Posts
Natural disasters in North Korea trigger widespread food shortages
'Definitely
people are dying. How many is the big question,' aid worker says
.jpeg)
5
September, 2012
North
Korea could be heading toward a crisis similar to the 1990s when a
million people are thought to have died after a series of natural
disasters brought widespread famine, said an aid worker, just back
from a tour of the impoverished state.
North
Korea has suffered heavy floods this year, including from a typhoon
earlier this week and another storm heading in its way, and has
little capacity to deal with any more damage, said Kim Hartzner,
managing director of Mission East, a Danish aid group which focuses
on providing food aid to children.
"The
scale and the magnitude of the disaster has been mind-blowing,"
he told Reuters in Beijing late Wednesday, referring to flooding in
late June and the end of July that killed at least 169, leaving some
400 people missing and 212,200 homeless. "They've been through
five or six consecutive disasters. It is a long-term problem and the
supplies are likely to be very low," he said, adding there was a
lack of even basic materials for rebuilding homes, such as concrete
and iron bars.
"The
damage to the arable land will not have an effect tomorrow or the day
after; it will have an effect in two or three months. They can eat
the maize they have already harvested," Hartzner added. "But
I think this will affect a sizable proportion of the maize. It is
extremely serious if the maize and rice crops are damaged," he
said, after returning from a six-day visit where he visited several
areas hard-hit by the recent floods.
Vietnam
Risks Biggest East Asia IMF Rescue Since 1990s: Economy
Vietnam
risks becoming the biggest East Asian economy to seek an
International Monetary Fund rescue loan since the region’s
financial crisis more than a decade ago as it moves to support a
faltering banking system.
6
September, 2012
The
nation may need IMF aid to recapitalize banks and must act quickly to
clean up bad debt or risk “prolonged stagnation,” the National
Assembly’s economic committee said in a Sept. 4 report published on
its website yesterday. The financial system needs an injection of 250
trillion dong ($12 billion) to 300 trillion dong, according to the
298-page report that included recommendations to address economic
risks.
Prime
Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s government is struggling to regain
confidence in Vietnam after the arrest of a banking tycoon last month
highlighted the frailty of a financial system hobbled by Southeast
Asia’s highest bad debt levels. Growth slowed to 4.4 percent in the
first half of this year from 8.5 percent in 2007 as lending
stagnated, damping state revenue and crimping the country’s ability
to rescue banks.
South
Korea Revises Down GDP Growth; Rate Cut Looms
WSJ,
6
September, 2012
SEOUL—South
Korea's economy grew at a slower pace than initially estimated in the
second quarter as the deepening euro-zone debt crisis hit exports at
a time of cooling consumption, adding to pressure on the central bank
to ease monetary policy further to underpin growth.
Gross
domestic product rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in the second
quarter from the previous quarter, the Bank of Korea's revised data
showed Thursday. The reading is slightly lower than the central
bank's preliminary estimate in July of a 0.4% expansion, and is only
a third of the 0.9% growth posted in the first quarter.
Ponzi
economy in action: Because the economic growth engine requires
continual expansion of debt, it's essential that the people of
Myanmar are sunk in debt up to their eyeballs as soon as possible.
-- Rice Farmer
Card
Giants Lead Rush to Myanmar
WSJ,
5
September, 2012
Myanmar
inched closer to rejoining the global financial system Thursday as
MasterCard Inc. MA +2.49% said it had issued a license to one of the
country's largest banks.
For
a country that has no credit cards and only introduced ATMs less than
a year ago, the introduction of the ubiquitous financial brand is a
milestone. By giving travelers the ability to withdraw money at cash
points and allowing merchants to accept credit cards issued by
foreign banks, it will potentially save business people and tourists
from having to carry thousands of dollars in local currency on trips
to the country, as many do now.
The
move comes as international financial firms are lining up to get back
into Myanmar, which has become arguably the world's sexiest new
frontier market.
China: Steel
prices collapse belies all hopes of revival in short term
6
September, 2012
5
days into September and another 2% decline in steel prices with the
SHFE steel futures plunging to an all-time low mounted concerns about
a deep rooted rot in the world's top steel consumer .
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.