The changing relations of China and Russia are also not based purely through partnerships but also through their support in each another’s projects. Russia has been supporting China’s ambitious infrastructural projects like the Silk Road project and the Eurasian integration project, which connects China with Europe via Russia.
June 30th 2015 could be an important turning point for Greece: an exit or a repayment of the debt as it reaches its debt repayment deadline. A crisis in Greece will affect markets all across the globe. In fact, they are already reflected in the stock exchanges across the world. The country is heading for a default and market reactions are the first sign that nothing is going good with Greece. Clearly, market perceptions are that Greece will be unable to meet 1.6 billion euro of loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund. The widespread panic happened last week due to the failing talks between Greece and its creditors.
China’s leaders now aim to transform China into one of the world’s leading industrial powers by 2045 and for this, a new business model will be designed. By doing this, it aims to reduce and eventually overcome the country’s dependence on cheap manufacturing and instead focus on advanced industrial goods for markets. Not only this, China has for long been building knowledge-based economy, driven purely by innovation and domestic consumption. But its real estate sector still consists of ghost towns and dozens of unleased commercial spaces.
The whole purpose of BRICS New Development Bank is to be self sufficient and rely less on western economies. The world’s reserves has shrunk from 90% (2004) of dollar denominated securities to 60% in 2014. But, the growing tension individually in the member countries could easily defeat the purpose for which it was originally formed. Some debate that this small initiative (formation of BRICS) could be a big challenge for the advanced economies.
The creation of AIIB, China has opened its closed doors to many countries. In committing to contribute up to 50% of the AIIB capital, it will be taking the lead in assisting the development of other Asian countries. There will be a lot of rising challenges in the development of the bank but this could be a great opportunity for China to prove itself as a global leader.
The Eurozone comprises of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. Established in 1999, these countries have adopted a common currency called the ‘Euro’. ‘Euro’ itself was introduced as a single currency no later than 2002. By sharing a common currency, the countries follow common economic and fiscal policies. Monetary policy decisions are taken by the independent European Central Bank , also known as the ECB. Entry to join the eurozone is controlled by the so-called Eurogroup.
Greece’s bailout extension expires in May this year and its inclination towards the members of BRICS seems inevitable. For long, Greece’s economy has been bringing troubling news to the Eurozone. The EU members have time and again tried their best to keep Greece in the common currency zone but bailouts and downgrading has got the worse out of Greece. However, the debt crisis in Greece seems to only deepen and has taken a different turn with some new developments in the Greece’s strategy – mostly captured in the statements of Greek Defense minister, Panos Kammenos.
The US dollar has been on the rise every day setting high records. With the upward pressure on dollar, stronger dollar could tighten financial conditions across the growth. Further the rising dollar could be offsetting the benefit of low cost oil. Over the past six months, the trade-weighted dollar has risen 25% and faster than anytime the last 40 years. US dollar is a global unit of account in debt contracts and that could be a cause of slow down in the rest of the world. Not only that, if the dollar continues to increase, inflation and US economic could weaken.
With India having the world’s second largest population and the maximum number of poor people in the world, the Indian budget 2015 could be a turning point for the poor and the unemployed. While many have supported the budget, others have criticized it for being very ‘pro-corporate’. The Indian Budget has been more or less termed as “stable” in its approach allowing more public spending through emphasis on strategic plans that could modernize India’s infrastructure.
As banks slowly approach the age of digitalization they already seem to be facing tough challenges that are related to their own systems’ security. Banks have been victims to many cyber crimes but so far the crimes had been related to hacking into customers’ accounts. The shift from hacking customers’ accounts to hacking banks’ systems seems to be one of the latest and perhaps the biggest and quietest cyber crimes. In the past, bank robberies might not have been so planned and professional but with changes in technology, even cyber crimes seem to keep up
State-owned banks have long dominated banking in China but China wants to do things differently now. The Chinese government wants improve its financial sector by creating more confidence and responsiveness towards private customers. China has lately seen a lot of changes in its banking system, which could see some big changes in Chinese banking sector in 2015.
By the end of 2014, Greece owed “troika”(European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission) €253.3bn. In 2014, many talks were doing the rounds of a possible exit of Greece from the Eurozone. With snap elections in January 2015, Greece is again put on a spot. There is a lot of speculation as to how things could change for Greece in case radical left-wing party Syriza wins. Sunday Elections for Greece could either make or break the future of Greece depending how the elected government handles rising tensions between the troubled nation and its creditors, Eurozone government and IMF.
Banking Industry has evolved tremendously over a period of time. Nowadays, modern banking sector is doing away with its traditional methods and shifting focus to a more advanced and digitally connected network. While many countries are still struggling to get basic banking facilities, there are others that are growing not only in number but facing fierce competition from non-banks. As we all know, banking, in recent years, is not all about depositing and taking loans but much more.
