The Syrian market is facing considerable shortage of some drugs as most pharmaceutical laboratories in northern Syria are out of service, Xinhua reported on Sunday.

Seventy-two kinds of medicines are missing from the market, in the wake of the economic sanctions on the country, the difficulty of access to certain hotspots, and the shutdown of many pharmaceutical laboratories, said Syrian Minister for Health Saad Naif.

He, however, stressed that the health ministry is working to secure drugs through local plants and through the imports from some friendly countries and international organisations.

Despite the government’s assurances, several types of medicine are no longer available at pharmacies. Slump in manufacturing has indicated that the country is facing a serious medicine shortage.

The minister indicated that the ministry, in order to offset the shortfall, has contracted to buy some medical equipment worth up to 900 million Syrian pounds and signed a contract to buy 100 ambulances from Iran.

In this regard, a medical aid cargo arrived in Damascus Sunday as a gift from Russia to the Syrian people.

Syria’s official media said that the aid aimed at alleviating the suffering of the Syrians due to the rebels’ attacks against health establishments and medicine factories and the economic sanctions imposed on Syria.

Last week, Russia sent an aid to Syria combining 44 tonnes of medical materials.

-IANS

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The use of Internet is rising in Africa and is having a “transformative effect” on the continent’s development and could add $300 billion a year to its gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025, says global consulting firm McKinsey.

“Lions go Digital: The Internet’s transformative potential in Africa”, a new report by McKinsey & Company, surveys the progress of the Internet in 14 economies that make up 90 percent of Africa’s GDP: Angola, Algeria, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.

According to the report, out of Africa’s one billion population, only 16 percent are online — 167 million use the Internet and 52 million are on Facebook — but that figure is rising rapidly thanks to the expansion of mobile networks and as the cost of Internet-capable devices continues to drop.

“Mobile telephony has already had an outsized effect in Africa as it connected people who previously had little or no access to telecommunications due to the scarcity of fixed-line infrastructure.”

The report, released at the ongoing ITU World Telecom 2013 Summit here, says that the Internet is likely to take hold on a much larger scale in the coming decade.

The Internet’s contribution to Africa’s GDP is currently at a low 1.1 percent, a figure that is half the amount of other emerging markets, and well below the average of 3.7 percent in developed economies.

If the Internet matches or exceeds that level of impact, the result could be a leap forward in Africa’s economic growth and development, and assuming a similar multiplier effect, the Internet could contribute about $300 billion to Africa’s GDP by 2025, it says.

A concept developed by McKinsey, called “iGDP”, measures the Internet’s contribution to the overall economy as a share of the total GDP. It takes into account the use of the Internet across four major categories: private consumption, public expenditure, private investment and trade balance.

Of the 14 countries assessed, Senegal and Kenya’s iGDP stood at 3.3 and 2.9 percent, respectively, which is comparable to France and Germany. In contrast, the continent’s largest economies, South Africa and Nigeria, have iGDPs of 1.4 and 0.8 percent, respectively.

“This suggests that there are major untapped opportunities to harness the power of the Internet to drive growth and development.”

McKinsey estimates that Africa’s iGDP is currently $18 billion, and attributes two-thirds of this total to private consumption of Internet-related services and equipment, including smartphones. 

It estimates that public expenditure including the digitisation of education and health services contributes $2 billion, while private investment in infrastructure and digitisation accounts for $1.5 billion, with the remainder being a positive trade balance created by business process outsourcing.

According to the report, the largest economic and social impact of the Internet is likely to be determined by the financial services, education, health, retail, agriculture and government sectors, as these sectors face service delivery challenges and “information asymmetries”, which could be bridged through the use of Internet technologies. 

McKinsey estimates that technology-related productivity gains in these sectors could reach $318 billion by 2025. 

Here are some of the report’s main findings:

— The Internet is a catalyst for economic growth: In China, India and Brazil it has contributed more than 10 percent of total GDP growth over the past five years. Africa is catching up quickly.

— Mobile voice has already had an outsized effect in Africa as it connected people who previously had little or no access to telecommunications. The Internet could produce a similar, or greater, multiplier effect.

