#Russia: #Roublerecovers as authorities step up support

Currency climbs in value as threat to country’s financial stability eases

An employee counts Russian ruble banknotes at a private company’s office in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. Photograph: Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

Russia’s rouble strengthened on Friday after finance minister Anton Siluanov confirmed his ministry had sold foreign currency and on expectations that exporters will step up dollar sales... (Read more)

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#Ireland: President Higgins promotes #Irishbusiness on #China trip

State visit includes Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou  

President Michael D Higgins: will be attending events in China aimed at promoting Ireland run by the Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Tourism Ireland, as well as the Science Foundation of Ireland, the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland and representatives from the universities. Photograph: Gareth Chaney Collins

                                    

There is a strong business flavour to this week’s visit by President Michael D Higgins to China as he will be attending events aimed at promoting Ireland run by the Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Tourism Ireland, as well as the Science Foundation of Ireland, the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland and representatives from the universities.

 

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#Italy: ‘Worst ever crop’ down to climate change, say Italy’s #olivefarmers

The extreme weather and parasites that have devastated olive groves are set to send prices soaring

Failure around Europe: a farmer harvests olives this week in southern France; 40-60 per cent of the crop is likely to be lost. Photograph: Guillaume Horcajuelo/EPA

Miriam O'Callaghan

 

In Cork my grandmother had a lip for the exotic: coffee beans from Reardens, Turkish delight from Hadji Bey, Benedictine from Woodford Bourne, figs from Cudmores, dates from O’Keeffes, and olive oil from “Dr Duncan” at JJ Walshe’s pharmacy, on Shandon Street... (Read more)

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#China - #Australia deal to intensify #competition for #exporters

Irish food and agriculture sectors will have to compete with tariff-free access for Aussie products

China’s President Xi Jinping (L) shakes hands with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott after a signing ceremony for a free trade deal at Parliament House in Canberra. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

Australia and China signed a landmark free trade deal recently that will open up markets worth billions of yuan to Australia and make it easier for Chinese companies to invest the other way... (Read more)

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@WorldBank: #DoingBusiness, Going beyond efficiency. Resume

• Singapore is the most business-friendly economy in the world, according to the Doing Business 2015 rankings.
• Sub-Saharan Africa had the highest number of business reforms compared to other regions and five of the top 10 most-improved countries.
• This year’s report uses new data and methodology in three areas: resolving insolvency, protecting minority investors, and getting credit... (Read more)

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#Chineseconsumer #inflation slows to a near 5-year low

The consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.6 per cent in September from a year earlier, new figures show

A customer selects fruits at a supermarket in Huaibei, Anhui province. China’s inflation rate slowed more than expected in September to a near five-year low

China’s consumer inflation slowed more than expected in September to a near five-year low, adding to concerns that global growth is cooling fast unless governments take bolder measures to shore up their economies... (Read more)

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#InternationalFoodPrices Hit Four-Year Low

New World Bank Group tool focuses on preparedness for potential future crises

WASHINGTON, September 30, 2014 – International prices of food decreased by 6 percent between April and August 2014, reaching a four-year low, according to the latest edition of Food Price Watch. This sharp decrease was driven mainly by international wheat prices, which went down 19 percent and maize prices, which plummeted 21% between April and August 2014. Rice prices actually increased 13 percent during the same period. Prospects for next year’s harvests and food stocks are strong... (Read more)

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Battle to Save the Export-Import Bank

September 17, 2014 C. Fred Bergsten explains why the US Export-Import Bank is essential to a successful US trade strategy—and what might be done to limit export subsidies worldwide. (See interviews)

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#Ireland: Why we get a better cup in Ireland than all the #tea in #China

In the first of a two-part series, a trip to a Rwandan tea plantation leads to an exploration of how the second World War led to the tea we drink in Ireland being of unusually high quality – and what all this has to do with Anglo Irish Ban

The blame for Ireland’s cataclysmic economic crash can be traced back to tea. Were it not for our enduring love of the stuff, a love stretching back more than 100 years, we might not have been forced by our European overlords to don an economic hairshirt following all that banking unpleasantness in 2008 (more of which anon)... (Read more) 

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#Ireland: #Foodproducers urged to take ‘bigger slice’ of #exportmarket

Fingal Enterprise Week to help small food producers and start-ups connect with buyers

From left: Martin Kennedy, CEO, National Athlete Development Academy, Oisín Geoghegan, head of Fingal Local Enterprise Office and Paul Reid, chief executive Fingal County Council. photograph: mark stedman, photocall ireland

Small Irish food producers should take a “bigger slice” of the growing export market for Irish-made food and drink, said to be worth an estimated €10 billion, according to the organisers of the Dublin Food Chain event... (Read more)

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#Russia: #Russianeconomy falters in face of #westernsanctions

Kremlin flags tit-for-tat food import restrictions as boost for domestic agriculture and chance for Russians to eat home-grown produce

The lives of many Russians are beginning to change, as a combination of western sanctions over Ukraine, a ban on some food imports and falling oil prices weigh on an already weakened economy. More Russians are putting off expensive purchases, adapting travel plans and changing grocery stores. Photograph: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Trade is not usually brisk at Ala Smirnova’s corner shop sitting among apartment blocks in a suburb of north Moscow. It is mainly seen as a late-night, last resort for locals who have run out of essentials such as soap, beer or bread. That changed this week as word went round that the thinly stocked little store contained a trove of some of the last affordable grechka, or buckwheat, left in town... 

