 2008, following the collapse of Leman Brothers, reserves would drop by only $40 billion over twelve months, still leaving a healthy $250 billion or so of cover." The article ends with advice on how India can further strengthen their current state by increasing foreign investments.

This article tells the balance of payments of Ghana skyrockets comparing to the same period in 2011. The main reason is the falling price of cocoa beans, which is a main export of Ghana, and the falling export volumes. With the export going down and imports of oil, and other non-oil imports skyrocket, the balance of payment become negative value.

This article describes the decrease in currency value of the rupee, which the central bank is trying to correct by selling dollars and purchasing their own currency.