— Only 16 percent of Africa’s 1 billion people are currently online, but that share is rising. More than 720 million Africans have mobile phones, 167 million already use the Internet, and 52 million are on Facebook.

— Governments have placed Internet-driven growth firmly on the agenda, with several countries pursuing ambitious plans to expand high-speed internet access to most of their populations.

— There is a growing wave of innovation as entrepreneurs and large corporations alike launch web-based ventures, from e-commerce sites to mobile health technologies.

— Africa could generate e-commerce sales of $75 billion a year by 2025, sparking an e-tailing revolution that gives African consumers much wider choice at lower prices.

— Internet could unlock significant productivity gains in African business, government and social services.

— To realise the Internet’s full potential, governments and the private sector will need to invest in increasing access, developing a workforce with ICT skills and improving digital literacy.

-IANS

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US President Barack Obama called for bipartisan efforts to end self-inflicted fiscal pain in the nation, like the government shutdown that happened in October, and to increase investment in important areas.

The government’s budget deficit is declining and the United States should increase investment in key areas, including infrastructure and research, to improve its business environment and bolster economic growth, President Obama here Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

The nation should deal with its fiscal problem “in a sensible way” and Republicans should not hold the national and global economy hostage due to policy differences, he said at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council annual meeting held here.

“The impact of the shutdown and the threat of default, I think, not only did some significant damage to the economy at a time when we didn’t need self-inflicted wounds, but it also spoke to some of the larger problems we’ve seen here in Washington,” the president said.

It highlighted “the sense of dysfunction and the seeming incapacity of both parties in Congress to work together to advance an agenda that’s going to help us grow”, Obama added.

After the 16-day partial federal government shutdown started Oct 1, Democrats and Republicans inked a short-term deal to fund the government through Jan 15 and lifted the government’s debt limit through Feb 7.

“What’s holding us back is not a lack of good policy ideas or even what used to be considered good bipartisan policy ideas. We just have to break through the stubborn cycle of crisis politics and start working together,” Obama said.

Both parties can bridge their differences and work on US corporate tax reform to lower tax rates, broaden the tax base and close some loopholes, he suggested.

“We would have a grand bargain for middle-class jobs that combines tax reform with a financing mechanism that lets us create jobs, rebuilding infrastructure that your business depend on,” Obama said. 

-IANS

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Sri Lanka formally assumed the chair of the Commonwealth as heads of governments of 53 member-countries of the former British empire began their summit in Colombo on Friday.

The opening ceremony of the summit, or the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) as it is called, the most important meeting of the grouping, got under way at the Nelum Pokuna Theatre, Xinhua reported.

Sri Lanka will chair the Commonwealth till the end of 2014 when it will be handed over to Mauritius.

World leaders and heads of delegations from 53 Commonwealth countries gathered at the lotus-shaped auditorium for a colourful opening ceremony.

The event was presided over by Britain’s Prince Charles who represents his mother Queen Elizabeth II as head of the Commonwealth at the CHOGM for the first time.

The Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, arrived in Colombo on Thursday evening.

Soon after the hour-long inaugural ceremony, heads of government and delegation heads posed for formal photograghs with Prince Charles at the venue.

The heads of government will later attend executive sessions throughout the day. A dinner reception will be hosted for them by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.

The heads of government will be on a retreat Saturday.

Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa will host a state banquet for heads of government on Saturday evening before the CHOGM wraps up Sunday.

Earlier, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada and Prime Minister Navin Chandra Ramgoolam of Mauritius each decided not attend the meeting because of Sri Lanka’s human rights record. 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, facing domestic pressure not to attend the summit, announced Nov 10 that he would not attend.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will visit the country’s former war zone in the north to see the situation first hand and several leaders have pledged to have discussions with Rajapaksa on the slow pace of reconciliation in the island.

Sri Lanka’s government ended a three-decade civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 but has faced severe criticism from the international community over its failure to have credible investigations into human rights abuses that include allegations of killing thousands of civilians during the last phase of the conflict.

The CHOGM is a gathering of heads of governments of 53 member states. These are among the world’s largest, smallest, richest and poorest countries. 

Commonwealth members have a combined population of 2.2 billion people, nearly a third of the world’s population.

