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The article explains how the German retail sales decreased by 0.9 percent in July, as a result of the increasing fuel prices.  The inflated prices of fuel have caused the consumption on other goods and services of households in Germany to decrease. Consumption is one of the four factors that affects the aggregate demand or the total demand for final goods and services in an economy at a given time and price level, in an economy. Therefore, if consumption of households decreases the aggregate demand in an economy also decreases. Hence, the aggregate demand in Germany's economy has decreased significantly and therefore their retail sales have also decreased, by 0.9 percent as the article claims. This is because if consumption is lower than the units of output sold are also lower. 

Unemployment is Greece has reached its highest point, 23.1% from only 8% before the economic crisis two years ago. 672,000 out of 800,000 registered unemployed people are not receiving any unemployment benefits and therefore have no income at all. This means there is a huge number of people who are not able purchase goods and services so the overall consumption is decreasing. Unemployment is costing Greece about five billion per year. Minimum wages have also been cut by 23% which are increasing the costs for the government.  This had led to an $81 billion decrease in consumption and the shutting down of thousands of businesses which means the aggregate demand curve has shifted to the left, decreasing consumption in the country. The economy in Greece has shrunk by 7%, meaning it is in recession. 

At the moment globally there has been a spike in food prices. One of the causes has been the severe droughts in the United states which have driven up the food prices. In response to this inflation the government of Brazil decided to reduce taxes on basic household goods to support an economic recovery. This action also leads to stabler prices, which is one of the macro-economic goals of a country. The tax break on household goods allows for a increase in consumption as consumers will feel wealthier and have an increase in purchasing power. As a result this will increase Brazil's GDP to a certain extent as Consumption is one of the factors that influence the gross national product. 

According to this Article inflation in Turkey increased to 10.45% and the central bank's Inflation rate was 5.5%. This difference in inflation rate occurs because when a country's central bank tries to fight inflation, as is being done in Turkey, the nominal interest rate will still tend to increase. Consequently, investment and consumption are discouraged due to the high inflation rate set by banks. This is because firms will not invest anymore because it is more expensive to borrow money and consume. In addition, consumption will decrease because the cost of borrowing money to consume large goods such as cars or houses is a lot more expensive.  

This article discusses the need for the U.K. government to "show some political backbone" by becoming more enterprise friendly in order to stimulate the badly required growth of their economy. U.K. business leaders have become increasingly concerned as the CBI has predicted that the U.K. economy will shrink by 0.3% this year. This fall in GDP is a sign that the country is entering a double-dip recession. The reason behind this is declining exports, the on-going euro crisis, a stagnant economy since the coalition, reduced borrowing on credit cards, an increase in unemployment and a lack of household spending. A reduced borrowing on credit cards and lack of household spending directly affects GDP as GDP can be calculated using the expenditure method, where household consumption is one of the factors taken into consideration. If consumption falls, so does GDP. In order to prevent the GDP from falling further and to promote economic growth, schemes such as tax breaks for small firms taking on extra workers ,schemes that boost the mortgage and household market and schemes that support household expenditure have been implemented. This could lead to a rise in employment as well as expenditures, causing GDP to grow. 

This article describes how the Brazilian government tries to increase investment and consumption through tax cuts. In particular on trucks, machinery, and automobiles the government reduces or gives an extension on the taxes. Another measure to stimulate investment in the country is via reducing its interest rate to an all-time low of 7.5 %. 

This article talks about South Korea's exports falling for the six month in a row. Exports in South Korea in August fell by 6.2%. Because of this the AD curve would shift to the left. A fall in exports does not mean there has been a fall in income in South Korea, but rather a fall in the national level of income in other countries, which means people are not importing as much as they previously were. When people have a lower income, or when people perceive the economy to be shrinking, they save more money, which means they are not consuming as much. This fall in consumption has an effect inside the country in the form of consumption, but also outside of the country in the form of a decrease in imports. 

