http://www.world-economy-and-development.de/ http://www.world-economy-and-development.de/printable/wearchiv/042ae69fd20e9a40c.php After decades of isolation - imposed by major OECD countries out of concern for the country's human rights violations - Myanmar is emerging as a new darling of the "West" - judging by the accelerating succession of visits by senior officials and gurus. New groups of investors are waiting to enter the country as soon as possible. 2012-01-06 http://www.world-economy-and-development.de/printable/wearchiv/042ae69fbf0faec01.php Persistent high unemployment, the euro area debt crisis and premature fiscal austerity have already slowed global growth and factor into the possibility of a new recession. Now the United Nations have downgraded significantly its forecasts for the world economy in the next year. 2012-01-06 http://www.world-economy-and-development.de/printable/wearchiv/042ae69fb00d7f501.php Eastern European states are in for a new round of the crisis. The external control of the banking sector and high reliance on external credit has landed the countries of Eastern Europe in a vulnerable position. Now, credit flows from Western banks are drying up again. Hungary has been the first country in the region to ask for IMF support again. 2012-01-06 http://www.world-economy-and-development.de/printable/wearchiv/042ae69f9e0b9c901.php While the G20 efforts to manage global aggregate demand, exchange rate management and stronger regulation of the international financial sector have not worked out quite as planned, in Cannes the Group was further solidifying its role in directing the system of multilateral institutions. 2012-01-06 http://www.world-economy-and-development.de/printable/wearchiv/042ae69f9c0fd2d01.php In November 2011, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is celebrating its 50th anniversary.The new Minister, Dirk Niebel of the (neo)-liberal FDP has launched a 'radical change of course'. In the recent edition of the Reality of Aid shadow report the change is analyzed. 2012-01-06 http://www.world-economy-and-development.de/printable/wearchiv/042ae69f980975b01.php At the G20 in Cannes, a growing group of countries from France to Brazil backed the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT), and the link between the FTT and fighting poverty and climate change became clearer than ever. Following the G20, on 8 November George Osborne met with EU Finance Ministers in Brussels, and with France and Germany as big supporters, the FTT was on the agenda. 2012-01-06 http://www.world-economy-and-development.de/printable/wearchiv/042ae69f840a9d801.php Financial institutions like Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs are speculating with food at the expense of the poorest. According to a new report titled "Die Hunger-Macher" ("The Hunger Makers"), there is a close connection between speculation and rising food prices. 2012-01-06 http://www.world-economy-and-development.de/printable/wearchiv/042ae69f6a0e64101.php For the first time the G20 Finance and Development Ministers met on 23 September 2011 in the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of IMF and World Bank in Washington DC. The following is the communiqué issued after the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Development documented by WDEV. 2012-01-06 http://www.world-economy-and-development.de/printable/wearchiv/042ae69f690e06c0d.php The grouping of emerging economies, known as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), takes a more and more important role in international and world economic policy. Following is the WDEV documentation of the BRICS Finance Ministers' Joint Communiqué issued at the end of their meeting in Washington, 22 September 2011, in the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of IMF and World Bank. 2012-01-06 http://www.world-economy-and-development.de/printable/wearchiv/042ae69f5a0f2a112.php The Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action (AAA), major aid effectiveness agreements of the international community, were a first attempt to make aid work better for poverty eradication and sustainable development and to deliver on the Global Partnership for Development (MDG8), but little attention has so far been paid to how aid can enable poor people and countries to help themselves, to become independent from aid in the long run. 2012-01-06