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Home/ IB Economics SL LG/ Contents contributed and discussions participated by Andrzej Z

Contents contributed and discussions participated by Andrzej Z

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Turkey attracts $12.6 billion FDI, down 4 percent - 1 views

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    I have chosen this article because it is related with our current topic FDI and because I think that Turkey is one of the developing countries that are making a very good use of it. The article reports the distribution of the FDI in the economy and the changes in FDI from last year. According to the article: "Turkey received foreign direct investment (FDI) of $12.6 billion in 2013, a drop of 4.1 percent compared to 2012". I think that nowadays one of the biggest advantages of Turkey is the closeness to the EU market. This advantage and the good infrastructural base grant Turkey a great potential.
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Rio to focus on import substitution industry - 1 views

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    I have chosen this article because it is really related to our current topic of economic development. It is an article about how the change in the Indonesian law will allow the government to impose import substitution and thus reduce the reliance of the Indonesian economy on the imports from foreign countries. This may be very positive for the Indonesian economy because it will force domestic producers to be more efficient and employ more factors of production, what will probably lead to economic growth and decrease in unemployment.
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Russian Foreign Ministry Criticizes EU Countries - 0 views

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    I have chosen this article because I think the situation it reports is a bit ironic. Russia's Foreign Ministry is criticizing the human rights situation in Europe without presenting any facts, while in the human development ranking; they occupy the 55th position in the world, behind every EU country except for Romania (56th) and Bulgaria (57th). The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income indices used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. I disagree with the opinion expressed by the article because since the establishment of UE there has been made a huge step towards the increase of equality in the member countries. For example, the highest scores in gender equality are achieved by European countries like Finland or Iceland.
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Gwadar port key to country's socio-economic development - 0 views

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    I choose this article because I think that it shows very well how sometimes we confuse economic growth with economic development. The article reports the benefits that the Gwardar port project would bring. According to the article the creation of this port should boost employment and it should lead to the creation of infrastructure that millions of vehicles would use. It is true that a big project normally creates employment, however in poor countries this project are normally created by international companies that pays small wages to the workers to reduce costs of production. For example, in Qatar there are many workers working in the construction of stadiums for the World Cup in 2022 but they face terrible conditions. If wages are small, the standard of life in Islamabad won't increase and they country will not achieve economic development. Also if this project will lead to a big increase in the number of vehicles in the country the environmental conditions will worse and the possible economic development may not become true.
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Russia-led bloc set to expand borders - 0 views

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    It is an article about the trade bloc created between Byelorussia, Russia and Kazakhstan. This Customs Union in its three-member format of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan still appears tiny beside the European Union, however countries like Kyrgyzstan and Armenia have declared interest in joining this group due to the energetic privileges that Russia offers to the countries members. One of the strongest points of this Custom Union is its large population that creates a big consumer market. On the other side the countries members of this block will have to accept the high interest rates of the Russian government. This article has a very good conclusion that I Would like to write down: ''The market is global but there is no global regulation,'' Valovaya says. The response has been a rush to recruit nations into regional trade blocs. It is a rivalry recalling the Cold War, but these new trade groups are mostly creedless structures, able to espouse little if any distinguishing ideology.
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U.S. trade deficit climbs 8 pct - 1 views

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    It is an article about the trade deficit in U.S. The U.S. trade deficit with China rose slightly in September to the record monthly level of $30.5 billion. The U.S is a country that normally imports more than they export. One of the factors that contribute to this situation is the fact than many countries in Asia, especially China, are undervaluing their currency what cause an increase in the imports of Asian products in the U.S. Trade deficit is not a new problem, the U.S has been running a trade deficit for more than 20 years. There is a big concern among policymakers about this situation, many of them argue that in some moment foreign countries will stop lending money to the U.S, and the U.S will have to start to repay its debts. This could drive the value of the dollar down, force U.S. interest rates higher, and consequently stifle economic activity. On the other hand there are economists that argue that the trade balance is not a good indicator of economic. They consider that we should look at national savings rate.
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US TRADE DEFICIT HITS HIGHEST LEVEL IN MONTHS - 1 views

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    It is an article related to the balance of payments topic. This article reports the situation of the US current account. The US current account is facing a deficit because they country is importing more than they export. The US needs many imported products and commodities to meet the consumers demand. This demand for products and commodities from foreign countries (especially oil) has been rising for the last 20 years and so has the US current account deficit.
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Strong euro leaves ECB divided over how to respond - 2 views

