Greek public sector workers walked off the street in a series of protest against reforms under the international bailout.
IMF cuts its estimate for U.S eonomic growth to 1.6 percent from 2.2 percent it had predicted in July.
Leaders of the world's economy began their regular meeting on Thursday discussing necessary steps to boost growth and consumption. While G20 also held a meeting with similar agenda.
The IMF calls banks, policy makers, and other key players in both advanced and emerging markets to address economic problems immediately. IMF warned that current issues and uncertainty could lead to a new financial crisis or economic stagnancy in a global sense.
The second largest oil producer in Africa will start negotiate with IMF next week for a bailout program. Continuous drop of oil price hit Angola economy after years of prosperity from oil production.
In response to a letter from the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Christine Lagarde, the IMF chief, has binned the Wikileaks’ transcript. Since IMF doesn’t act on leaks, she decided to allow the IMF team to resume the postponed bailout review. She has stressed the need for a speedy conclusion of the bailout review just for the sake of the Greek people.
Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said to begin review on Greece debt soon. The group will renew talk after Greek government continue its reform plan.
The newly-elected managing director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, spoke at the Global Women’s Forum 2016 regarding the global economy, especially in the wake of the China economic slowdown. Despite the prolonged slowdown, the IMF foresee that China’s lower growth was deliberate and healthy.
The east African nation Ethiopia is poised to grow at 8.1 percent in 2016 from 8.7 percent growth in 2015. This makes Ethiopia a fastest growing nation in the world. The government spending on infrastructure projects is mainly driving the economy growth.
South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has announced increasing key interest rates by fifty basis points to 6.75% on Thursday. It has also slashed down growth forecast to 0.9%. SARB has increased the interest rates for the second time with an interval of weeks. However, the rate hike will influence the Banks’ expenses and banking industry may witness job cutting as cost minimization effort.
The decreasing of China’s economic growth to the lowest rate in the last of 25 years has influenced the world’s economy. It made the International Monetary Fund slashed its global growth forecast for the third time in less than a year.
China grew 6.9 percent in 2015 indicating the slowest growth rate in 25 years. The growth rate was 6.8 for the fourth quarter of 2015. The world's second largest country recorded 7.3 percent growth rate in 2014. Investors are cautious about the impact of slowdown in China's economy. IMF forecasts China's economy growth rate at 6.3 percent in 2016 and six percent in 2017. Chinese government has set a target of seven percent growth for 2016.
Argentina is struggling from soaring inflation, which is hovering at 21 percent. The inflation rate is expected to reach 25 percent in 2016. The government is targeting to bring it down to five percent by 2019. The soaring prices are forcing consumers to pay everything in installments.
The Colombian Central Bank is heading towards a hike in interest rate. The Colombian government is keen on checking inflation rise and control the current account deficit.
The Russian economy slipped 4.1 percent during the third quarter as against the drop of 4.6 percent in the second quarter. The consecutive third quarter of contraction signals recessionary situation in the Russian economy.