Greece will conclude an early repayment of loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) next week, Finance Minister ChrIstos Staikouras said on Thursday. The move allows Athens to reduce its debt-servicing costs, because IMF loans carry higher interest than Greece would now pay in the market. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas)

Growth of real gross domestic product (GDP) in the OECD area slowed marginally‎ to 0.3% in the third quarter of 2019, compared with 0.4% in the previous quarter, according to provisional estimates. Among the Major Seven economies, GDP growth slowed markedly in Japan (to 0.1%, compared to 0.4% in the previous quarter). GDP growth was stable in the United States (at 0.5%) and it remained stable in France (at 0.3%) and Italy (at 0.1%) for the third and fourth consecutive quarter, respectively. GDP growth picked-up in the United Kingdom and ...

Collective bargaining and worker’s voice are key labour rights but can also improve labour market performances, according to new OECD findings. Yet both these rights are under pressure from the general weakening of labour relations in many countries and the rise of new and often precarious forms of employment, according to a new OECD report. Negotiating Our Way Up: Collective bargaining in a changing world of work says that the share of workers who are union members has fallen sharply across OECD countries, from almost 30% on average in 1985 ...

Trust in governments has recovered to pre-crisis levels and satisfaction with public services has improved, as public sector reforms aimed at making governments more open, accountable and engaged start to bear fruit, according to a new OECD report. Government at a Glance 2019, the sixth edition of the OECD’s two-yearly overview of public governance, compares OECD and partner countries in areas such as public spending, investment, public procurement, public sector employment and government openness using around 60 indicators. The report contains scorecards and results of citizen surveys on health, education ...

Composite leading indicators (CLIs), designed to anticipate turning points in economic activity relative to trend six to nine months ahead, continue to anticipate stable below-trend growth momentum in the OECD area as a whole. Within OECD economies, stable growth momentum remains the assessment for France and Canada and is now also anticipated in Japan and Italy, with similar signs now also emerging in the euro area as a whole. On the other hand, the CLIs for the United States and Germany continue to point to easing growth momentum, which is ...

An interim U.S.-China trade deal that rolls back some tariffs has the potential to improve the International Monetary Fund’s baseline economic forecasts, which show the two countries’ trade war slowing global growth significantly this year, an IMF spokesman said on Thursday. Gerry Rice, the IMF’s chief spokesman, told a regular news briefing that the fund welcomes any development that reduces trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies and rolls back tariffs, particularly if it’s part of a durable agreement. “We see it has holding potential to improve our baseline ...

Economic activity in Europe has slowed on the back of weakness in trade and manufacturing. For most of the region, the slowdown remains externally driven. However, some signs of softer domestic demand have started to appear, especially in investment. Services and domestic consumption have been buoyant so far, but their resilience is tightly linked to labor market conditions, which, despite some easing, remain robust. Expansionary fiscal policy in many countries and looser financial conditions have also supported domestic demand. On balance, Europe’s growth is projected to decline from 2.3 percent ...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) believes one of South America’s smallest countries is likely to see a dramatic upswing in economic growth next year. Guyana, a country of about 780,000 which shares a border with Brazil, Suriname and Venezuela in the northeast of South America, will see economic growth of 86% in 2020, according to the IMF. That’s up from 4.4% in 2019. Such an explosive expansion of annualized real GDP (gross domestic product) would likely see Guyana register the fastest economic growth in the world next year. To be ...

Explore what’s moving the global economy in the new season of the Stephanomics podcast. Subscribe via Pocket Cast or iTunes. South America may be battered by weak growth, unrest and austerity but one of its smallest countries is about to experience the fastest economic growth on the planet. Guyana, a country of 780,000 that neighbors Brazil and Venezuela in the region’s northeast corner, will see its economy balloon 86 per cent next year after expanding 4.4 per cent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. That’s 14 times the ...

Latin American countries still have the chance to mitigate the economic weakness many of them are suffering through interest rate cuts, but their fiscal options are limited, an official from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The multilateral organization has warned of the risk of lower global growth amid trade wars and uncertainty over economic policies in some countries. It predicts that Latin America and the Caribbean will grow 0.2% this year and 1.8% in 2020. Regional inflation figures that are close to expectations give policymakers space to react in nearly ...

Iran would need oil priced at $194.6 a barrel to balance its budget next year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said. Hurt by tighter U.S. sanctions, Iran – a key member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) – is expected to have a fiscal deficit of 4.5% this year and 5.1% next year, the fund said in a report on Monday. On Friday, international benchmark Brent crude closed trading at just above $62 a barrel. Iran saw its oil revenues surge after a 2015 nuclear pact agreed ...

The OPEC/non-OPEC agreement to cut 1.2 million b/d from the global oil market and prevailing crude price volatility are taking a toll on the economies of the Gulf region, whose growth will more than halve this year from 2018, the International Monetary Fund said Monday. The gross domestic product of six Gulf countries — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain — will grow 0.7% in 2019, down from 2% growth recorded in 2018, the fund said in a report published on Monday. This was further lower from ...

Economic growth across Asia is set to slow more than expected, according to the latest projections by the International Monetary Fund. In its Regional Economic Outlook report released Wednesday, the IMF said growth in Asia could moderate to 5% in 2019, and 5.1% in 2020 — that’s 0.4% and 0.3% lower than its April projections. Among the worst-hit major Asian economies projected to slow more than expected, Hong Kong — already battered by the months-long unrest — could grow 0.3% this year and 1.5% in 2020. That’s 2.4% and 1.5% ...

China’s economic growth could moderate further in 2020 — even though the global economy is likely to pick up pace, projected the International Monetary Fund. The fund, in its World Economic Outlook report, said the Chinese economy could grow at 5.8% next year — slower than the 6.1% forecast for 2019. China grew 6.6% last year, according to the IMF. “The Chinese economy is slowing down, which has continued an earlier trend of slowing down, which started a couple of years ago,” Tao Zhang, IMF’s deputy managing director, told CNBC’s ...

International Monetary Fund members discussed ways to increase “peer pressure” on countries to follow and improve global trade rules to reduce growth-sapping uncertainty, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said. As IMF and World Bank annual meetings wound down, Georgieva told a news conference that members shared a view that reducing trade tensions would cut uncertainty and risks to growth. “In the discussions here, what we advanced was the understanding (of the need for) building more, if you wish, peer pressure, for everybody to play by the trade rule-book, and be ...