This year, the CHOGM theme is ‘Growth with Equity: Inclusive Development’.

-IANS

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The oil industry, a main lifeline for the Syrian economy, is at risk as the main oil fields in northeastern regions of the country are being “erroneously used” by rebels, media reported on Tuesday.

Around 8.5 billion barrels of oil, approximately 40,000 barrels on a daily basis, were stolen by the end of the third quarter of 2013, causing $19.1 billion in material losses, reported Xinhua.

Meanwhile, the oil establishment data revealed that more than 20 oil wells were burned and 128 were stolen.

Ali Abbas, general director of the General Establishment for Oil, said that the heavy oil production in Syria has been completely halted as of the third month of 2013; and the light oil production doesn’t exceed 15,000 barrels per day because of repetitive attacks against oil pipelines extending from Tal Adas in the northeastern city of al-Hassakeh to Homs refinery in central Syria.

Gas production also slumped from 28 million cubic metres to 17 million as rebels have fully controlled Deir el-Zour and al- Jibsseh gas plants. The two plants totally stopped production in December 2012, while al-Jibsseh plant re-operated in August with no more than 50 percent of its original capacity.

Oil sector has been a pillar industry of Syria’s economy until the domestic crisis broke out, with the country producing about 380,000 barrels of oil and exporting around 130,000 barrels a day, accounting for 45 percent of Syria’s total exports.

In 2010, Syria’s oil exports were estimated at $3 billion, while in 2013, Syria imported oil by $1.7 billion, in a drive to meet people’s need of oil derivations.

At the beginning of the crisis, the EU slapped Syria with harsh economic sanctions, including an embargo on purchasing or transporting Syrian oil, and prohibiting companies dealing with Syria or investing in the country, as well as withdrawing experts and staff, suspending funding, and imposing sanctions on Syrian petroleum companies.

By the end of 2011, all foreign companies operating business in the oil field left the country.

Abbas noted that the cost of rehabilitating Syria’s oil establishments totals at around $1 billion and the Syrian government has unveiled a plan to re-operate oil establishments within the next five years.

-IANS

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The total cost of Syria’s almost three-year-long conflict has reached over $103 billion in the first half of 2013, the UN said.

The devastating civil war has almost completely halted industrial activity in Syria, said a senior official from the Palestinian UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), Alex Pollock, presenting a report on the country at the New America Foundation in Washington on Thursday.

There were 2.33 million people unemployed in Syria in the first half of 2013 and over half the population is facing hunger, while the population has shrunk 8 percent amid an exodus of nearly two million refugees.

A total of 57 hospitals have been badly damaged in the war and of these 37 are no longer functioning, Pollock said. 

Rising numbers of illnesses, especially among women and children burdened the health system heavily, he said.

Close to 3,000 schools have been destroyed and almost half of Syrian students are no longer studying, Pollock said.

-IANS

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Declaring that “We are open for business”, President Barack Obama announced what the White House described as the first-ever comprehensive, all hands on deck effort to bring jobs and investment to the US.

“There are a lot of wonderful countries out there. But this is a place where you can do business, create great products, deliver great services, make money, and do good at the same time,” he said at a SelectUSA Investment Summit in Washington on Thursday.

Calling for a renewed effort to entice job-creating foreign businesses to open shop in the US through aggressive expansion and enhancement of SelectUSA, Obama pledged help from the government, US ambassadors and the president’s office

Asking attending entrepreneurs to “Select the USA” he said: “When you do . You’ll find a government, and a President who is committed to helping you create more good jobs for the middle class, and helping you succeed well into the 21st century.”

Obama announced he would expand and enhance the SelectUSA programme, which was launched in 2011 to coordinate state and local incentive programmes to attract overseas companies.

He joked that he often tells company executives that when he leaves the While House he should be given a gold watch from various firms for his salesmanship. But he pledged he would ramp up his own efforts to attract more job-creating companies to the United States.

The effort to sell the country as the place to do business would start “at the highest levels, including me,” Obama said. “We are the land of opportunity. That’s not a myth. It’s a proven fact.”

