Word: gdp
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...After years of surprisingly strong growth, Asian economies are slowing down. In October, Morgan Stanley downgraded its 2005 GDP growth forecast for the region (excluding Japan) to 5.5%, compared with 7.2% in 2004. The main culprits are the record-high price of oil, an expected weakening of the U.S. economy and an ailing dollar, which makes Asian products more expensive for U.S. consumers and curbs export growth. But a new factor putting the brakes on Asia is China. Over the past two years, soaring demand from China for everything from steel to palm oil to semiconductors has been the engine...
...Japan won't be the only country suffering. In late October, India's central bank lowered its GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal year to a range of 6-6.5%, citing a mediocre monsoon season and high oil prices. Last year, the economy grew 8.2%. Southeast Asia, too, will see a decline, from 5.8% growth this year to 4.4% in 2005, according to Merrill Lynch. In Indonesia, the region's most populous country, hopes are running high that new President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will push through tough reforms and woo back the investment needed to spur the sagging economy...
...agree with Barlett and Steele that the high cost of medical care is not because the caregivers are too expensive. We need to examine the concept of a single agency to provide coverage, collect fees and pay claims before the percentage of our GDP devoted to medical care in this country hobbles our economy even further. The comparison between Medicare's administrative costs and the much higher costs of private insurers was a telling revelation. The insurance lobbies must be faced down, or we will suffocate ourselves with astronomical costs for pencil pushing rather than actual health care...
...More Fun With Accounting W hen it comes to interpreting the E.U.'s stability and growth pact, there are no limits to French and German creativity. With both countries at risk of breaching the pact's rules - demanding euro zone countries' budget deficits remain below 3% of GDP - for the fourth straight year, Paris and Berlin last week called for change. French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder labeled the European Commission's reform proposals - taking greater account of a country's economic situation - as "not sufficient." Instead, the duo called for states to be able...
...foreseeable future. The country's industrial base is gobbling up vast amounts of petrochemicals to make everything from fertilizer to Barbie dolls. The number of cars on mainland roads?about 20 million?is expected to increase by 2.5 million this year alone. Even if China's blazing GDP growth of 9.4% this year moderates to 8% in 2005, as the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences predicts, the country is now a permanent major player in the global competition for oil. "More than a billion Chinese are joining the oil market," says Bo Lin, an energy specialist at the Asian Development...