International Economy - Current Affairs for July, 2015

Iranian Ambassador Gholamreza Ansari said in New Delhi that India should take advantage of the time before the western countries start making their investments after lifting of sanctions in the next 3-5 months.

Under this deal WTO members updated organisation’s 18-year-old Information Technology Agreement (ITA) by adding more than 200 products to the list of goods covered by zero-tariff and duty-free trade.

The top ten countries from where the equity flows came are Mauritius, Japan, USA, Germany, France, Russia, China, South Korea, Canada and Australia.

The 'World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision' launched at the UN Headquarters in New York yesterday projected that within seven years, the population of India is expected to surpass that of China. Currently, the population of China is approximately 1. 38 billion compared with 1.31 billion in India. Around and after 2022, India's population is projected to continue growing for several decades to 1.5 billion in 2030 and 1.7 billion in 2050, while the population of China is expected to remain fairly constant until the 2030s, after which it is expected to slightly decrease. According to the forecast issued in 2013, India was expected to surpass China's population by 2028 but the latest report predicts that India will overtake its Asian rival six years early by 2022.

The loan – Supporting National Urban Health Mission – will reinforce ongoing government efforts under the NUHM to develop health systems in urban areas that can deliver quality health services and that reach the urban poor and vulnerable. It will focus on strengthening primary health care and also promote better coordination between health and urban sectors and opportunities for public-private partnerships.

Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei, Shanghai Mayor Yang Xiong and the bank's President K V Kamath attended the opening ceremony. Kamath will be the bank's President for the first five years.

Greeks will be able to withdraw 420 euros a week at once instead of just 60 euros a day, but the limit will effectively remain the same and capital controls will also stay in place. The shutdown is estimated to have cost the economy some 3 billion euros in market shortages and export disruption. Greece prepared yesterday to restart its struggling economy with a revamped government, a bank reboot and a new round of tax hikes agreed after months of fraught confrontation with its creditors.

Out of total 300 strength of the unicameral legislature, the legislation was approved with 229 votes in favor, 64 against and six abstentions and won the support of three pro-European opposition parties. The approval of legislation by the Parliament gives much needed relief to Greece as people have been reeling under severe capital controls as their ATM withdrawals limited to 60 euro per day and banks and the stock exchange shut since 29 June 2015.

The MoU will help in deepening the bilateral cooperation and enhancing the experience and technical knowledge in the field of Civil Aviation between India and Canada.

Amid one of the worst crises in the EU's history, the head of the European Commission said the risk of Greece leaving the eurozone had been averted. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that after a tough battle, Greece had secured a growth package and debt restructuring. Greece will now have to pass reforms demanded by the eurozone by 15th July’15.

A similar credit line agreement for development of infrastructure and transport sector was signed between New Delhi and Dhaka in 2010 under which 15 projects are being undertaken. Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs Sujata Mehta said that the fresh line of credit is expected to be finalized during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka.

India, despite its scope and global potential, ranks119, falls from 112th rank in 2014. Norway has topped the Resilience Index for being the country best suited for companies seeking to avoid disruptions in their global supply chain operations. The Index measures business resilience of nations based on economic, risk quality and supply chain factors.