GDP

Economic growth forecasts for 2018 have been ratcheted higher as data exceeds expectations
Growth rates in BRICS nations such as China and Russia have exceed expectations of the IMF and other forecasts [Xinhua]
The news that China’s GDP growth in 2017 was 6.9 per cent as opposed to the government target of 6.5 per cent and the January 2017 international Monetary Fund (IMF) projection of 6.5 per cent is merely the latest in a sequence of economic data releases that has pushed economists to play catch-up with economic reality.

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by Samarth Bansal and Aman Sethi On October 4, Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered a robust defence of his government’s management of the economy, shortly after the Reserve Bank of India lowered its Gross Value Added (GVA) growth estimates for the current fiscal year from 7.3% to 6.7%. Since then, the ruling party has been … Continue reading Modi says the economy isn’t so bad; He’s right – it’s worse

BRICS is home to 43% of the world’s population [Xinhua]
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is calling on major developed and developing countries to find new ways to ensure that globalization succeeds.
In its latest economic outlook published on Wednesday, the organization of 35 countries said that global economic growth in 2017 and 2018 was expected to pick up pace but was still not sufficient to “sustain strong gains in standards”.

(ZHE) One day after Donald Trump infuriated Angela Merkel and the rest of his G-7 peers, when the US president refused to endorse the Paris climate treaty, prompting the German chancellor to say  that “the whole discussion about climate has been difficult, or rather very unsatisfactory… here we have the situatio

"Take Jason Greenslate, the 28-year-old resident of San Diego, whom Fox News profiled in 2013. Video clips, which went viral, showed Greenslate buying sushi and lobster with a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program debit card issued by the government."

Global economic growth will hit 3.4 per cent in 2017, the IMF said, but the world’s second-largest economy will grow by only 6.5 per cent in 2017 [Xinhua]
China’s fiscal stimulus has helped edge its GDP growth upward, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday, but India’s domestic consumption retreated in the face of demonetization and pushed economic growth down.

On November 8, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that ‘the 500 rupee and 1,000 rupee currency notes presently in use will no longer be legal tender from midnight’.
This step of demonetisation was taken ostensibly for curbing black money and counterfeit currency notes.
As per Reserve Bank of India (RBI) figures, the higher denomination notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 constitute 86.4 per cent of the total currency in circulation in the economy, by value. Therefore, with the stroke of a pen, the government nullified 86 per cent of the currency in the economy.

Modern history will record November 8, 2016 as the day when the United States of America officially decided to vote for a global retreat – from the heady rhetoric of ‘Let’s make the world a better place’ to “Let’s make America great again”.
Americans have voted for building a wall to protect what they have, against the dream of global dominance. This surely marks the end of the uni-polar world as we know it.

The currencies of three BRICS economies have steadily strengthened against the US dollar in recent weeks.
Brazil’s real, Russia’s ruble and South Africa’s rand have benefited from a ‘pause’ in the momentum to raise interest rates, particularly in the US.
All three countries have battled recession in contrast to BRICS members China and India, which are forecast to grow 6.7 per cent and 7.6 per cent, respectively, in 2016.
The rand is up nearly 15 per cent against the dollar in 2016 after suffering a significant slump in mid-2015.