(Read more)

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#Japan: #Japaneseexport growth accelerates in October

Exports to Asia, which accounts for more than half of shipments, rose 10.5 per cent

Smoke billowing from a plant in Tokyo bay. The 9.6 per cent annual rise in exports in October was more than double the 4.5 per cent gain expected by economists

Japanese exports grew in October at the fastest pace in eight months in an encouraging sign that global demand could help the country recover from an unexpected recession and support the central bank’s optimistic economic outlook... (Read more)

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#Ireland: Simon Coveney hails ‘exciting’ end to #milkquotas

Atmosphere in dairy industry ‘like the night before Christmas’

Dom Moran, secretary general of the Department of Agriculture with Minister Simon Coveney and Gerry Boyle, director of Teagasc, at the National Dairy Conference. Photograph: John T Ohle

The ending of the milk quota regime next March will be the most important and exciting development to hit rural Ireland in a generation, the Minister for Agriculture has said... (Read more)

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Why #Europe needs to reverse the austerity #Germany has championed

Opinion: ‘Not only was Ireland bullied by the ECB into entering a programme, but a large chunk of the received funds was transferred straight to the financial sector and foreign creditors (including various German banks)’

Then taoiseach Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan, minister for finance, making a statement following the Cabinet meeting regarding the financial bailout in 2010. Photographer: Dara Mac Dónaill / THE IRISH TIMES

Germany, written off as the “sick man of Europe” when the euro was launched in 1999, is today considered by most – first and foremost by the Germans themselves – to be the continent’s most successful economy and a model for other countries to follow. But this is a dangerous misconception. As Matt O’Brien recently wrote in the Washington Post: “It doesn’t seem like it, but Germany is still the sick man of Europe. It’s just that everybody else is terminally ill now"... (Read more)

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#Russia Threatened by #OilPrice Slump Till 2015

• 
  Firms will continue building sites like the Arctic Prirazlomnoye oil platform only if the oil price goes up.
  Photo: Gazprom

In a blow to the financing of the state budget and Russian oil majors alike, global crude prices will likely remain low until 2015, according to the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Oil Market Report for November, released late last week... (Read more)

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#US: Defying Expectations, #Japan’s Economy Falls

The Shiodome business district in Tokyo. Japan’s gross domestic product fell by an annualized pace of 1.6 percent last quarter, threatening a planned tax increase. Credit Thomas Peter/Reuters

TOKYO — Japan’s economy unexpectedly fell into recession in the third quarter, a painful slump that called into question efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to pull the country out of nearly two decades of deflation.

The second consecutive quarterly decline in gross domestic product could upend Japan’s political landscape. Mr. Abe is considering dissolving Parliament and calling fresh elections, people close to him say, and Monday’s economic report is seen as critical to his decision, which is widely expected to come this week... (Read more)

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#USA: Wider #UStradedeficit, #weakexports point to #slowergrowth

The Commerce Department says trade gap increased 7.6% to $43.03bn in September

Cargo containers are ready for transportation at the Port of Los Angeles

The US trade deficit unexpectedly widened in September as exports hit a five-month low, suggesting slowing global demand could undercut economic growth in the final three months of the year... (Read more)

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#Irishabroad have played ‘major role’ in #economicrecovery

Jimmy Deenihan and Bill Clinton address Global Diaspora and Development Forum in Dublin

Minister of State for the Diaspora Jimmy Deenihan speaking at the Global Diaspora and Development Forum at the Hilton Hotel in Dublin this morning. Photograph: Cyril Byrne / The Irish Times

Irish people around the world have played a “major role” in Ireland’s economic recovery, Minister for the Diaspora Jimmy Deenihan has said.

Speaking at the Global Diaspora and Development Forum in Dublin this morning, Mr Deenihan said the country was “on a pathway to recovery”, and the “diaspora has played a major role in helping us to make that recovery”... (Read more)

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#Ireland: #Exporters told to look to #Africa for #newopportunities

Africa Ireland Economic Forum delegates told that trade is expected to soar over coming years

Minister for Development and Trade Promotion Seán Sherlock said exports from Ireland have increased by approximately 25 per cent in recent years

Trade between Ireland and Africa is expected to reach €24 billion by 2020 as more than one in ten Irish chief executives look to target business opportunities in the region.

Speaking at the opening of the Africa Ireland Economic Forum in Dublin on Thursday, Minister for Development and Trade Promotion Seán Sherlock said exports from Ireland have increased by approximately 25 per cent in recent years while imports from sub-Saharan African countries have doubled... (Read more)

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#Germanbusiness confidence declines further

Survey of managers revealed deep pessimism about the economy

Containers are loaded onto a container ship at a shipping terminal in the harbour in Hamburg. German business confidence continues to decline. Photograph: Reuters/Fabian Bimmer

Germany’s business climate cooled for the sixth straight month in October, pushing confidence in Europe’s largest economy to levels not seen since the crisis days of December 2012... (Read more)

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