World economy

Turkey has been spared from joining the EU's blacklist, diplomatic sources said, though it has failed to fulfill its commitments and Brussels is under pressure to handle the tensions with Ankara.

However, the 27 EU Member States will add the Cayman Islands, the first British overseas territory to join the Black List after Brexit.

The balance-of-payments current account registered a deficit of 10.478 billion euros last year, an increase of almost 17 pct compared to the similar period of 2018, shows a press release of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) sent to AGERPRES on Thursday. In 2018, the current account deficit was 8.96 billion euros.

European Union diplomats have reached a preliminary agreement to give Turkey more time to meet tax transparency requirements, two diplomatic sources said, in a move that could weaken the bloc's blacklist but at the same time avoid a new clash with Ankara.

China on Thursday announced that it will halve tariffs on hundreds of U.S. goods worth about $75 billion, the government said on Thursday.

At a round table on January 22, the Kosovo Manufacturing Club claimed that the 100-per-cent tariff imposed on products from Serbia and Bosnia in 2018 has had a positive impact on Kosovo's economy.

The world's richest 2,153 people controlled more money than the poorest 4.6 billion combined in 2019, while unpaid or underpaid work by women and girls adds three times more to the global economy each year than the technology industry, Oxfam said on Jan. 20.

The US and China have signed an agreement that should ease the trade war between them, shaking the world markets.

This is the first phase of a Beijing-Washington deal to settle a trade dispute.

China has pledged to boost US imports by $200bn above 2017 levels and strengthen intellectual property rules.

Investment management giant Pimco identifies seven major macro themes for the global economy in 2020, and projects the slowdown in the eurozone to continue at the same time as Greece expects to start a period of robust growth. While the prospect of a global recession has eased for now, when it does come it may be more difficult to tackle, Pimco argues in a report shared with Kathimerini.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) provided €10 million ($11 million) loan to a Turkish seed company to expand its operations and automate R &D.

Glass maker Şişecam has announced that it decided to buy back some of the Paşabahçe shares it sold in 2014 to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).