EIU Economic Analysis
Poland economy: Brewing storm
Poland economy: Brewing storm When Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk won a second-consecutive term in office in October last year he immediately announced that a high spending deficit, rising public debt and a wobbly zloty meant there was no choice to a bruising austerity package. Along with tax hikes and some limited spending cuts, the [...]
Singapore economy: Policy tightening
Singapore economy: Policy tightening The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has made only minor changes to monetary policy at the first of its twice-a-year policy reviews. In a statement published on April 13th, the central bank outlined changes to its exchange-rate regime that amount to a slight tightening of monetary policy. The policy shift shows [...]
Argentina industry: YPF expropriated
Argentina industry: YPF expropriated On April 16th, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina’s president, announced that the state would seize control of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF), the country’s largest oil company, which is jointly owned by Spain’s Repsol and Grupo Petersen, a domestic firm. The move immediately sent the company’s shares into free-fall and prompted strong [...]
China economy: Reform push
China economy: Reform push Over the past few months China’s authorities have unveiled a number of new economic reforms, many of which have focused on the financial sector. The initiatives have come thick and fast, contradicting expectations that the period ahead of the transition to a new generation of leaders—likely to begin at the Chinese [...]
Switzerland economy: Indications of positive growth
Switzerland economy: Indications of positive growth The economic barometer published by Switzerland’s Centre for Business Cycle Research (KOF), which forecasts GDP growth for the upcoming one to two quarters, provided positive news in March. After falling from mid-2011 to January 2012, it rose in February and March 2012 to reach a just positive value (0.08 [...]
Uganda economy: Financial sector adjusting
Uganda economy: Financial sector adjusting Higher inflation and exchange-rate volatility over the past year have hurt Uganda’s financial sector. Following a period of rapid growth, net private-sector lending has slowly declined since September, and the banks have also adjusted their asset portfolios. This slowdown in lending is unsurprising and was an intended consequence of the [...]
South Africa economy: Inflation eases
South Africa economy: Inflation eases The outlook for inflation in South Africa has brightened a little after price growth slowed to 6.1% in February, from 6.3% in January—the first fall for more than a year—while the rise in electricity prices on April 1st was of a smaller magnitude than expected. Lower food prices were the [...]
Tanzania economy: Fiscal tightening expected
Tanzania economy: Fiscal tightening expected Preparations are under way for the budget for fiscal year 2012/13 (July-June), to be presented in early June, and the first sign of the overall outcome was provided in a mid-March press release from the most recent IMF mission to Tanzania. The Fund noted that the government had agreed to [...]
Greece economy: State told to speed up austerity measures
Greece economy: State told to speed up austerity measures The European Commission has urged Greece to speed up privatisations and public-sector modernisation in order to restore economic growth. As the eurozone’s re-awakened debt crisis this week threatened both Spain and Italy, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, presented a report entitled ‘Growth [...]
Romania economy: Budget data improve in January
Romania economy: Budget data improve in January Romania’s budget data for January provided modest support for the government’s proposal to boost consumption by some form of fiscal easing. Improved tax revenue collection pushed the consolidated budget surplus up to 0.17% of projected annual GDP, compared with 0.15% in January 2011, despite significant increases in government [...]
