Group items tagged

Basically, article is about Egypt's endeavor to find foreign investors for financing infrastructure projects and increasing its dwindling foreign currency reserves. Two of the most important terms derived from the week 2 are scarcity and opportunity cost. Turkish investments of $20 bn dollars and 500 mio euros from the EU (depending on Egypt securying the loan from IMF) in Egyptian infrastructure and foreign currency reserves deficit have an opportunity cost of spending that amount of money for other purposes. In this article, Egypt's foreign currency reserves and budget are scarce, so Egypt wants to get money to reduce unemployment rate via economic growth (4.5 %). Here we also have the factor of production - this is capital which comes from investments in physical capital (infrastructure) and in my opinion also human capital (reducing unemployment, improving education and healthcare perhaps ...). One thing that will be crucial for Egypt is the factor of entrepreneurship.

The article talks about the reasons why countries keep foreign currencies. The main reason why the keep the reserves are to meet the international payment obligations in the long term and in the short term. Furthermore countries keep foreign currencies in order to pay imports or for commercial debts.

This article is about increased foreign direct investment to China despite its weakening economic growth. Not only does China receive inflowing FDI, but it also invests outflowing FDI into other places such as Japan. The investment comes even as China's economy show signs of slowing from the stellar growth rates of years past as the government looks to shift the emphasis to structural reform rather than growth for its own sake. One pillar of the reform drive is to make the economy driven more by the service sector and consumers, ending its traditional reliance on investment and exports for growth. The obvious reason why foreign-based MNCs want to invest into China is because of increasing sales or decreasing their profits. The question is what kind of pull factors China has to attract such high levels of FDI. Stable economic environment, political environment, low labour costs are primal reasons.

China has attracted 5.77% more foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first 10 months of the year, compared to 2012. Government figures show FDI totalled $97bn (£60.2bn) over the period. In October alone, the country attracted $8.4bn - an increase on a year earlier but down from September's figure.

India has further eased rules on foreign direct investment in a range of industries in an attempt to support the sliding currency and boost growth.The reforms still need clearance from the full cabinet.

When you're in a situation like Ukraine's, the last thing you want to worry about is stabilising your countries financial situation. Many western consumers have invested in Ukraine and, with the recent turmoil, some might worry that their investment will be worth nothing, soon. However, Ukraine's Finance Minister has stated that there is a plan to "restructure" the Ukrainian economy without defaulting on all the bonds sold to foreign investors. This might give those anxious investors a bit of comfort, but it's still hard to say whether the minister will be able to keep his word...

The article was initiated by a series of event regarding a man, Mark Shuttleworth that transferred money to the South African Reserve Bank. Through powers granted under exchange controls legislation, the South African Reserve Bank imposed a levy of 10% to the money deposed. A big scandal started around the court cases which brought up several good points for the economy of South Africa. It was stated that controlling currency flows gives smaller economies more stability as well as independence. The free flow of capital would also cause account deterioration, inflation and currency devaluation. It was also mentioned that large institutions in South Africa (like its reserve bank) are not interested in red tape or levies, but some how imposed on on Shuttleworth. In addition, they stated that free trade comes as a cost that comes in a form of lost tax revenues and a loss of jobs in South Africa.

This article discusses how there is a new law in Belarus that restricts the citizens of public use of foreign websites. "That would make it illegal for firms like Amazon or eBay to sell goods to customers in Belarus." This shows how the citizens in Belarus don't get the same opportunities to purchase things online as everyone else does around the world. The government is restricting public access of purchasing goods for the citizens of Belarus. Breaking the law has consequences "Fines for breaking the law range as high as 1m Belarus rubles ($120)."

I found this article very interesting, as it is the first article I have seen that mentions the correlation between having more people with higher education, and having a higher level of economic growth.

This article is talking about American economy, how the government is promising to make different changes to for example "respond to climate change". More than 8/10 americans think that washington should be paying more atttention to the local issues (jobs) than issues overseas.

The country was forced to take 67.5bn euros (£57.4bn) after its biggest banks almost collapsed in November 2010. A further 16.5bn euros (£14bn) was drawn out of the state's National Pensions Reserve Fund. The country is now in foreign debt.

This article offers a glimpse of recent fluctuations in foreign exchange market. I will narrow my focus down to the USD. If the U.S. Federal Reserve decides to keep up the spending on Treasuries or mortgage-backed securities, this means that the supply of USD on foreign exchange market will be sustained or perhaps even increase. This means that should the demand for USD stay constant, its value will depreciate. However in the end, the expectations of investors concerning the future growth/future path of the exchange make up arguably one the most important share of a currency's movement.

More and more Americans are dabbling in currency trading and losing in spectacular fashion. Experts say the structure of the currency market makes it hard for amateurs to beat the house.

Pound sterling / euro exchange rate has increased, meaning that pound sterling appreciates in value. That is due to a run of good economic data and Britain's industrial output in June rose much faster than forecast and hit its quickest pace in two years. I believe demand for sterling, which reflects the value of its exports of goods and services rose because of the peak tourist season in Britain (urgency to buy foreign currency) and increased industrial activity. However, as far as many economic analysts are concerned, sterling will continue to weaken in a long run...

Abbott confused on A$ - and that gift to the RBA Did Prime Minister Tony Abbott's confusion over economics and the strength of the Australian dollar lead him to mislead Parliament last week, and suggest the Reserve Bank had done a deal with the government to lower the value of the dollar?

This article highlights how certain macroeconomic indicators in India are suggesting that the Indian Economy may be recovering from a "valley" in India's Business Cycle. Aggregate Demand is increasing due to the increase in consumption (the article specifies tourism and domestic air travel). Furthermore, "foreign trade related indicators" have increased hinting at an increase in the aggregate supply of India as well.

This article is about the current inflation rate in Great Britain and its unchanging status in the past four years. Jeremy Cook, chief economist at the World First foreign exchange company said, "Home-grown price pressures are also increasing with transport, food and utilities boosting upwards in the latter part of 2012; this will continue to erode wage value through 2013, hurting consumer confidence and limiting spending."

As the article states: "The world's largest economies took a step toward common global guidelines for exchange-rate policies with a pledge Saturday to refrain from targeting their currency policies to gain a competitive trading advantage." This is well-involved in this week's topic, which is aggregate demand. Particularly, this article refers to its component, net exports (export revenue minus import expenditure, or simply X-M) and then its subsidiary component, changes in exchange rates. If a country's exchange rate becomes stronger, then this makes the country's exports more expensive to foreigners and vice versa. Manipulating with exchange rates can bring a certain country substantial trading advantage and this is what G-20 wants to overcome and allow free-trade market as it should be.

This article offers a short analysis of the Chinese export promotion: outward-oriented strategy to bolster economic growth with some causes for its slowing down. But export promotion is not sufficient to promote development and to ensure the sustainability of the growth-led process. Although China is a star of export- or outward-oriented strategy, there are some possible disadvantages as well, including dependence on foreign demand or worse income equality or environmental degradation as well as undermined care for social safety net. Export-oriented growth is a perfect example in economics that there are no absolutes and that everything is not white nor black but gray.

The situation occurring in India right now exemplifies the conflicts behind allowing MNCs to embed themselves in a developing economy. FDI is a great source of income for developing economy, being an instantaneous source of employment for in that economy and being a mutually beneficial setup for MNCs in need of additional labor. The problem is that FDI tends to just be a band-aid approach, helping to sustain the economy and cover its financial issues but not really allowing said economy to progress any further. What certain government parties are saying to the Indian government is that they want MNCs to be forced into some sort of investment in India's future growth if those companies are going to embed themselves in the country.