Drop in Greek exports again sounds alarm bells in sector
A drop in the value of Greek exports in the first half of the year, which aggravated an already recession-plagued economy, has been mostly attributed to still low oil prices, which affected fuel product exports.
Nevertheless, a 1.4-percent decrease in exports of non-fuel products, compared with the same period in 2015, again raised acute concerns over the anemic – and now sliding – course of Greece’s exporting sector.
Economic planners have repeatedly pointed to robust exports as an essential ingredient in reversing the economic meltdown and placing the Greek economy on more solid foundations for future growth. Boosting competitiveness and an outward-looking business model have long been identified as the “keys” to achieving greater exports, yet seven years into the economic crisis exporters’ groups are now issuing urgent calls for more action and measures.
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Central bank intrusions into markets. The Fed has helped the 1% but hurt most others. The Bank of Japan, Swiss Central Bank, and the EU are buying equities. Interest rates have been forced to the lowest levels in history. Economies are struggling even though central banks have aggressively “stimulated.” Perhaps the purpose of the stimulation was to boost the wealth of the 1%…
Blessed with lots of open space, consistent and strong winds, and farm owners eager to garner extra income from planting wind turbines alongside corn, Iowa has been one of the epicenters of America’s long-running wind boom. In 2008, about 4 percent of Iowa’s electricity generation came from wind. But so many wind farms have been built in the state that in 2015, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “wind provided 31.3% of Iowa’s total electricity generation in 2015, a larger share than any other state.” (In the U.S. last year, wind accounted for about 4.7 percent of electricity generation.) In raw production of wind-powered electricity, Iowa is second only to Texas.
In the very near term, while traders continue to monitor any other comments from Fed officials they will also be focused on the monthly U.S. jobs report due out on Friday as a strong number could heighten expectations for monetary tightening, and vice-versa.
Meanwhile, according to the latest report published by the World Gold Council , it seems that investors are losing faith in the current financial system as well as being fed up with monetary policy in particular negative interest rates, and have therefore put their money into hard assets such as gold.
Can Norway Supply Europe With Gas Long-Term?
Arctic pipeline As the EU has pushed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower the portion of energy that comes from nuclear sources, the greatest benefactors have been natural gas producers. The single biggest EEA benefactor has been Norway. According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, hydrocarbon production on the Norwegian shelf is expected to remain relatively stable for the next 10 years. In the long-term, new discoveries will be crucial to the sustained production of Norwegian Oil and Gas. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, declining oil and gas revenues could prompt the country to tap into its sovereign wealth fund, as oil and gas fields contributed 29 percent less to government’s oil revenue for the first half of 2016. This discrepancy suggests Norway needs to look deeper to keep producing oil and gas at its current levels. Falling UK gas production has necessitated the UK to start […]
