1 World Bank predicts moderate global growth (BBC) There
will be only a moderate pick up in global economic growth during 2017, the
World Bank has predicted. Its Global Economic Prospects report is forecasting
2.7% growth compared with the 2.3% seen last year. That slight strengthening
will be driven mainly by improvements in emerging markets and developing
economies, the Bank says.
But there is heightened uncertainty after the US
Presidential election, according to the report. The World Bank's new forecasts
suggest we can expect the unconvincing global economic revival following the
financial crisis to continue. Last year's growth figure was described as a
"post-crisis low", with "anaemic" levels of investment and
a further weakening of global trade.
For emerging market and developing economies, the
rise in interest rates in the US and the strengthening dollar also led to a
"notable tightening of financing conditions" - which means credit
that is either more expensive or harder to get. But the Bank still expects
growth to accelerate in these countries, partly due to higher commodity prices,
such as oil and metals, which many of them export.
The Bank's economists also expect the slowdown in
two large emerging economies, Brazil and Russia, to come to an end. For the
developed economies the Bank forecasts continued weak growth of around 1.8%.
That would be slightly better than 2016, but still slow compared to the period
before the crisis.
2 China to cut steel, coal output (San Francisco
Chronicle) China's top economic planner has pledged to continue cutting steel
and coal production, which have been a source of trade friction with many
countries.
China reached targets for cuts in production
capacity last year, said Xu Shaoshi, chairman of the National Development and
Reform Commission, adding that hundreds of thousands of steel and coal workers
have been transferred to other jobs. Other industries such as cement and glass
are also "actively" cutting capacity, Xu said.
China's trade partners accuse the country of dumping
excess steel, coal, cement and glass on world markets. US President-elect
Donald Trump has engaged in a war of words with Beijing, accusing China of
unfair trade practices and threatening punishing tariffs.
When asked about Trump's tariff threats and the
possibility that Beijing could launch retaliatory antitrust investigations
against U.S. companies in China, Xu told reporters it was "normal" to
have differences on trade issues and urged the US and China to "control
these issues through dialogue on the basis of mutual respect and
equality."
Xu said cutting production capacity of steel by 45
million tons and coal by 250 million tons in 2016 affected the jobs of 800,000
steelworkers and miners, with the government resettling 700,000 of them in new
jobs by the end of last year.
He said China's economy is estimated to have grown
by roughly 6.7 percent last year, within its official target range of 6.5 to 7
percent.
3 All Dutch trains now powered by wind (The
Guardian) All Dutch trains have become 100% powered by electricity generated by
wind energy, the national railway company NS has said. “Since 1 January, 100%
of our trains are running on wind energy,” said NS spokesman, Ton Boon.
Dutch electricity company Eneco won a tender offered
by NS two years ago and the two companies signed a 10-year deal setting January
2018 as the date by which all NS trains should run on wind energy.
Eneco and NS said that around 600,000 passengers
daily are “the first in the world” to travel thanks to wind energy. NS operates
about 5,500 train trips a day. One windmill running for an hour can power a
train for 120 miles, the companies said. They hope to reduce the energy used
per passenger by a further 35% by 2020 compared with 2005.
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