1 Central banks nearing limit to stimulate economies
(Gulf News) The world’s central banks are “pretty close” to the limits of their
ability to stimulate economies, Angel Gurria, head of the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), has said.
In the absence of “breakthrough, collective”
policies, global growth is likely to remain weak, Gurria said ahead of a
meeting of leaders of the world’s 20 biggest economies, the G20, in the eastern
Chinese city of Hangzhou. “We have left our good central bankers to do all the
heavy lifting,” said Gurria.
“It has to be like a relay. Continued accommodative
monetary policy, and then you get to the second relay like in the four-by-100s
and the baton passes. Now you need to get it to the finance ministers, to the
economy ministers, to the trade ministers, to the technology ministers, the
science ministers, the education ministers, the competition ministers. Now is the
big time for structural change.”
Echoing remarks by China’s vice finance minister on
Friday, Gurria emphasised that a combination of coordinated monetary, fiscal
and structural adjustment policies are now necessary to revive growth
worldwide, including in China.
Nonetheless, he was relatively upbeat on the outlook
for China’s growth, despite a rising debt burden and mixed progress on tackling
low efficiency and overcapacity in key state-owned sectors. Gurria said that
China likely could continue growing at around 6.5 to 7 per cent during its
current five-year plan period (to 2020) without major distortions in the
structure of the economy.
2 Theresa May sees ‘difficult times’ for UK (BBC) Britain
needs to be prepared for some "difficult times" ahead as it leaves
the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May has said. Mrs May warned Brexit
would not be "plain sailing" for the UK.
She said formal EU talks will not begin until 2017,
but vowed the process would not be "kicked into the long grass". Mrs
May also ruled out a snap general election, as the UK needs
"stability".
She insisted the country would "make a
success" of leaving the EU, saying she was also "optimistic"
about new opportunities for Britain outside the EU. The prime minister said she
wanted "an independent Britain, forging our own way in the world".
Asked about immigration, she said the referendum
result had shown voters did not want "free movement to continue in the way
that it has done in the past". She said ministers were looking at
"options" for new EU migration controls.
3 China ‘snub’ for US president (Tom Phillips in The
Guardian) China’s leaders have been accused of delivering a calculated
diplomatic snub to Barack Obama after the US president was denied a red-carpet
welcome during his chaotic arrival in Hangzhou ahead of the start of the G20.
Chinese authorities have rolled out the red carpet
for leaders including India’s prime pinister Narendra Modi, Russian president
Vladimir Putin, South Korean president Park Geun-hye, Brazil’s president Michel
Temer and British prime minister Theresa May, who touched down on Sunday
morning.
But the leader of the world’s largest economy, who
is on his final tour of Asia, was forced to disembark from Air Force One
through a little-used exit in the plane’s belly after no rolling staircase was
provided when he landed in the eastern Chinese city on Saturday afternoon.
When Obama did find his way onto the tarmac, there
were heated altercations between US and Chinese officials, with one Chinese
official caught on video shouting: “This is our country! This is our airport!”
Jorge Guajardo, Mexico’s former ambassador to China,
said he was convinced Obama’s treatment was part of a calculated snub. “These
things do not happen by mistake. Not with the Chinese,” Guajardo said.
Bill Bishop, a China expert whose Sinocism
newsletter tracks the country’s political scene, agreed that Obama’s no-carpet
welcome looked suspiciously like a deliberate slight intended “to make the
Americans look diminished and weak”. He said, “It sure looks like a straight up
snub,” Bishop said. “This clearly plays very much into the [idea]: ‘Look, we
can make the American president go out of the ass of the plane.’”
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