Attended by 1,200 federal and state officials and some of the world’s top CEOs from nearly 60 countries, the summit is focused on the advantages of investing in America and the importance of foreign direct investment as a source of job creation and economic growth in the US.

In a separate statement, White House said the administration would start an “all hands on deck effort” to secure jobs and investment from around the world, starting with an “aggressive expansion and enhancement of SelectUSA.”

“For the first time, domestic and overseas teams at [the Departments of] Commerce and State will make recruiting business investment one of their core priorities, alongside their traditional focus on export promotion and commercial advocacy,” the White House said.

A report prepared by the Department of Commerce and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers noted the US has been the world’s largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) since 2006.

In 2012, net US assets of foreign affiliates totalled $3.9 trillion. The US consistently ranks as one of the top destinations in the world for foreign direct investment (FDI), with inflows totalling $1.5 trillion in FDI just since 2006. For 2012, FDI inflows totalled $166 billion.

-IANS

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US President Barack Obama on Thursday announced first-ever coordinated federal efforts to attract foreign investment and bolster economic recovery.

“I’m proud to announce that I’m expanding and enhancing SelectUSA to create the first-ever, fully coordinated US government effort to recruit businesses to invest and create new jobs in the United States,” reported Xinhua citing Obama here at the SelectUSA 2013 Investment Summit.

The Obama administration created SelectUSA two years ago as part of a US government-wide initiative to promote foreign direct investment (FDI) in the US. 

However, the sluggish economic recovery, political, fiscal and regulatory uncertainty in the US has made foreign companies scale back investments in the largest economy.

FDI inflows in the US declined to $166 billion in 2012, down 28 percent from the previous year, according to a report released Thursday by the White House.

FDI inflows may edge down further this year, as a 16-day federal government shutdown starting Oct 1 has raised concerns about the US ability to manage its economy, rattled global financial markets, and dampened consumer and business confidence.

To reverse the trend of declining FDI inflows, Obama outlined a series of measures at the federal level to bring foreign companies to invest in the United States.

Firstly, attracting foreign investment will be a priority for US ambassadors. Secondly, officials at the highest levels, including the president, will do more to make the case for investing in the US. Thirdly, companies that want to invest in the US will be given a single point of contact at the federal level to cut through red tape.

Finally, the administration will help states, cities, regions across the US to directly connect with potential investors.

The SelectUSA 2013 Investment Summit attracted about 1200 participants, including more than 630 foreign companies from nearly 60 countries and regions as well as local officials from the US. 

-IANS

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Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) senior official on Thursday expressed his concerns about the prolonged low growth trend of the global economy amid lack of leadership and cooperation.

“There will be no big collapse or big threat, but I’m personally pessimistic (about the global economic outlook),” Xinhua reported Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former IMF managing director, as saying. He was addressing a conference here.

Strauss-Kahn said that the global economy would maintain a low growth trend for the time being due to lack of leadership and cooperation, noting that major economies, including the US and Europe, would seek to focus on their own problems.

He worried that the US economy would face another budget crisis down the road, saying that while the world’s No.1 economy seems to be going back to normalcy, the economy may be faced with another shutdown and debt ceiling crisis.

Touching on the possible impact from the Fed’s tapering of its monthly bond purchases, Strauss-Kahn said that it will have an impact on emerging economies as well as advanced economies like Europe, which can be resolved and addressed.

He said that the role of the US dollar will not be dented, saying that though concerns spread about the collapse of the dollar following the global financial crisis, nothing of these kinds of things has happened.

-IANS

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China was re-elected to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in United Nations on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.

China won all 187 valid votes from the UN member states at a plenary meeting of the 68th General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York.

Established in 1946, the ECOSOC is a founding UN Charter body tasked to coordinate the economic, social and related work of the UN and its specialised agencies and institutions.

China has been an ECOSOC member since 1972.

The UN General Assembly also elected another 17 members to ECOSOC, including Britain, Russia and the Republic of Korea.

The ECOSOC’s 54 members are elected by the UN General Assembly for overlapping three-year terms. Voting within the council is by a simple majority and each member has one vote. 

Through its discussion of international economic and social issues and its policy recommendations, the ECOSOC plays a key role in fostering inter cooperation for development and in setting priorities for action.

