After talks failed to produce a deal July 30th, Standard & Poor’s has officially stated Argentina is in default on some of its obligations. The BBC reports that investors are asking for a full payout of $1.3 billion on bonds they hold. The change in credit rating could hike Argentina’s borrowing costs, and put even
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its World Economic Outlook (WEO) update on July 24, 2014, titled “An Uneven Global Recovery Continues”. The report reflected a decrease in global growth from 3.7% in April to 3.4% currently. The downward figure is a reflection of the weak start to the year in the United
On July 17th, the World Trade Organization (WTO) released their annual report, “Overview of Developments in the International Trading Environment”. Among many challenges the WTO is facing, there is concern that member countries are slowly increasing the number of protectionist policies. This type of behavior, if not curtailed, will only continue to hinder the struggling
The abduction of more than 200 girls on April 14th from a school in Chibok sparked global outrage, and now the Associated Press has a report that shows the impact on the families of the girls has been particularly severe. Disturbingly, 11 parents of the schoolgirls have died in the past three months since their
The Gaza Strip has attracted the world’s attention since July 7th as rocket fire from Hamas militants into Israel is being met by air attacks. Now, there is a ground war between the Hamas militants and Israeli Defense Forces, with 800 casualties in total. The Gaza-Israel conflict is a part of the long-term
The Financial Times reported over the weekend “debt market euphoria could be storing up trouble for the future”. This concern was caused by the recent measure of international sovereign bond sales by emerging markets, which reached $69.47 billion in the first six months of this year. This represents a 54% increase from the same time
Innovation in Kenya Kenya is a world leader in mobile money transfers and boasts one of the highest rates of Internet usage in sub-Saharan Africa. The average daily income in Nairobi is around $5, far above many of its neighbors. Nicknamed the ‘Silicon Savannah’, the Kenyan capital has spurred a stream of mobile apps that
The debate over biofuels has been dragging on since 2008. With the Europe Union Energy Ministers agreed to a 7% cap on the biofuels for use in transport last month, biofuels again have been grasping people’s attention. Biofuels refer to fuels that contain energy from geologically recent carbon fixation, and these fuels are
The consulting firm Ernst and Young estimated that “from 2000 to 2009, Africa had the highest number of economies growing above 7% per annum of any continent in the world”. One of the main drivers of this success story has been the improved productivity of many country’s agricultural sectors. In numerous African countries agriculture plays
The world’s third largest democracy, with a population of 240 million people and 185 million voters, held presidential elections on Wednesday, July 9th, but it was not a decisive outcome. Early post-election counts, from samples around the archipelago, have given Joko “Jokowi” Widodo about 52% of the vote, compared with about 48% for his rival,
The BRICS refers to five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The group was originally known as “BRIC” before the inclusion of South Africa in 2010 at the invitation of China. The term “BRIC” was coined by the chief economist for Goldman Sachs, Jim O’Neill, in his publication, Building
The World Bank is in the midst of a mid-life crisis. During its last annual meeting in October 2013 the President of the World Bank, Jim Kim, announced a major reorganizational plan along with a $400 million budget cut. Since then, the Bank has attempted to change itself from an institution that just provides
Most of us take access to school for granted, but this is not true for children in Africa, especially girls. The World Bank estimates that half of the out-of-school girls in the world live in sub-Saharan Africa, which is the area that also has the highest rate of girls not in school – four
Water and sanitation systems are as crucial as ever to avoid infectious diarrhea-spread diseases, such as cholera and salmonellosis. Last year, the U.N. declared the first formally recognized World Toilet Day to increase knowledge of the issue, break taboos and make sanitation a global development priority, as 2.5 billion people globally still do not have
