International Economy - Current Affairs for May, 2015

The number of hungry people globally has declined from about one billion 25 years ago to about 795 million or about one person out of every nine, despite a surge in population growth, the United Nations reported on 27th May’15.

The 57-member bank announced that it would be operational by the end of this year. The announcement came after the conclusion of '5th Chief Negotiators' Meeting on Establishing the AIIB', in Singapore. China, with a share of 100 billion dollar is likely take a 25-30 percent stake in the AIIB while India, with a likely share between 10 to 15 percent could be the second-largest shareholder. In all, Asian countries will own between 72-75 percent of the assets of the bank, while European and other nations will own the rest.

Prices fell by 0.1 per cent in the year to April, a new record monthly low for the consumer price index created in 1996. The best comparable data suggests that this is the lowest UK inflation reading since early 1960.

Four of the banks - JPMorgan, Citigroup, Barclays, RBS - have agreed to plead guilty to US criminal charges. The fifth, UBS, will plead guilty to rigging benchmark interest rates. Barclays was fined the most, 2.4 billion dollar, as it did not join other banks in November to settle investigations by UK, US and Swiss regulators. US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said that "almost every day" for five years from 2007, currency traders used a private electronic chat room to manipulate exchange rates. Their actions harmed countless consumers, investors and institutions around the world.

The MoU was signed by Minister for Shipping and Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and Iranian Minister for Transport and Urban Development Abbas Ahmad Akhoundi in Tehran on 6th May’15. Under the contract, Indian firms will lease two existing berths at the Port and operationalize them as container and multi-purpose cargo terminals.

Seychelles on 26th April 2015 became the 161st member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). With this, Seychelles archipelago of 90000 inhabitants became one of its smallest members.