ECOSOC election procedures follow the UN General Assembly’s Rules of Procedure. Election requires a two-thirds majority and the largest number of votes. Membership can be renewed immediately after it expires Dec 31.

-IANS

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Major Chinese industrial firms saw their profits rise 13.5 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters January-September, better than the 12.8-percent growth rate in the January-August period, authorities said Sunday.

From January-September, industrial companies with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan ($3.26 million) realised a total profit of 4.05 trillion yuan, Xinhua cited from a statement by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In September, profits of the industrial companies surveyed grew 18.4 percent from a year ago to 558.89 billion yuan, down from a 24.2-percent growth seen in August, but up from July’s 11.6 percent growth rate, the NBS data showed.

He Ping, an analyst with the NBS, cited growing sales said rising manufacturer’s price and falling unit cost are the main reasons behind a steady growth in industrial profits.

Companies saw their revenues from main business rise 11.9 percent year-on-year in September, up 1.6 percentage points from the growth in August, while the manufacturer’s price fell at a slower pace year-on-year and the unit cost declined, he said.

He however said growth in the companies’ investment returns had slackened, slowing down the growth rate in September’s total profits from the month earlier level.

Investment returns of those companies surveyed edged up 9.5 percent year-on-year in September, down 20.1 percentage points from August, the NBS analyst said.

-IANS

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With over 2,000 twinning agreements with major metropolises around the world, China has established sister ties between three of its big cities and three Indian metros, an initiative to establish people-to-people ties and share best practices in town planning and urban maintenance among other things.

China and India have inked Memorandums of Understanding to establish sister-city ties between Beijing-Delhi, Bengaluru-Chengdu and Kolkata-Kunming during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Beijing this week. 

Beijing, one of the most populous cities in the world with around 20 million people, has similarities with Delhi which too has a rich historical past – being the capital of several empires – and has a population of over 16 million.

Kunming, the capital and largest city of Yunnan province in southwest China, has a population of over six million. It acts as China’s gateway to the east and South Asia in particular. It has a highway project linking it with Singapore while work is going on a rail network linking with Singapore via three trunk lines passing through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia. China has also built a road from Kunming to Mandalay in Myanmar.

Its Indian twin Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state, has a population of over four million. Kolkata and Kunming are connected with daily flights. 

Earlier this month, officials from Beijing were in Dhaka to discuss construction of a highway from Kunming to Kolkata, that would run through Myanmar, northeast India and Bangladesh to boost trade and investment in South and Southeast Asia. The project would be part of the proposed Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor that China is pushing and the both India and China have agreed to set up a joint study group on it.

A recent Asian Development Bank (ADB) report proposed enhancing connectivity between South Asia and Southeast Asia, especially between Myanmar and northeast India to connect the two regions.

A road rally from Kolkata to Kunming was held in February this year to restore road connectivity among the BCIM countries – driving through a disused trans-Asian roadway that used to ferry people and merchandise.

While Kolkata is well connected to the Sundarbans mangrove forests, home to the Royal Bengal Tiger, tourists from India could get to see full dinosaur fossils at a fossil park among other things.

Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in southwest China, has a population of over 14 million. Chengdu is China’s electronics manufacturing centre. Bengaluru, India’s IT hub, has a population of around 10 million. Several multinational tech corporations have major operations in both cities.

Networking equipment manufacturer Cisco’s East Headquarters is located in Bangalore while their largest manufacturing base in China is located in Chengdu. Electronics manufacturer Huawei has a major IT research and development (R&D) centre in Bangalore and a major manufacturing operations in Chengdu. Rival Chinese telecom firm ZTE too has centres in Bengaluru and Chengdu.

In July, Chengdu inaugurated the New Century Global Center, touted the “largest freestanding building in the world”. The global centre – 500 m long, 400 m wide and 100 m high — is capable of housing 20 Sydney Opera Houses and is almost three times the size of the Pentagon in Washington. Besides business offices, hotels, movie theatres, shopping malls, there is also an imitation Mediterranean village and a water park called Paradise Island.

Chengdu also has a Giant Panda research and breeding park.

The sister city connections between the three Chinese cities and three Indian cities would besides boosting connectivity also help in the city officials learning from each other, said an official source.