Ireland's high current unemployment rate of 14.9 percent is a result from its economic situation : Ireland is in a recession. The article clearly stipulates this, there is a 'recession in the real domestic economy'. The recession arose from the housing bubble : mortgages were cheap, people overborrowed and then the high housing prices fell so that people were less wealthy and no longer able to pay their mortgages. Wealth is a determinant of AD. It is the added value of all assets or stocks. If wealth or perceived wealth increases, then so will a household's consumption of goods, thereby shifting demand, as the household feels 'wealthier' or able to purchase more. The reverse is also the case, when wealth declines, demand declines, such as in Ireland. The Irish were much less willing to consume goods, as they believed they were less wealthy or had less money( which they eventually did , upon having to pay mortgages; debt), and so consumption decreased, which thus shifted aggregate demand into a demand slide recession. This is a situation where prices in a nation inflate and output decreases, due to the lesser demand. If less is being produced, less factors of production are required. Thus labor, a major factor of production is no longer required in the economy, which gives firms the incentive to lay off many of their workers. This is the unemployment Ireland is experiencing. It is interesting that the article also depicts the  'austerity drive'  that the Irish government resulted to in the recession.  As it correctly suggests, this is 'self defeating', as during a demand slide recession the Keynesian policy follows that the government should not save its funding, but rather spend. In a time of recession, the government should spend,  so as to decrease unemployment stimulate the economy. If the government spends, this will have a multiplier effect through the economy, as it provides income to households ( by spending, the government employs labor), where househo

Indonesia has been experiencing rapid economic growth which has increased the size of the middle class as well as their disposable incomes. The article describes how an increase in required down-payments on cars and houses may decrease the growth in Indonesia's economy. Last year the automotive finance growth of banks was 55%, the highest in the world. They have noticed that this is an unsustainable rate of growth. Due to these fears the Indonesian central bank has placed new regulations which will make buyers pay higher down-payments when making a purchase on credit. These down-payments have been increased from originally 10-20% to 30% and more. With that households see themselves with less money available for consumption. The new regulations may also result in a dip in property sales as aggregate demand decreases. However on the other side it may also only defer sales, since people will safe longer until they buy property. 

India's inflation rate rose to 7.55% in August, rise that was much faster than expected by analysts. The primary reason behind this is a rise in India's food prices. In order to decrease inflation and lower prices, the Reserve Bank of India tried to raise interest rates. This should cause a decrease in consumption and demand. Thus in the long-run, disinflation will occur as firms will be forced to lower prices in order to maintain a profit. However, altering interest rates has been tricky for central policy-makers as India imports a large quantity of their food from the US, who ultimately have control the prices.  The US will probably add to India's inflation as they are "likely to push up global commodity prices".  Even through raising interest rates, which can be damaging as they hurt businesses and consumer confidence, India still has little control over global prices. As a result, India's inflation will raise even. 

China has accused Italy, Greece and the EU for supposedly illegally subsidizing domestic solar manufactururs (suspected that due to a decline in Italian imports of Chinese Solar panels.)  The US international Trade Commision then made a locked tariff of 24-36% on imported solar panels from China.  A year ago the Coalition of american Solar Manufacturers filed antidumping cases against China, saying they were flooding the US market with inexpensive and heavily subsidized solar panels that the US couldnt compete with.  The US fears that China is dumping because it means their domestic producers are not able to compete in the market for solar panels. Therefore this high tariff of 24-36% has been imposed to promote consumption of domestic solar panels. 

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has advised the UK government to ease its fiscal policy because of the danger of the economy entering another recession. The UK fiscal policy is unintentionally causing deficient demand. Demand was already relatively low as private and public sectors were focusing on paying off their debts. This decline in demand has lead to a decrease in consumption and a fall in GDP. Also, businesses have become reluctant to invest due to the uncertainty about domestic and foreign demand. The UK government has been cautious about easing their fiscal policy because of their desire to achieve their fiscal goals, which they have been relatively successful in reaching so far, as stated by a Treasury spokesman who said: "… the government's commitment to deficit reduction has helped maintain market confidence". A way for the UK to ease their fiscal policy and subsequently increase demand would be to cut taxes, which would allow households to have a higher level of disposable income and firms would be incentivized to invest more because of the rising domestic demand.  

