financial flows

Weekly Wire: the Global Forum

These are some of the views and reports relevant to our readers that caught our attention this week.

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Like Water for Internet: Ory Okolloh Talks Tech in Africa

“Last week, ahead of her trip to Washington, D.C., to speak to the World Bank about Africa’s private sector, the 35-year-old Policy Manager for Google Africa took to her Twitter account and asked her followers, “What should I tell them?”
The responses came in fast and varied from rants about corruption in multinational corporations to comments about infrastructure and energy. For the most part, Okolloh didn’t engage the responses, but she did re-tweet them for all to read and she made sure to add the World Bank’s twitter account to the dispatches so that the behemoth institution could also see what Africa’s tweeting populace had to say.” READ MORE

Weekly Wire: the Global Forum

These are some of the views and reports relevant to our readers that caught our attention this week.

BET
Like Water for Internet: Ory Okolloh Talks Tech in Africa

“Last week, ahead of her trip to Washington, D.C., to speak to the World Bank about Africa’s private sector, the 35-year-old Policy Manager for Google Africa took to her Twitter account and asked her followers, “What should I tell them?”

The responses came in fast and varied from rants about corruption in multinational corporations to comments about infrastructure and energy. For the most part, Okolloh didn’t engage the responses, but she did re-tweet them for all to read and she made sure to add the World Bank’s twitter account to the dispatches so that the behemoth institution could also see what Africa’s tweeting populace had to say.” READ MORE

Prospects Weekly: Private capital flows to developing countries eased in October

Private capital flows to developing countries eased in October, but remain close to their highest level in more than a year, led by robust bond issuance by emerging market sovereigns and firms. Business sentiment has strengthened in some countries, including the US and several emerging markets, but remains weak in general amid US “fiscal cliff” and Euro Area risks. In the US, new discoveries and innovations have pushed down domestic prices of natural gas, creating arbitrage opportunities between domestic and international markets.
Private capital flows to developing countries remain high, despite easing in October. Gross international capital flows to developing countries equaled $49 billion in October, the second highest inflow over the past 15 months, but down from the record $71bn of inflows during September. Euro Area debt turmoil in May caused capital flows to slow, but stabilization of financial market tensions and high-income monetary policy prompted the recent uptick in flows. Bond issuance was particularly strong at $32 billion in October, with 44% of the total destined for the financial sector. Notable issues included a $2 billion bond sale by Russia’s Sberbank, a $1.5 billion offering of 10-year sovereign bonds by Chile, and a $500 million sale by Bolivia (its first in nearly a century). New equity issuance and bank lending (especially to Emerging Europe and Latin America) moderated, partly because low bond yields made bonds a more attractive option for some borrowers.
Business sentiment indicators have strengthened in several countries, but remain weak in general amid risks to the global economy. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Indexes (PMIs) for October suggest a strengthening of activity in the US as labor and housing markets continue to improve. PMIs also gained ground and suggest expansion in Brazil, Indonesia, India, Russia, and Turkey. In China, however, both the official and Markit PMI are below or close to the no-growth 50 threshold despite recent accelerations in industrial activity. Similarly, the manufacturing PMI for both core and periphery Euro Area countries points strongly toward further contraction, despite a stabilization and even small gains in industrial activity during recent months. Business pessimism may be reflecting market worries that the U.S. fiscal cliff or Euro Area tensions could flare up dampening demand and prospects—a view seemingly supported by weak sales of capital goods.
The wide gap between U.S. natural gas prices and European natural gas and crude oil prices suggests downside risks on oil prices. The post-2005 increase in crude oil prices induced innovation in both natural gas and oil extraction technologies such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. A 28 percent increase in U.S. natural gas production between 2005 and 2011 has depressed domestic prices. Low prices have induced electrical and petro-chemical producers to substitute natural gas for coal, but a similar shift by the transportation industry has yet to take place, in part due to the absence of distribution networks and safety concerns. So far, export licensing requirements have prevented U.S. producers from selling into world markets where natural gas prices are much higher. U.S. natural gas costs only 29 and 20 percent as much as European and Japanese gas. Should licenses become more readily available, the arrival of US gas on international markets could exert significant downward pressures on international prices of both natural gas and crude oil.

Download the Prospects Weekly as PDF here.

Your own little slice of World Bank Open Data

A number of World Bank Open Data users have been taking advantage of the new Databank. Databank offers over 8,000 indicators with which to create and save custom reports with tables, charts, or maps. The saved reports are updated automatically when the data are udpated. And you can revisit, share, and embed the tables, charts, or maps as widgets on websites or blogs.

Results’ Agenda and Economists

In the book, The Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen motivates the discussion on the importance of processes and responsibilities by relying on an example. In the Gita (part of the Mahabharata), on the eve of the crucial battle episode in the epic, Arjuna expresses his doubts about leading the fight which will result in so much killing. Lord Krishna, tells him that he, Arjuna, must perform his duty, that is, to fight. And to fight, irrespective of the consequences.

Krishna’s blessing of the demands of duty is meant to win the argument from a religious perspective. But most of us would share Arjuna’s concerns about the fact that, if the war were to occur, with him leading the charge on the side of justice and propriety, many people would get killed. He himself would be doing a lot of the killing, often of people for whom he had affection.

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