“China has sister city connections with 2,024 cities around the world. The twinning arrangement will help us learn from the way they plan their cities, their drainage, their administration, education and other things – adopt them where necessary. It would boost people to people contacts,” an Indian official told IANS.

As part of the sister city ties, cultural shows would be held by troupes from each city in the other, there would be exchange of visits, and study tours, the official added. Economic relations would also be a part of the connections.

-IANS

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Despite a short-term deal to fund the federal government’s operation and increase the debt ceiling, the US should focus on solving its medium-term fiscal challenges, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.

The IMF welcomed the recent step taken by US Congress to fund the government by Jan 15 and lift the government’s borrowing authority by Feb 7, but “there needs to be adorable solutions to the debt ceiling”, IMF spokesman William Murray said on Thursday at a press briefing, Xinhua reported. 

The federal government was forced into the first shutdown Oct 1 in 17 years after Republicans tried to tie a government funding bill with President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.

“The US needs to come up with a clear medium-term plan for dealing with its fiscal challenges forward. That’s the critical issue at the moment,” Murray said.

-IANS

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The US economy added a further 148,000 jobs in September, while the unemployment rate edged down to 7.2 percent — 0.1 percentage point lower than the previous month, the US Labour Department said on Tuesday.

The private sector added 126,000 jobs, and the payroll in governments of different levels rose by 22,000, Xinhua reported citing the monthly jobs report.

The total number of unemployed in the country was largely unchanged at 11.3 million in September. The number of long-term unemployed who have been jobless for at least 27 weeks ticked down to 4.1 million last month from 4.3 million in August.

The change in newly-added jobs for July was revised from 104,000 to 89,000, and the change for August was revised from 169,000 to 193,000. 

With these revisions, employment gains in July and August combined were 9,000 more than previously reported. 

-IANS

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More than a fortnight after the government shutdown in the US, Republican and Democrat leaders of the Senate on Wednesday struck a cross-party deal that will end the partial shutdown and raise the debt limit, BBC reported.

The deal involves a bill that will extend the federal borrowing limit until Feb 7, and fund the government until Jan 15, 2014. 

The bill must also pass the House, where a small group of Republicans is expected to join the Democrats in sending the bill forward to President Barack Obama.

The development comes in the nick of time, just a day before the deadline to raise the $16.7 trillion (10.5 trillion pounds) limit ends.

Both chambers of the US Congress were working on bills ahead of the Oct 17 deadline when the Treasury says the US will run out of cash to pay its bills amid a warning from the Fitch credit rating agency that it may downgrade US government’s AAA credit rating.

Fitch placed the US credit rating on negative watch on Tuesday, a step that would precede an actual downgrade saying “the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a US default”.

IANS

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The US government shutdown, now in its 16th day, has forced hundreds of thousands of federal workers to stay home and restricted many government services – from end of earth to outer space. And it has played real spoilsport for thousands of tourists from India and around the world.

Outwardly the capital city of Washington does not look much different, though the morning traffic is a bit less chaotic, the metro trains are not that crowded and the White House lawns remain untended as President Barak Obama battles Congressional Republicans.

For them, it’s a case of so near and yet so far as they walk or drive past the city’s famed sites from the Washington monument to Lincoln memorial to Smithsonian museums, only to be greeted with boards proclaiming “Sorry we’re closed because of Federal Government SHUTDOWN.”

Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery has postponed the world premiere of “Yoga: The Art of Transformation”, an exhibition on the 2000 year history of the ancient Indian practice expressed through rare masterpieces of art from around the world.

All national parks across America were closed when the shutdown began Oct 1 with the Congress’ failure to pass a budget for the fiscal year beginning that date, but last week Obama administration allowed states to use their own money to reopen some of them.

Jumping at the chance, New York opened the Statue of Liberty, tourists returned Saturday to Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park and to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Utah too opened all five national parks in the state.

According to one estimate, some 700,000 people a day would have been visiting the parks if they were not closed and spending $76 million every day.

The shutdown has impacted Americans in other personal ways too with delays on things like getting home loans and income tax refunds and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention furloughing investigators who probe outbreaks of food-borne illnesses.

