The WTO Tuesday downshifted its global trade forecast, warning that anti-globalisation rhetoric and Brexit were pushing trade growth to its slowest pace since the financial crisis. The WTO said global trade was now estimated to expand by just 1.7 percent this year, compared to its April projection of 2.8 percent. Source: AFP/Yahoo
China and Turkey say they will keep importing oil from Iran in defiance of president Donald Trump who on Monday announced an end to waivers that allowed them to do so. Iran then renewed its long-standing threat to close the Strait of Hormuz by military force. Source: International Business Times
The euro zone is worried about the heavily indebted Italian economy’s weak growth and needs Rome to implement its budget plans “with credibility”, the head of the currency bloc’s group of finance ministers said. Source: Reuters
Public debt in Greece and Italy, the two most indebted countries of the euro zone, grew last year while the bloc as a whole recorded an overall decrease in its liabilities, the European Union statistics office said on Tuesday. Source: Business Recorder