Currently the economic growth forecast of South Africa isn't looking as promising as thought, while  additionally its budget deficit is going to be higher than promised. 4.8 percent of GDP instead of 4.6 percent. According to the president, Gordhan, this is due to slower economic growth and not due to increase in government spending. He emphasizes that there will be no increase in government spending. From a neoclassical side this is a good thing as an increase in spending accompanied by a decrease in taxes will only further increase the governments budget deficit. The mining strikes ongoing in South Africa have had two significant consequences. 1. more people have become unemployed due to the strikes for higher wages.2. Offshore investors are worried that the government will increase spending to ease the social tensions. As a result both decreases AD as there is less consumption and investment. 

This article mentions exports in correlation to a country's GDP - more specifically, Russia's GDP. As one of the world's largest energy suppliers, a lot of Russia's GDP is made up of the amount of exports of their energy goods. As the article says, when oil prices went down in 2009, Russia's GDP decreased dramatically, by about 8%, and when oil prices increased again it rose by 4.2%. Such a high amount of exports suggest high independance. Russia does not rely on other countries to sustain its energy consumption. Also, Russia makes a lot of money from these exports - all of which are injections into the economy. Russian citizens buy the oil because it will likely be cheaper in Russia, as there is so much of it - and the cost of exporting has not yet been included, either. As well as this, foreigners will buy it because they have little other choice. This gives Russia a lot of market power. 

This article discusses the changes which European Union officials are planning for the future in order to ensure economic growth. One of the changes mentioned are the Spanish borrowing costs which will be pushed up to their highest levels for four months. In the short-run this will mean less spending from consumers, but in the long run will ensure a significant decrease in debt. Furthermore, they have called on national governments to "implement a series of job-creating policies". These include cutting labor-related taxes, as well as shifting the burden to property, energy and emission levels. These particular changes will cause a rightward shift in aggregate demand as there is an increase in government spending. Moreover, countries will be forced to lift remaining restrictions on worker movement within the EU, which will allow for more employment. This will also cause a rightward shift in aggregate demand because there will be more employed workers and therefore amount of consumption will increase as more people will be able to spend more money.  Overall, this article shows improvements for the future which will increase aggregate demand of the EU. 

Iceland has been in a serious recession with great inflation rates for several years. To control the situation, the Central bank has started to raise interest rates with the hope to decrease inflation and bring prices back to normal levels. By increasing interest rates consumers will stop borrowing as much money which will cause a decrease in consumption. In addition it will become more expensive for firms to borrow money for their investments and they will decrease investments well. Overall these two factors will cause a decrease in aggregate demand in Iceland. This will push down prices and cause disinflation in the long run. Due to these decreasing prices goods and services from Iceland become more attractive to foreign consumers causing an increase in exports which may strengthen the currency. The article states that due to the increased interest rates inflation remained stable for the past months. This shows that households and firms are consuming/investing less which stops further inflation.

This article states that Canada's inflation rate has unexpectedly slowed for a second month this past August, meaning a disinflation is taking place. The consumer price index in Canada rose 1.2% in August from a year ago compared to a 1.3% gain in July, showing a slowing down in the rate of inflation. This has reduced pressure for the Bank of Canada governor to raise interest rates. Normally, when a country's price levels are increasing and inflation is taking place, banks are encouraged to increase interest rates. Increasing them make it more profitable for consumers to borrow less and invest more, resulting in a decrease in consumption and therefore a decrease in AD. This will lower price levels in the country in the long run, solving or reducing the problem of inflation.