Abenomics

Romania's centre-left government led by Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Wednesday unveiled plans to cut VAT from 24 to 20 per cent, and reduce taxes on meat, fish, vegetables and fruit to 9 per cent from next January onwards.

The changes are part of the new fiscal code, which is now undergoing public debate.

GDP drops 1.6 percent, unemployment rate down

BELGRADE -- Real year-on-year drop in Serbia's GDP in the fourth quarter of 2014 was 1.6 percent, the national statistical office has stated.

The International Monetary Fund on Jan. 20 sharply cut its 2015-2016 world growth forecast of only six months ago, saying lower oil prices did not offset pervasive weaknesses around the globe.
      
The IMF said poorer prospects in China, Russia, the euro area and Japan will hold world growth to just 3.5 percent this year and 3.7 percent in 2016.
      

The World Bank on late Jan. 13 predicted a pick-up in economic growth for developing countries, spurred by falling oil prices and despite a slight slowdown in global engine China, although it lowered its global growth forecast for 2015 and next year due to disappointing economic prospects in the eurozone, Japan and some major emerging economies that offset the benefit of lower oil prices.

Greek consumer prices fell 2.6 percent in December, with the annual pace of deflation accelerating from a 1.2 percent drop in November, data from the country's statistics service showed on Tuesday.

Greece's EU-harmonized deflation rate also picked up, showing a 2.5 percent fall in December from a 1.2 percent drop in November.

A gradual economic recovery may be expected after the fourth quarter of 2015, accompanied by a decrease in inflation, the Turkish Central Bank has said in a statement.

The Bank expects that, in this gradual recovery, private demand will "contribute to growth at moderate levels," a summary of the Bank's Dec. 24 Monetary Policy Committee meeting has revealed.

Japan's parliament on Dec. 24 re-elected Shinzo Abe as prime minister with an overwhelming majority following the conservative leader's mid-December election triumph.

The powerful lower house voted for the 60-year-old Abe with 328 votes against 73 for acting opposition leader Katsuya Okada.        

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won comfortable re-election Sunday in a snap poll he had billed as a referendum on his economic policies after early success faded into a recession.
      

Turkey's gross domestic product (GDP) has grown 1.7 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, according to official data released Dec. 10, sharply below forecasts that had predicted an increase of around 3 percent.

The Cypriot economy contracted 0.3 percent in the third quarter, a slight improvement on a 0.4 percent dip in the previous three months, the state statistical service said on Tuesday.

This was the 13th successive negative quarter for the Mediterranean island country’s battered economy, according to a revised estimate, which had put the July-September contraction at 0.4 percent.