The shutdown has sparked protests in big cities and small towns, including one Sunday in Washington where a few hundred people at a rally called by the conservative tea party movement tore down barricades erected at closed
monuments on the National Mall.

Earlier protests brought out federal workers in cities like Chicago, Boston and Atlanta, and union members and citizens in Plano, Texas; Newton, New Jersey and Springettsbury, Pennsylvania. More demonstrations are planned for this week.
But snail mail continues to be delivered, federal air traffic controllers remain on the job and airport screeners continue to funnel passengers through security checkpoints.

The State Department also continues processing foreign applications for visas, and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services those for US green cards, or legal permanent residency.

But federal courthouses handling immigration cases are mostly shuttered and even the Supreme Court may shut its gates this week after the US runs out of cash with the country expected to hit its debt ceiling Oct 17.

The impact of shutdown has also reached the end of the world and outer space. The National Science Foundation has shut down its three stations in Antarctica and put research for the summer season that began Oct 1 on hold.

And With 97 percent of US space agency NASA staff furloughed, two American astronauts Mike Hopkins and Karen Nyberg aboard the International Space Station have been keeping in touch with the world via Twitter, according to VOA.

The shutdown has also spawned many a joke with David Letterman quipping:

“Even the NSA (National Security Agency) is out of business. And while they’re closed, while the government is shut down, they are asking citizens to please spy on each other.”

But for those hit hard by the shutdown, it’s no joke.

-IANS

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Fitch Ratings on Tuesday placed the ‘AAA’ credit rating of the US on rating watch negative (RWN), saying that delays of lifting the debt ceiling would cause volatility and damage US creditworthiness.

The US Treasury Secretary has said extraordinary measures will be exhausted by Oct 17, but the US authorities have not raised the federal debt ceiling in a timely manner before the deadline, said the rating agency in a statement, Xinhua reported.

Fitch stated that failure by the US government to honour interest and/or principal payments on the due date of US Treasury securities would lead Fitch to downgrade the US sovereign credit rating to ‘restricted default’ until the default event was cured.

Although the treasury would still have limited capacity to make payments after Oct 17, it would be exposed to volatile revenue and expenditure flows, Fitch added.

Moreover, the delays of payments to suppliers and employees, as well as social security payments to citizens, would damage the perception of US sovereign creditworthiness and the economy.

According to the statement, it expects to resolve the RWN by the end of the first quarter of 2014 at the latest. The outlook on the long-term ratings was previously negative.

However, Fitch believes that the debt ceiling will be raised soon, but the political brinkmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a US default.

Despite the negative watch, Fitch confirmed the ‘AAA’ on US credit rating based on the country’s strong economic and credit fundamentals, including its highly productive and diversified economy, extraordinary monetary and exchange rate flexibility, and the exceptional financing flexibility afforded by the global reserve currency status of the US dollar.

The last downgrade took place in August of 2011 when Standard & Poor’s, another major rating agency, lowered US credit rating to AA+ as the country experienced a fiscal standstill. Currently Moody’s rates the US as Aaa with a stable outlook. 

-IANS

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The year-to-date volumes on the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) registered a growth of 69 percent over last year, with a total of 11,357,329 contracts traded until the end of the third quarter of 2013.

The growth was supported by a 2 percent year-on-year rise in monthly volumes in September, which saw 988,269 contracts worth USD 28 billion being traded. 

DGCX’s precious metals segment was a key performer in September. 

Volumes in gold futures climbed 23 percent from last month, driven by increased price volatility in precious metals. Silver futures grew 53 percent from August. 

Year-to-date volumes in currency futures surged 77 percent from the same period last year with Indian rupee futures, yen futures and euro futures registering growths of 62 percent, 72 percent and 74 percent, respectively. 

Mini Indian rupee futures grew 15 percent from the previous month. 

“DGCX gold futures provide an exceptional tool for hedging gold price risk exposure in volatile environments allowing participants to profit, whichever direction the market moves,” Gary Anderson, CEO of DGCX, said. 

“September has seen increased price volatility in the precious metal driven by US economic uncertainty, regional geo-political events, and the upcoming festive season in India, one of the world’s largest gold consumers,” he added. 

