1 Global growth headed for six-year high (Khaleej
Times) The global economy is on course this year for its fastest growth in six
years as a rebound in trade helps offset a weaker outlook in the US, the OECD has
forecast.
The global economy is set to grow 3.5 per cent this
year before nudging up to 3.6 per cent in 2018, the Paris-based Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development said, updating its forecasts in its
latest Economic Outlook.
That estimate for 2017 was not only a slight
improvement from its last estimate in March for 3.3 per cent growth, but it
would also be the best performance since 2011. Yet despite this brighter
outlook, growth would nonetheless fall disappointingly short of rates seen
before the 2008-2009 financial crisis, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria
said.
The improvement would also not be enough to satisfy
people's expectations for better standards of living and reduce growing income
inequality, he said. Among the risks to the OECD's outlook, it warned that the
growing divergence between monetary policy rates among the major central banks
raised the chances for financial market volatility.
2 UK poll unnerves investors (BBC) Fears that
political uncertainty will hurt consumer spending have hit shares in UK
retailers and housebuilders. The prospect of a hung parliament and speculation
about the election result's impact on Brexit saw the value of sterling slide
against the dollar.
"Disposable incomes will be stretched,"
said analyst Nicholas Hyett The weakening pound makes imported goods' prices
higher and squeezes consumers' ability to spend.
Mr Hyett, from Hargreaves Lansdown, ran through the
affected sectors: "Housebuilders are down across the board, but they're
joined by restaurants, high street banks, fashion retailers and media outlets. Investor
sentiment was not helped by the latest UK industrial production figures, which
showed output rose by less than had been expected.
3 Trump points finger at Qatar (David Smith, Sabrina
Siddiqui & Peter Beaumont in The Guardian) Donald Trump has accused Qatar
of sponsoring terrorism at the highest levels, in an extraordinary escalation
of the diplomatic row with one America’s most important military partners in
the Middle East.
Trump said he had decided “the time had come to call
on Qatar to end its funding … and its extremist ideology.” His comments marked
his most forthright intervention in a crisis triggered on Monday when Saudi
Arabia and its Gulf allies launched a co-ordinated diplomatic and economic
campaign to isolate Qatar.
Trump’s intervention came after Saudi Arabia and its
allies on Friday sanctioned a dozen organisations and 59 people it accused of
links to Islamist militancy – a number of them Qataris or with links to Qatar. The
Qatari government said in a statement: “We do not, have not and will not
support terrorist groups.”
US relations with Qatar have long been complicated
by Doha’s promotion of a conservative form of Sunni Islam, but the tiny Gulf
state is also a close military partner. More than 11,000 US and coalition
forces are at al-Udeid air base outside Doha, which is the centre for US air
operations over Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan.
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