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Capital to the world's poorest countries
Nov 27th 2012, 16:37 by Economist.com
DESPITE the effects of the global financial crisis, remittances to the world's 48 least developed countries (LDCs) have continued rising, reaching $27 billion in 2011, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. The rise partly reflects the greater number of emigrants from LDCs (perhaps now as many as 27m), but also the fact that better data is being reported by more countries. With foreign direct investment having declined since the recession, remittances are increasingly playing an important role supporting growth and reducing poverty.
Continue reading "Capital to the world's poorest countries" »
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Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
Nov 27th 2012, 14:51 by Economist.com
When it comes to daily circulation, America's papers have had mixed fortunes
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Hot and bothered
Nov 26th 2012, 17:55 by Economist.com
Global greenhouse-gas emissions and current trends
AS TENS of thousands of politicians, diplomats, NGO-workers and journalists descend on Doha for the two-week feeding frenzy known as the UN’s annual climate-change summit, the latest report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) shows that matters climatic are going from bad to worse. Greenhouse-gas emissions are now about 50 gigatonnes of carbon equivalent (GtCO2e). That is 20% higher than they were in 2000 and, worryingly, 11% higher than where emissions need to be in 2020 in order to ensure global temperatures do not rise by more than 2 degrees Celsius (see light red range in chart).
Twilight of the Twinkies
Choked up
Nov 23rd 2012, 18:11 by R.L.W. | LONDON
A BOX of ten Twinkies typically sells for around $5 in American supermarkets—but that was before its maker, Hostess Brands, began closing its bakeries and liquidating its business (as an article in this week's issue explains). Yet consumers in search of revolting cream-filled sponge cakes can still buy them from eBay for anything ranging from 40 cents to $100,000 apiece. The mean price on offer is around $2,000 (though we don't know how many have actually been sold or at what price), while the mode—ie, the most common price on offer—is $3 (see chart).
Catalonia and cartography
Trading places
Nov 23rd 2012, 15:09 by K.N.C. AND G.D. | LONDON
HOW to show the value of freedom—specifically, its costs? The Spanish region of Catalonia goes to the polls on November 25th for an election that is seen as an unofficial vote over whether to separate into its own political entity. This inspired Pankaj Ghemawat, a business guru at IESE Business School in Barcelona, to produce proportional maps showing what an independent Catalonia's trade would look like to Europe and other regions of Spain, if they were autonomous too (see chart).
As we noted in our Charlemagne blog, France is the top destination for exports, buying 10% of what Catalonia sells.
Comparing Mexican states with equivalent countries
Murderous matches
Nov 22nd 2012, 16:34 by Economist.com
Mexican states compared with entire countries' body counts, murder rates and populations
MEXICO’S murder rate has doubled over the past five years, to nearly 19 per 100,000 people per year. But what does that really mean? To give an idea of how safe or dangerous the country's various states are, we have compared their crime statistics with those of whole countries. Visitors can relax in Yucatán, the safest state, which has about the same murder rate as Finland. Tlaxcala, not far from Mexico City, is about as safe as the United States.
Mexican drug war
Waves of violence
Nov 22nd 2012, 16:33
An interactive guide to drug crime in Mexico
FOR the first time in Mexico's six-year war on organised crime, the level of violence seems to have stabilised. Last year saw about 12,400 murders linked to gangs, only slightly more than the 11,600 recorded in the previous year. That is still double the number in 2008. But there are tentative hopes that the violence may have peaked: so far, 2012 has seen 22% fewer gangland "executions" than in the same period last year. The improving national picture masks sharply different regional trends. Last year Chihuahua, long the most violent state in Mexico, has seen a 46% drop in the number of mafia-linked killings.
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Live and unplugged
Nov 22nd 2012, 15:27 by Economist.com
IN The World in 2013, which is published today, we predict that the internet will become a mostly mobile medium. Who will be the winners and losers?
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Boom and bust
Nov 21st 2012, 16:50 by Economist.com
Which economies have seen the biggest annual rates of growth and contraction since 1980?
