Global Financial Crisis – International

‘Tentative’ signs of improvement PARIS (AFP)– The Group of Seven major economies are going deeper into reverse but fragile signs that the slowdown is easing are beginning to emerge in a few countries, the OECD said on Friday.

MANILA, Philippines—The estimated 40,000 overseas Filipino workers in France, mostly caregivers privately employed by families, are keeping their jobs despite the layoffs in many parts of the world caused by global recession, new French Ambassador to the Philippines Thierry Borja De Mozota has said.

Since 2007, escalating food prices have created budget turmoil, trade imbalances and inflation and provoked panic and social unrest in some countries. Despite bumper harvests of rice and wheat in 2008 that may have alleviated some of the concern, economies are now grappling with a worsening global economic crisis. Is the evolution of lower prices…

TOKYO: Developing nations in East Asia face a sharp slowdown in economic growth and a “painful surge” in unemployment that will prevent millions of people escaping poverty, the World Bank warned Tuesday.

HONG KONG (Reuters) — Global car and truck sales will take more than a decade to recover to their 2007 peak as the sector faces a recession that’s likely to be deeper than in the 1970s and ’80s, auto industry author Graeme Maxton said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON—Sallie Mae on Monday announced plans to move 2,000 overseas jobs back to the United States from India and the Philippines, reversing a cost-savings measure the company took a year ago.

The eurozone economy shrank more than previously estimated in the last three months of 2008, official figures say.

Bankruptcies are soaring in the US and UK. With jobs increasing hard to find, the Downturn Pushes More Toward Bankruptcy.

WASHINGTON: From the ashes of global prosperity the International Monetary Fund emerged this week as the bulwark against the economic crisis, its  role and finances heavily bolstered by world leaders.

TAIPEI: Taiwan has cut the number of foreign workers and maids working on the island by 24,000 since November, as a result of the global economic slowdown, it was reported on Sunday.

TAIPEI—Taiwan has cut the number of foreign workers and maids working on the island by 24,000 since November, as a result of the global economic slowdown, it was reported Sunday.

The US unemployment rate soared to a 25-year high in February after 651,000 jobs were lost as the economic downturn tightened its grip.

BEIJING (AP) — The G20 summit’s promise to Asia of money to help credit-starved exporters and a bigger voice in global finance should help the region revive growth, business leaders and economists said Friday.

LONDON (AP) — Asian nations, who dominate the roster of industrializing economies, have won a greater say in salvaging and reshaping the global system that brought them unprecedented prosperity but now threatens to reverse that progress.

Brussels, 3 April 2009 (ITUC OnLine): The statement adopted at the London G20 meeting gives the chance for a new globalisation, with jobs at the centre and an end to the failed policies of the last three decades, according to the ITUC and the OECD Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC).  Key decisions taken at the…

With 663,000 more jobs disappearing from the American economy last month, swelling the total number of jobs surrendered to the recession beyond five million, the government’s response to the downturn is being put to a strenuous test.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Unemployment zoomed to 8.5 percent last month, the highest in a quarter-century, as employers axed 663,000 more workers and pushed the nation’s jobless ranks past 13 million. The hard times were only expected to get harder – a painful 10 percent jobless rate before long.

PARIS – The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Thursday named those tax havens it said had not made any commitment to respecting international standards on exchanging tax information.

Brussels, (ITUC OnLine): A call for a ‘Global New Deal’ was launched today in Brussels by a unique coalition of progressive politicians, trade unions and NGOs from over forty countries. ITUC affiliates from every region took part in the event.

LONDON (AP) – Leaders from around the globe made headway on Thursday on tackling the world’s worst financial crisis since the 1930s, with early signs of agreements to give more money to the International Monetary Fund and to take a closer look at regulating hedge funds.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A new survey Wednesday showed a surprise surge in job losses in the US private sector in March, suggesting the recession in the world’s largest economy may push unemployment past 25-year highs.

WASHINGTON – Employers are laying off workers at a faster pace despite a few hopeful signs recently that the recession — now the longest since World War II — could be easing.

HONG KONG — Job openings for executives in Asia have decreased, particularly in Japan, and are at their lowest level in Ho ng Kong since the Asian financial crisis as employers see little prospect of a quick rebound in business, a survey showed on Thursday.

TOKYO — Japan began offering money Wednesday for unemployed foreigners of Japanese ancestry to go home, mostly to Brazil and Peru, to stave off what officials said posed a serious unemployment problem.

WASHINGTON (AFP): The World Bank on Tuesday forecast “unprecedented” declines in global economic output and trade volumes this year, warning that growth  would also slow sharply in the vulnerable developing world.

Leaders of the world’s largest economies have reached an agreement to tackle the global financial crisis with measures worth $1.1 trillion (£681bn).

France threatens to walk out of G20 meeting LONDON — Top international organizations issued bleak forecasts for the world economy on Tuesday as France threatened to walk out of a high-stakes summit of the G20 group of the world’s top 20 economies, which is being overshadowed by US-Europe divisions.

The run-up to the G-20 meeting has been interesting and colorful. President Lula Da Silva of Brazil declared that “this crisis was caused by the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now demonstrate that they know nothing.”

Unemployment across the eurozone rose to its highest level in almost three years in February as the economic downturn continues to tighten its grip.

Developing countries push for greater say in world regulation, immediate action on funding.