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Otaviano Canuto, IMF: What Happened to World Trade?
World trade suffered another disappointing year in 2015, experiencing a contraction in merchandise trade volumes during the first half and only a low recovery during the second half (Figure 1). While last year’s trade performance can be associated to the
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Ann Low, US Department of State: Good Corporate Governance is Good Business
OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises. Over the past decade, cross-border trade and investment by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) has surged. According to the OECD, whereas in 2005, there were only three SOEs in the Fortune Global 50 list
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Grant Thornton Hong Kong: M&A – Cultural Alignment for Successful Integration
Too often companies put together look great on paper but are fraught with management and structural problems that end up turning deals into busts. Acquiring companies often underestimate the problems that different corporate cultures can inflict on a merger. In fact,
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Michael Pettis: Money Is Not Created Out of Thin Air
A recurring conversation I have with clients concerns the ability of banks to create credit, and of governments to monetise debt, and whether this ability is the solution to or the cause of financial instability and economic crisis. Monetarists and structuralists
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From the editor: The Art of the Doomsayer – Crisis? What Crisis?
Just as a broken watch still tells the right time twice a day, the persistent doomsayer will eventually be vindicated. In the financial world, entire reputations are built on predicting recessions, if not depressions: keep it up long enough and
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Michael Pettis: China – What the New Currency Regime Means and How It Affects the World
On Tuesday, August 18, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) surprised the markets with a partial relaxing of the currency regime, prompting a great deal of discussion and debate about the value of the renminbi (RMB). Part of the discussion
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IFC: Capital Markets Key to Development
Ending extreme poverty for good and building shared prosperity across the developing world takes money – a lot of money. Take infrastructure: for the foreseeable future, an estimated $50 billion per year is needed in Africa alone to deliver basic
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BRIC-à-Brac: Requiem for a Wishful Thought
In the end, it may have been nothing more than a flash in the pan. Unable to fulfil the promise of a new world order, the BRICS countries have largely ceased to be of note. With sputtering economies and political
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IFC: Corporate Governance Gains Prominence with the Forthcoming ASEAN Economic Community
One of the much-anticipated events in Asia this year is the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community which will allow goods, services, and investments to flow more freely across the borders of Southeast Asian countries. The potential economic upside is
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WGB Launches New Country Partnership Framework to Support Azerbaijan’s Sustainable, Inclusive and Resilient Growth
The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors today discussed and endorsed the 2015-2020 Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Azerbaijan. This CPF represents a five year joint strategy of the World Bank Group comprising the International Bank for Reconstruction and
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