EU and Azerbaijan sign strategic gas deal

The President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on have signed a Joint Declaration on gas delivery for Europe in Baku, the European Union (EU) said.

In the declaration, Azerbaijan commits to supplying substantial volumes of gas over the long term to the EU, while Europe provides access to its market for them. This Joint Declaration is an important step in the realization of the Southern Gas Corridor and the diversification of Europe's energy supplies.

The lion kings?

The Economist: Africa is now one of the world’s fastest-growing regions

MUCH has been written about the rise of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and the shift in economic power eastward as Asia outruns the rest of the world. But the surprising success story of the past decade lies elsewhere. An analysis by The Economist finds that over the ten years to 2010, no fewer than six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies were in sub-Saharan Africa (see table).

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Pakistan reverses recent increase on fuel prices

Pakistan Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani on Thursday announced the reversal of the recent increase on the prices of fuel, Ary News television reported.

Prices of all petroleum products (POL products) were recently increased by 9 percent. However, Members of the Parliament agreed to withdraw such increment due to the overwhelming pressure from opposition parts and Pakistani society.

"The prices of petroleum products now stand reverted," said PM Gilani. "It was not possible without political leaders' support and consensus of the house."

Is current unemployment cyclical or systemic?

by James Surowiecki

The recession has been over for more than a year now, but so many people are out of work that it doesn’t feel like much of a recovery. In November, the economy added just thirty-nine thousand jobs. The failure to translate G.D.P. growth into job growth has given us an unemployment rate that remains near ten per cent (twice what it was in 2007), and has swelled the ranks of the long-term unemployed.

Why have new jobs been so hard to come by? One view blames cyclical economic factors: at times when everyone is cautious about spending, companies are slow to expand capacity and take on more workers. But another, more skeptical account has emerged, which argues that a big part of the problem is a mismatch between the jobs that are available and the skills that people have. According to this view, many of the jobs that existed before the recession (in home building, for example) are gone for good, and the people who held those jobs don’t have the skills needed to work in other fields. A big chunk of current unemployment, the argument goes, is therefore structural, not cyclical: resurgent demand won’t make it go away.

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New Policy Paradigms for a New World Order

by Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Today, as policymakers seek new paradigms for managing the economy in 2011 and beyond, a better understanding of these linkages will be essential to promoting economic growth and reducing the risk of crises. Equally important is the realization that by working together, we can build a more successful and more stable global economy for the benefit of all countries.

Let me spell out what this means for three policy objectives: building a stronger and safer financial sector; achieving more balanced and more stable growth; and managing large and volatile capital flows.

A stronger and safer financial system is the bedrock of a successful economy. This requires strong regulation with a sensible rulebook for financial markets and institutions. And to ensure that everyone plays by the rules, financial institutions must be supervised intensively.

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Will the Euro Zone survive the debt crisis?

Leading German economists Peter Bofinger and Stefan Homburg are split over the euro's chances of survival. In a discussion moderated by SPIEGEL, they talked about the wisdom of introducing a euro bond and what would happen if Germany left the common currency.

Read the interview from SPIEGEL ONLINE

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The global debt clock

See the interactive map here

All pain, no gain?

BY OFFERING partial bail-outs to countries in the euro area, the authorities are buying time. Time for what? The hope is that over a few years the indebted economies on the continent’s periphery, such as Ireland and Greece, will be able to restore their competitiveness. That would boost their exports and output, helping them to close their fiscal and current-account deficits. Just how realistic is this hope?

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Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Greece's economy at a crucial crossroads

Interview with Athanasios Ellis
Published in Kathimerini, December 12, 2010

Finally, Mr. Strauss-Khan described as excellent his relationship with Prime Minister Papandreou and Finance Minister Papaconstantinou, and said the government has reacted in a timely fashion to the looming crisis. He called the demonstrations against his recent visit to Athens as "part of every healthy democracy" and expressed understanding for the people who are upset, noting that "ordinary workers and pensioners have done their part" and there is a need for the high-income earners to contribute their part.

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