Consumers “are unequivocally the losers” from the US-China trade war, according to new research by the International Monetary Fund, which outlines the damage the long-running dispute is doing to both sides. The research, published on Thursday, found that “tariff revenue collected has been borne almost entirely by US importers”. Extrapolating that further, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) found that “some of these tariffs have been passed on to US consumers”, highlighting the rising cost of goods such as washing machines. “A further increase in tariffs is likely to be similarly ...

Growth of real gross domestic product (GDP) in the OECD area picked up strongly to 0.6% in the first quarter of 2019, double the 0.3% rate of the previous quarter, according to provisional estimates. Among the Major Seven economies, GDP growth accelerated markedly in Germany (to 0.4% after 0.0% in the previous quarter), Italy (0.2%, from minus 0.1%), the United Kingdom (0.5%, from 0.2%) and the United States (0.8%, from 0.5%). It picked up marginally in Japan (0.5%, from 0.4%) and was stable in France (at 0.3%, for the third ...

OECD and partner countries formally adopted the first set of intergovernmental policy guidelines on Artificial Intelligence (AI) today, agreeing to uphold international standards that aim to ensure AI systems are designed to be robust, safe, fair and trustworthy. The OECD’s 36 member countries, along with Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru and Romania, signed up to the OECD Principles on Artificial Intelligence at the Organisation’s annual Ministerial Council Meeting, taking place today and tomorrow in Paris and focused this year on “Harnessing the Digital Transition for Sustainable Development”. Elaborated with ...

Global growth slowed sharply in late 2018 and is now stabilising at a moderate level. Escalating trade conflicts and dangerous financial vulnerabilities threaten a new weakening of activity by undermining investment and confidence worldwide, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook. The global economy is expected to achieve moderate but fragile growth over the coming two years. Vulnerabilities stem from trade tensions, high policy uncertainty, risks in financial markets and a slowdown in China, all of which could further curb strong and sustainable medium-term growth worldwide. The OECD projects that ...

With only 11 years left to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, some of the most economically advanced countries have still not met targets in areas like poverty reduction, youth employment, education and training, gender equality and numerical literacy, according to a new OECD report. Measuring Distance to the SDG Targets 2019: An Assessment of Where OECD Countries Standfinds that in most OECD countries there is widespread access to electricity, mobile networks and basic sanitation. Countries have met targets for maternal and infant mortality; and are making progress in reducing ...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been a significant driver of employment growth in recent years, mainly through the creation of new firms, including in high-growth sectors such as information and communication technologies (ICT). But the new OECD SME and Entrepreneurship Outlookhighlights that most SME job creation has been in sectors with below average productivity levels, with SMEs typically paying employees around 20 percent less than large firms. While SMEs are more engaged in new organisational or marketing practices than large firms, and sometimes more innovative in developing new products ...

The trade war between the United States and China could be a risk to the world economic outlook if it is not resolved, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde told Reuters on Friday during a visit to Uzbekistan. “Obviously, the downside risk that we have is continued trade tensions between the United States and China,” Lagarde said, referring to the IMF’s world economic outlook. “And if these tensions are not resolved, that clearly is a risk going forward.” The IMF last month cut its growth forecast for 2019 to ...

The International Monetary Fund will not yet change its growth forecast for Germany after first quarter growth came in stronger than expected, its mission chief for Germany said on Friday. The positive development, a 0.4% quarter-on-quarter growth rate according to an official flash estimate, might have been driven by one-off effects, IMF’s Enrica Detragiache said. The IMF expects a full-year growth rate of 0.8% in Germany. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Christian Kraemer, writing by Tassilo Hummel, editing by Riham Alkousaa)

Italy should boost spending and cooperation at national and regional levels as part of broader efforts to help more people into work and reduce the country’s high unemployment rate, according to a new OECD report. Strengthening Active Labour Market Policies in Italy says that the country faces greater labour market challenges than most other OECD countries. The employment rate and labour productivity are low, youth unemployment is still around 30% and the gender employment gap and long-term unemployment are decreasing only slowly. Regional disparities are high and persistent compared to ...

Dear Commissioner Moedas, Chief Spokesperson Schinas, Director-General Duch Guillot, Dear Mrs Mettler, ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to be here this afternoon to launch the OECD’s report: ‘The European Union: A People-Centred Agenda—An International Perspective’. Why are we here today? In the current election debates, and with Brexit in the background, there is a lot of noise which tends to blur what the people of Europe have achieved since setting off on the journey of the European project over 60 years ago. There is also a very topical, ongoing ...

The OECD unemployment rate was stable at 5.3% in March 2019. Across the OECD area, 33.6 million people were unemployed in March, 0.1 million more than in February. In the euro area, the unemployment rate declined in March by 0.1 percentage point, to 7.7% (its lowest level since September 2008), falling by 0.3 percentage point in Ireland (to 4.7%), Italy (to 10.2%) and Lithuania (to 5.8%) and by 0.2 percentage point in Spain (to 14.0%). Outside Europe, the unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage point in Japan (to 2.5%) and ...

Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund reached an agreement on a loan of about $6 billion designed to help the South Asian nation avert an economic crisis. The lender’s executive board will meet to approve the agreement for the 39-month loan, “subject to the timely implementation of prior actions and confirmation of international partners’ financial commitments,” IMF’s mission chief Ernesto Ramirez Rigo said in a statement. The loan would represent the 13th bailout since the late 1980s from the IMF to Pakistan, which is facing a balance-of-payments crisis triggered by ...

Trade tensions and the exchange of tariffs between the United States and China pose a “threat to the global economy”, the International Monetary Fund warned on Thursday. Renewed tensions between the two economic superpowers were hanging over the negotiations that were set to resume later Thursday and IMF spokesman Gerry Rice renewed the call for a “speedy resolution”. “Clearly tensions between the United States and China in the trade sphere are a threat to the global economy,” Rice told reporters. “As we have said before, everybody loses in a protracted ...

International Monetary Fund (IMF) head Christine Lagarde said on Tuesday that China and the United States must resolve their trade tensions because they threaten the global economy. “For us at the IMF, it’s imperative that trade tensions are resolved in a way satisfying for everyone because clearly tensions between the United States and China are the threat to the global economy,” said Lagarde, on the sidelines of a conference at France’s finance ministry. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Myriam Rivet; Writing by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

African countries coping with low commodity prices must do more to re-balance investment and sustainable debt, and they should also ramp up tax collection, the International Monetary Fund’s Africa chief said. The commodity price slump of 2015 ended a decade of rapid growth across Africa. The IMF cut its 2019 economic growth projection for sub-Saharan Africa this year to 3.5 percent, from 3.8 percent set last October, in its regional report published in early April. The IMF said its lower forecast reflected downward revisions for Nigeria and Angola as oil ...