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    Here we have an article about the current value of the Euro. It is a perfect example of a situation when a country (in this case a group of countries) would like to have a weaker currency. Why the euro zone wants a weak currency? Because the country within UE are trying to increase employment and a low exchange rate means more exports and more domestically produced goods. The bad side of the weak currency is an increase in inflation however the rate of inflation in Europe is very low and unemployment is very high, so the European central bank will try to balance both values.
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CBN bans importation of foreign currencies - 0 views

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    It is an article about the Nigerian government that has banned the importation of foreign currency in order to protect the Nigerian currency. It is worth to point out that there were indications that the latest move was sequel to the bank's withdrawal of the operating licenses of 20 Bureaux de Change found to have purchased and sold huge sums of dollars with no documentation to show details of the transactions. The low value of the Nigerian currency has affecting negatively the society because more domestic producers are only accepting the dollar as a means of payment. The government reports that the continued import of dollars would have a devastated effect on the Nigerian economy because it would gradually become dorallized.
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Chinese farm protectionism rising - 2 views

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    Here we have a great article about protectionism and export subsidies in China. Export subsidies are often used by governments to increase exports. Export subsidies have the opposite effect of export tariffs because exporters get payment, which is a percentage or proportion of the value of exported. Export subsidies increase the amount of trade, and in a country with floating exchange rates, have effects similar to import subsidies. If China continues with high export subsidies they will probably invite retaliatory actions by foreign governments what reduces the benefits that can be gained from international trade by all consumers and producers in all countries
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Chinese antisubsidy tariff on U.S. solar-panel materials adds to previous levy for dumping - 0 views

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    It is an article about the government of China that has decided to impose a 6.5% tariff on materials from most U.S. polysilicon suppliers. A tariff is a tax that is charged on imported goods. The Chinese government decide to impose this tariff in order to prevent dumping from USA. Dumping is the selling by a country of large quantities of a commodity, at a price lower than its production cost, in another country. However it is difficult to deduce if this tariff is imposed to prevent dumpling or if it is a revenge for the tariff that the USA government imposed Chinese-made solar cells one year ago. I think that the Chinese government should talk first with the USA government because protectionism is a very dangerous weapon because it often invite to retaliatory actions. This may reduce the benefits that can be gained from international trade by all consumers and producers in all countries.
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Japan may bring S. Korea fish import ban to WTO - 0 views

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    It is an article about fish trade between South Korea and Japan. The korean government want to ban the import of fish from Japan because they are afraid of the radioactive water leaks from the Fukushima reactor. This ban on the the fish import from Japan will have an important effect on consumers from Korea because Korean consumers will have a smaller choice of fish to buy and the prices from the local producers may be higher. It will also have effect on the Japanese market because the demand for fishes will decrease and Japanese producers will be probably forced to reduce the production.
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Africa: Invest in Human Capital for Africa Growth - 0 views

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    It is an article about supply side policies in Africa specially investing in human capital in order to increase the potential output of the African countries. We know that education creates positive externalities and the benefits of education and training are not just felt by those who receive education, it will help the economy as a whole because it will increase the potential output of the economy. Greater regional integration and investment in social entrepreneurship and industry are also necessary for inclusive growth. Competition hast the effect of encouraging greater efficiency. Therefore, any policies that increase competition will increase efficiency and improve the productive potential of an economy. After reading this article I research a bit about the economic growth in Africa and I found this: Six of the world's ten fastest growing economies of the past decade are in sub-Saharan Africa. A clutch of countries have enjoyed growth in income per person of more than 5% a year since 2007.
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Poland cuts interest rates as growth, inflation slow - 0 views

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    It is a nice article about the central bank in my country Poland. The central bank in poland uses changes in interest rates to keep the inflation rate within the targeted range of 2.5% plus or minus 1%. This week the central bank has reduced the key rate by 25 basis points to 3 percent. As we know, a decrease in inflation will lead to the increase in consumption and investment. The consumption is the total spending of consumers in domestic products. With lower interest rates, consumers will borrow more money from the bank and they will spend more, so the AD curve will shift to the right. Investment is defined as the addition of capital stock to the economy. Lower interest rates will encourage the producers to spend more on investment. Another thing to take into consideration is that the decrease in inflation will make the exports from Poland more competitive in foreign countries where the inflation rate is much higher. Targeting inflation, whether explicitly or implicitly, is said to be beneficial as it results in a reduction in inflationary expectations. If the workers do not expect higher inflation then they will not make demands for increases in wages any higher than the expected rate of inflation and this will keep the costs of labour from rising excessively. Poland has enjoyed uninterrupted annual growth for the past two decades, and for a while after the financial crisis of 2008/9 the economy continued to defy the global downturn. However last year gross domestic product growth slowed to about two percent, less than half the pace in 2011, as infrastructure spending tailed off and the gloom from the euro zone started to filter through to previously bullish Polish consumers.
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Axa Fram's Thompson: Fiscal policy can ensure emerging market growth - 0 views

