As Moscow banned food imports from the West, Turkey voiced its readiness to increase its exports of agricultural products to Russia, Turkish economy minister has said. “Turkey is a major supplier of food and agricultural produce to Russia. It is ready to increase its food exports to Russia if necessary,” Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said in an interview with Itar-Tass. [...]

Washington has refused to allow the UN International Court of Justice (IJC) to hear Argentina's claims that US court decisions on the country's debt have violated Argentina's sovereignty. “We do not view the ICJ as an appropriate venue for addressing Argentina’s debt issues, and we continue to urge Argentina to engage with its creditors to resolve remaining issues with bondholders,” the U [...]

Inequality between the richest and poorest metropolitan areas in the US is at its highest since 1969, and could hamper the recovery of the housing market that was at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis. A report by the US Commerce and Labor Department shows that when analyzing the largest 100 metropolitan areas in the country, the disparity between the 10th most affluent region and the 90th [...]

Economists fear eurozone recovery may be derailed after German ZEW indicator plunges to 20-month low. Europe's standoff with Russia has affected the region's largest economy after economic confidence in Germany nosedived unexpectedly, fuelling fears the eurozone's weak recovery will be snuffed out. [...]

Ecuador doesn't need anybody's permission to export agricultural products to Russia, which now has a big gap that needs to be filled after it banned supplies from a number of western countries, said President Rafael Correa. “I want to immediately say that we don’t need to get anybody’s permission to sell products to friendly countries: as far as we know Latin America isn’t a part of the [...]

In view of the events in Ukraine, the government and many media have switched from level-headed to agitated. The politics of escalation does not have a realistic goal - and harms German interests. We interrupt our own train of thought: “History is not repeating itself!” But can we be so sure about that these days? [...]

There is growing dissent in the EU over policies that led to a de fact trade war with Russia. Meanwhile the countries not toeing the line are reaping the benefits, irritating those who jumped on the sanctions bandwagon. Greek members of the European Parliament demanded Sunday that the EU cancel sanctions against Russia. [...]

The Bulgarian government is under enormous pressure from the US to cancel the South Stream project, and so Bulgaria is the place to watch now, Daniel McAdams, executive director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity think tank, told RT. On August 8, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk announced that Kiev had prepared a list of 172 Russian citizens and 65 companies, predominantly Rus [...]

Here's the curious rub about food sanctions, it rather throws down the gauntlet for Russia to close up a legacy of Communism. For all those who believe in big government, food provision is a good place to start disabusing the quaint (and horribly flawed) notion that the public sector can be more efficient. [...]

Shares in some of Russian food producers have added almost 40 percent by midday on Friday. The surge comes a day after Moscow imposed a one-year ban on imports of food products from the West. Shares in one of Russia’s biggest agricultural holdings Razgulay shot up 39.87 percent by Friday afternoon, according to Moscow Stock Exchange data. [...]

Russia's import ban on agricultural goods from countries that sanctioned Moscow over the Ukraine crisis may have a negative impact on European producers, farmers say. However, the EU's ambassador to Moscow insists the bloc's position will not change. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed Wednesday a decree imposing a one-year ban on agricultural produce, foods, and raw materials from countrie [...]

The US dollar, the dominant global currency since 1944, may lose some of its luster due to the American-led sanctions against Russia over the turmoil in Ukraine. The greenback has been fading in favor since the global financial crisis in 2008. The US-led sanctions against Russia may have backfired on the US because it threatens to “hasten a move away from the dollar that’s been stirring sin [...]

The World Trade Organization got a surprise setback on Thursday when India, pushing for concessions on agricultural stockpiling, vetoed plans for universal customs rules. The deal could have added $1 trillion and 21 million jobs to the world economy. The July 31 deadline on the first proposal for major global economic reform in two decades - a series of customs procedures known as "trade facili [...]

The West is tightening the financial screws on Moscow, but German companies are already feeling the kickback of a slowing Russian economy and weakening ruble. Russia is Europe’s third-largest trading partner, so a spluttering Russian economy, exacerbated by the Ukraine crisis, is seriously affecting German companies. In 2013, Germany exported 36 billion euro worth of goods to Russia. [...]

Ukraine's GDP in the second quarter of 2014 has declined 4.7 percent compared to the same period in 2013, the Ukrainian State Statistics Service said on Wednesday. The contraction was more than four times the 1.1 percent fall in the first quarter. The gross domestic product of Ukraine has been falling every quarter since the beginning of 2012. Ukraine expects GDP to tumble by 6-6.5 percent this [...]

The US stock market will suffer a 20 percent or greater pullback within 12 months says Mark Cook, a legendary investor who predicted the last three major crashes including the 2007 world economic crisis. The trader didn’t specify the exact time when the market will fall. [...]

With average annual growth rates of 8.5 percent, Panama’s per capita GDP has more than doubled over the past decade. This impressive growth performance has been driven by a steady rise in public and private investment in a stable economic environment buttressed by prudent policies. In its latest assessment of the Panamanian economy, the IMF said Panama’s economy continues to grow strongly, [...]

Entrepreneurism in American has been on the decline for at least 30 years, a new report suggests, and for the first time in three decades the number of business "deaths" in the United States exceeds that of "births." The report, published on Monday this week by economists from the Brookings Institute, examines business dynamism in America — or how the process by which firms are continually bo [...]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slashed its growth expectations for the world's biggest economy to 1.7 percent for the year, after a harsh winter crushed growth in the first quarter. In June, the Washington DC-based institution forecast US growth at 2 percent. The revised forecast is below last year’s 1.9 percent growth rate, and would be the slowest annual rate for the United St [...]