WHAT will be the fastest growing economy in 2012? The answer is perhaps surprising: Libya. It is projected to grow by an extraordinary 122% this year, according to the IMF, as oil production recovers faster than expected. That is, however, only the second fastest year of growth in the IMF’s database (which stretches back over three decades). The quickest was recorded by Equatorial Guinea, a country of 720,000 people on (and off) West Africa’s coast. Until the 1990s it was a dirt-poor country selling cocoa and timber.
Focus
US housing
Nov 21st 2012, 15:59 by Economist.com
HOUSING starts in America rose by 3.6% to 894,000 in October, the highest in over four years, according to the Commerce Department. The rise in residential construction was widely unexpected; forecasters thought starts would fall after the 15% surge in September. New home building in the West increased by over 70% on a year earlier. Single-family home starts fell slightly in October, but were up by 10% for buildings with five or more units. Homebuilding could add to GDP growth this year for the first time since 2005. Building permits (another leading indicator of consumer demand) in October were almost 30% higher than a year earlier—though were down by 2.7% on the previous month.
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Rockets and ranges
Nov 20th 2012, 17:21 by Economist.com
The Gaza conflict in numbers
This post has been updated
AFTER eight days of fighting between Hamas, the Palestinian Islamists who run Gaza, and Israel, a ceasefire, brokered by Egypt and America, has been confirmed. The ceasefire may bring an end to the violence, in which over 100 Palestinians and three Israelis have died since November 14th, but the challenge for both sides will be whether they can translate a renewed informal understanding into something more lasting.
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Wedding equality
Nov 19th 2012, 15:22 by Economist.com
Gay marriage around the world
JUST 12 years after the Netherlands became the world’s first country to legalise gay nuptials, the global trend toward giving homosexuals full marriage rights seems to have gained unstoppable momentum. Same-sex marriage is now legal nationwide in 11 countries, including Argentina and South Africa, as well as in parts of a further two. In Mexico it is allowed in the capital. In America nine states and the District of Columbia have legalised it, including three which, for the first time, did so by popular vote on November 6th, ending a succession of electoral defeats for the measure in 32 states.
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Global business barometer
Nov 15th 2012, 17:05 by Economist.com
BUSINESS people around the world are less glum than they were three months ago, according to a quarterly Economist/FT survey of over 1,500 executives, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The balance of respondents who think the global economy will get better over those who think it will worsen rose from minus 25 percentage points in July to minus 11 in October. Sentiment improved in all regions except eastern Europe, but only in the Middle East and Africa have executives become bullish. Those in the chemicals industry and consumer goods are especially gloomy. On the euro, 55% of respondents think the currency union will stick together, while 29% say Greece will leave.
European economy guide
Polarised prospects
Nov 15th 2012, 15:05 by Economist.com
THE euro crisis has eased since Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), pledged in July 2012 to do “whatever it takes” to save the single currency. Sovereign debt yields in the troubled economies on the southern and western periphery of the 17-country euro zone have fallen sharply since the ECB made a commitment (subject to strict conditions) to buy without limit short-term government bonds of countries that apply for and get help from the euro area’s main rescue fund.
There has also been more rebalancing in the periphery than is generally appreciated.
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The paramountest leader
Nov 14th 2012, 15:16 by Economist.com
Hu was best for China's economy?
THIS week Hu Jintao, China’s president, stepped down as leader of China’s Communist Party. His economic record would be the envy of most leaders elsewhere in the world, but how does it compare with that of his predecessors? He inherited an economy that had grown by 9.6% a year on average during Jiang Zemin’s time in office and almost as quickly during Deng Xiaoping’s years in charge. Rather than try to match that pace of expansion, Mr Hu promised a more balanced path of development in pursuit of a more “harmonious” society. As things turned out, growth was even faster under Mr Hu than it had been under his predecessors.
On this blog we publish a new chart or map every working day, highlight our interactive-data features and provide links to interesting sources of data around the web. The Big Mac index, house-price index and other regular features can be found on our Markets & data page
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