"Stop obsessing with inflation", Italian MEP Pino Arlacchi tells the Germans as François Picard’s panel argues over the best way to spur growth in times of austerity...and whether the answer involves loosened labour laws.
"Stop obsessing with inflation", Italian MEP Pino Arlacchi tells the Germans as François Picard’s panel argues over the best way to spur growth in times of austerity...and whether the answer involves loosened labour laws.
With Chinese economic growth dropping to a still enviable 9% this year, some nonetheless wonder if a slowdown is on the horizon. The most telling signs are coming from the housing market, where it is becoming more and more difficult to buy property.
China reported a 5.5 percent inflation rate on Tuesday, the highest level in three years, further straining the economy and adding to popular frustration that has sparked protests in recent months.
It's not just oil. The world is now gobbling up grains faster than we can grow them. Will inflation and hot commodity prices kill the recovery and undermine pro-democracy efforts in places like Egypt and Tunisia? François Picard’s panel argues over how to feed an overcrowded planet that's trying to sustain a recovery.
It's not just oil. The world is now gobbling up grains faster than we can grow them. Will inflation and hot commodity prices kill the recovery and undermine pro-democracy efforts in places like Egypt and Tunisia? François Picard’s panel argues over how to feed an overcrowded planet that's trying to sustain a recovery.
Food costs reached a new record in February, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The increase underlines the looming threat of a new global hunger crisis.
It's been two years since Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai signed a deal to form a power-sharing government in Zimbabwe, bringing to an end months of violence and political instability. But what successes has the National Unity Government achieved in that time? The hyperinflation that once saw prices double every 24 hours has been brought under control, but some Zimbabweans might argue that nothing much else has changed.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick has warned that global food prices have reached “dangerous levels” and pushed an estimated 44 million people into poverty over the past year, an effect he says could contribute to political instability.
Chinese inflation soared past market forecasts to a 28-month high of 5.1% in November and its affects look likely to spread beyond food prices, putting pressure on the government to implement an interest rate hike.