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    It is an article about the important of fiscal policies in the emergent economies, where the fiscal policies remain very conservative. The fiscal policy would be very helpful to continue the economic growth and create jobs. The fiscal policy is a very good method to encourage greater consumption or investments, and as when know, when there is an increase in investments or consumption there will be an increase in the aggregate demand. Axa Framlington fund manager Julian use as example the Mexico's economy that is demonstrating a strong economic growth because they use efficiently the fiscal policy.
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UN report sees 6pc economic growth for E Africa - 0 views

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    I choose this article because it's surprising that the countries in Africa are experimenting a big economic growth. The article reports that Economic growth in East Africa, including Kenya, is expected to remain among the fastest in Africa this year aided by natural resource discoveries, improved agricultural performance, and economic diversification, a new report showed. The main reason for this economic growth are the natural resources, we have to remember that in Africa there are huge quantities on natural resources. In Africa the main problem is the inequality because the power and the resources are in the hand of few. There are international companies that controls the big parts of the resources. Another issue to take into consideration is that I some Africans countries the government aren't working properly because they use the money to buy weapons or they use the money for they own benefit.
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Claims for unemployment benefits hit 5-year low - 0 views

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    I find this article very interesting because it is really related to our actual theme and it is about a recent topic. It talks about the decrease in the unemployment benefits and the decrease in the unemployment rate is USA. The unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.7%, however, is not so low because probably in the USA there is a big hidden unemployment (people who are working in an industry that doesn't utilize their skill set properly or those who have given up on looking for another job are not counted in the official figures and are thus considered a part of hidden unemployment). The good aspect is that the government is reducing the spending's on the unemployment benefits. The unemployment have very big costs, cost for the unemployed people (they receive less employment and some of them suffer mental problems like depression), the society (poverty, homelessness, higher rates of crime and vandalism, increased gang activities, however not all of them are created by the unemployment) and the whole economy (It´s not operating at full capacity).
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Spain digs deeper into recession, not out - 0 views

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    It is an article about the recession and unemployment in Spain. The unemployment is a very serious problem in Spain because the rate of unemployment is about 25% or more so is a lot. This article report that the Spanish situation is stabilizing but we can´t assume that is the end of the recession and the start of the new business cycle. The business cycle is the periodic fluctuations in economic activity measured by changes in real GDP. Output cannot continue to fall for ever as there will always be some people with jobs to maintain a given level of consumption, foreigners will demand exports, governments will continue to spend by running budget deficits, and people will be able to use savings to finance their consumption. Additionally, the low demand for money for investment will result in lower interest rates. Thus, aggregate demand will pick up, the economy will enter the recovery phase, and the cycle will repeat itself. So after the recession the national economy of Spain will suffer an economic growth, the amount of the goods and services produced by an economy over time will increase.
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Gas prices going up - 0 views

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    This article talk about the price of a gallon of 95 octane will increase 22 cents to $4.54. The price of 91 octane will increase 20 cents to $4.16. Diesel prices will go up 15 cents to $4.08. I´ve found this article and I think that is related to our actual topic aggregate supply because an increase in the price of the natural gas will have an impact on all industries, as oil is widely used in a lot of production processes. This will lead to a shift of the aggregate supply curve because the factors of production will be more expensive and at higher level price the producer will reduce the total amount of goods and services
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India's consumption story is slowing - 2 views

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    It's a nice article about the consumption in India. The consumption do durable and non-durable goods in India is decreasing at the same time as the inflation is increasing. The value of money is not the same as it was before, so the consumer can't buy the same quantity of products and this reduce the output of the consumers. The interest rates are relatively high so the households prefer to save money at a higher interest rate than loan money from the bank. The decrease of the consumption is real problem for the industrial production, according to the author I think that lower interest rates and reform measures may be able to revive the consumption. Also in my opinion the government should think about new monetary policies to reduce the inflation because the inflation at 10.8% is a serious problem.
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