OECD downgrades Russia's GDP forecast

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) lowered its forecast for growth in the Russian economy in 2013 up to 2.3% compared with expected 3.8%. Russia's GDP growth forecast for 2014 was lowered from 4.1% to 3.6%, according to the OECD report on the global economic forecast.

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Joao Ferreira's "Why We Should Leave the Euro"

The book of Portuguese economist Joao Ferreira "Why We Should Leave the Euro" became a bestseller in Portugal. This is an unprecedented success for the Portuguese market: the book of Ferreira was able to beat by popularity both the traditionally popular books on weight loss and highly popular romance novel "50 Shades of Gray."

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Stock indexes are slightly declined

The leading stock indexes in Europe and the U.S. mostly slightly declined last Friday: Britain's FTSE-100 (-0.60%), German DAX (-0,50%), the French CAC (-0,58%), the U.S. Dow (+0,06%), S&P 500 (-0,03%), Nasdaq Composite (-0.01%). As a result, they lost during a fairly volatile week from 0.3 to1.3%.

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Iceland stops negotiations on EU membership

Icelandic authorities have stated that negotiations on EU membership will be suspended until the national referendum on this issue. Iceland is one of few countries in Europe that continue to maintain an independent political and economic course.

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Who are forex market makers?

Participants of Forex market are divided into two groups by their activity and influence on exchange rates: market makers and market users (same as price takers). The notion of market makers involves large banks and financial institutions, which determine the current level of the exchange rate due to a significant proportion of their operations in the total world market.

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Italy is under protests

Thousands of protesters, led by the leaders of trade unions, took to the streets of Rome last Saturday, criticizing the austerity measures announced by new governing coalition. Protesters called the center-left Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta to abandon austerity measures and focus on creating new jobs. According to recent polls, the trust of Italians to a new coalition of leftists and center-rights falls.

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African Economics

First Deputy Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF) David Lipton said this week in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, that in 2012, despite the stagnation in global economy, the economy of sub-Saharan Africa powerfully developed. It is assumed that this trend will continue in the current and future years.

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How you can make profits on market news

One of the key elements of understanding of currency pairs’ movement on the Forex market is a work on the trading news. The ability to work on the news is very important for both the novice traders and for the experienced ones, who seek to improve their trading skills.

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European Commission estimates employment

According to European Commission estimates, the no accelerating wage rate of unemployment (NAWRU), a gauge of structural unemployment, has indeed increased substantially since 2008 and indicators of labor-market mismatch have worsened.

But some caution is warranted as to the long-term trend of structural unemployment given that NAWRU estimates are influenced by a broad range of factors, for example labor market adjustment frictions and large negative shocks.

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No changes in employment in Europe

Looking to the near future, the EU labor market is expected to weaken further, reflecting the usually delayed response to changes in economic activity. The latest readings of European Commission surveys suggest a deterioration of the labor market conditions with additional job losses and rising unemployment in the short term.

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Financial markets recover slowly

Since mid-2012, stress in financial markets has abated substantially due to fiscal and structural reforms at the Member State level. The entering into force of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the ECB's announcement of outright monetary transactions (OMT) added up to financial stability, alongside with the decision by the European Council to create a Banking Union.

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Positive signs in European economy

The EU and the euro-area economy have been undergoing a protracted downturn which started in the final quarter of 2011 and which is expected to have had a trough in early 2013. Following the easing of financial market tensions since mid-2012 economic sentiment started to improve in the final quarter of last year.

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