April / May 2002
WORLD
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US, EU to increase
aid to developing nations According to reports, in Washington, US President George W Bus said he would contribute US $5 billion in extra aid to developing countries over the next three fiscal years, and in Barcelona, the EU said its 15 member states agreed to increase their foreign aid contributions. UN and business unveil new project to open Jo ‘burg Summit to the world A new initiative between business
and the United Nations has been hailed as an opportunity for
people all over the world to participate in the upcoming World
Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg. Protecting intellectual property in the digital age Protection of intellectual property
in today’s high-tech world opens up a maze of complex legal
and practical issues crucial to business. A roadmap posted on
the ICC website provides a layman’s guide. High interest bank accounts are too good to be true, says CCB The crime-fighting division of the International Chamber of Commerce is warning investors to steer clear of internet banks offering very high interest rates on investments. http://www.iccwbo.org/ccs/news archives/2002/bank%20fraud.asp US economy shows signs of recovery The US economy is picking up pace, experts said recently, as fresh data showed industry accelerating production and core inflation in check. But one key question hung over the economy, they said: can the recovery be sustained? US factories, power plants and mines pushed up production 0.7 percent in March, the Federal Reserve said. Manufacturers alone boosted output 0.8 percent. Factory output of computers, communications equipment, and semiconductors a broad measure of the high technology sector advanced 1.4 percent, the data showed. "The industrial production is showing us that we are coming out of the recession. The weak part of our economy is starting to strengthen," board economist Delos Smith said. "It was the industrial side that created the recession. That is coming back. The question is how sustainable is that? That is the one that is not answered because we just don’t know." Investors cheered the data. Wall Street’s blue chip barometer, the Dow Jones industrials average, leapt 207.65 points, or 2.06 percent, to close at 10,301.32. Global economic growth rate to grow by 3% Driven by low interest rates, fiscal stimuli, depleted inventories, low energy cost and surprisingly strong consumer spending, the world’s economies are emerging from the deep slowdown of 2000-2001, reports United Nations Report on the Global Economic Outlook (GEO) 2002, says a press release issued by United Nations recently. The report says that during 2002, the global growth will maintain by 2 percent while in 2003, the growth rate will reach to 3 percent. But while these short-term factors have been critical for restoring economic growth first in the United States and later in Europe, they are not sufficient by themselves to sustain momentum, the UN report says. Moreover, developing economies are not likely to benefit from the US-led recovery until the second half of 2002, hampering efforts to reduce world poverty. British economic growth slowed to 1.0 percent on a 12 month basis in the first quarter of 2002, the lowest for a decade, preliminary figures showed recently, casting doubt on bold government forecasts. British gross domestic product (GDP) inched up 0.1 percent in the first three months of the year, compared to the previous quarter, leaving the year-on-year growth rate slower than at any time since late 1992, the official national Statistics body reported. The data surprised financial analysts, who were expecting quarterly growth of 0.4 percent and 12 month growth of 1.3 percent. Analysts immediately predicted that the Bank of England would now not increase interest rates for several months. They also said the data could embarrass Prime Minister Tony Blair and his finance chief Gordon Brown, who has just produced a budget predicated on strong growth of 2-2.5 percent this year. Developing nations raise exports but not profits Developing countries are increasing their share in the export of manufactured goods but they are reaping little benefit, according to a United Nations report released recently. High-tech goods may look like they’re coming from poorer countries, but in fact those nations only provided the low-skill labor needed to assemble items produced elsewhere, said the 178-page Trade and Development Report 2002. "Goods travel across several locations before reaching final consumers, and the total value of recorded trade far exceeds the value added", said the report by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development. UNCTAD said up to 30 percent of world exports are produced in this manner by large international corporations, almost all based in developed countries. "Although the industrial countries have seen their share in global manufacturing exports reduced from 80 percent to 70 percent in recent years, the developed countries were able to increase their value added and their participation in manufacturing income. The opposite happens in developing countries," said UNCTAD secretary-general Rubens Ricupero. The report also said that developing countries have been hit hard by the global economic slowdown. International trade has transmitted the situation in richer countries to developing nations, with a number of poorer countries going into recession. "After growing by 14 percent in 2000, export volumes for developing countries grew by less than 1 percent in 2001. For developing countries as a whole, growth was 2.1 percent, down from 5.4 percent the pervious year," it said. President Vicente Fox says that the Mexican economy can "see the light at the end of the tunnel," and may be emerging from an economic slowdown triggered by recessions in the United States and around the world. Fox said this country’s economy was "beginning to show signs of positive growth" and that it had generated about 130,000 new jobs in the last two months. "For our government, economic and social development go hand-in-hand," Fox said. "The social policies we have employed aim to ensure that every family has economic opportunities and access to employment." While he offered no official figures to back up his claims of positive economic growth, Fox attributed the start of a turnaround to micro-credit loans that his government has issued to thousands of businesses. He said the loans have helped small and medium-sized firms stimulate the economy by increasing their purchasing power and helping them hire new employees. The number of people looking for work in Germany, the biggest eurozone economy, fell below the key level of four million in May, but solely as a result of seasonal factors, sources close to the Federal Labour Office told AFP. In seasonally-adjusted terms, however, the German jobless total rose by 60,000, the sources said. In raw or unadjusted terms, unemployment declined, with the jobless total falling to 3.945 million in May from 4.024 million in April the sources said
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