-IANS

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A joint World Bank-International Monetary Fund forum has approved a new World Bank Group Strategy to shift from a focus on stand-alone projects to a “development solutions culture” of “what works and how to deliver it.”

The new strategy has been designed to better execute a bold plan to end extreme poverty by 2030 and promote shared prosperity endorsed by the World Bank Group’s member countries six months ago.

“For the first time in the history of our organization, we have a strategy that leverages the strengths of our entire organization .and aligns all our work for a common purpose,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim after a meeting of the Development Committee.

The new strategy calls for greater efficiency in operations; more investment in knowledge, technical skills, and information technology; and the breaking down of silos within the institution that currently inhibit collaboration and knowledge-sharing.

In a communiqué released at the close of World Bank-IMF 2013 annual meetings here the development committee urged special attention to countries and regions with the highest rates of poverty, fragile and conflict-affected situations, and unique challenges facing small states.

The committe noted that while the global poverty rate has been cut in half since 1991, not all developing countries have seen equal progress.

About half of low-income countries are classified as fragile and conflict-affected, and they are home to a growing share of the world’s poor. Economic growth has been accompanied by rising inequality in many developing countries, with the majority of the poor now living in middle-income countries.

The two goals set by the Bank Group are reducing extreme poverty globally to 3 percent by 2030, and boosting incomes for the bottom 40 percent of the population in developing countries.

The new strategy approved today says the Bank Group will have to become more flexible to meet the goals. It will have to provide faster service, be able to “crowd in resources, experience, and ideas more effectively through partnerships and leverage its global role by deepening global engagements that are aligned with the two goals.”

The Bank Group will also have to be more selective in its efforts, customize its support to respond to country demands, and increasingly promote public-private partnerships.

Kim said in the next three years the Bank Group would identify a minimum of $400 million in administrative savings. That savings would be reflected in future budgets. Savings will come from reduced travel and facility costs, simplifying bureaucracy and strategically reviewing staffing.

“We welcome measures to utilise existing resources better and strengthen the WBG’s financial capacity to align it with the ambition of its strategy,” the Development Committee said.

The Bank Group has “an important role to play in delivering global development results, supporting countries with their specific development challenges and helping them eradicate poverty and build resilience to future financial, economic, social, and environmental challenges,” it said.

-IANS

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As talks broke down between President Barack Obama and House Republicans on ending a standoff over federal shutdown and debt ceiling, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim warned of the disaster ahead.

“We are now five days away from a very dangerous moment,” Kim said on Saturday referring to the looming Oct 17 deadline when the US Treasury says it would hit the country’s $16.7 trillion borrowing limit and run out of cash to pay its bills.

Urging US policymakers to quickly come to a resolution before they reach the debt ceiling deadline, he said “the closer we get to the deadline, the greater the impact will be for the developing world.”

“Inaction could result in interest rates rising, confidence falling, and growth slowing,” he said at the close of the annual World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Washington.

“If this comes to pass, it could be a disastrous event for the developing world, and that in turn will greatly hurt the developed economies as well,” he said urging “US policymakers to avert this potential crisis.”

Meanwhile, as the government shutdown headed into its 13th day, House Republicans said that their negotiations with Obama have stalled with the White House rejecting their latest proposal to raise the debt limit for a short term in return for talks on the budget.

Obama has said he doesn’t want to begin long-term budget negotiations with congressional Republicans until the debt limit is raised and the government is re-opened, something the House Republicans have not agreed to so far.

After a House Republican Conference on Saturday to mull the path forward, the 2012 Republican vice presidential candidate the House Budget Committee chairman. Paul Ryan, said there was “no deal as far as we’re concerned.”

The breakdown of talks dashed hopes of an early resolution of the crisis after two days of back and forth talks between the two sides amid signs of a thaw.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, Republicans blocked on a 53 – 45 vote a Democratic proposal that aimed to lift the debt ceiling through the end of 2014 without any spending offsets.

The White House condemned Republicans’ rejection with press secretary Jay Carney saying, “It is unfortunate that the common sense, clean debt limit increase proposed by Senate Democrats was refused a yes or no vote today.”

-IANS

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