Frozen Iraqi assets in banks worldwide...

August 31, 2009

Sami Atrushi: 30% of the frozen Iraqi funds go to companies that are identified by which ...

Estimated frozen Iraqi assets in banks worldwide billions of dollars, but the Iraqi government does not have an accurate count on those funds, unless it is determined by a number of companies, which are also deducted 30% of that money for themselves.

In the case of removing Iraq from Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, the Iraqi government can claim their money frozen in these banks to some countries.

A member of the Finance Committee in the Iraqi parliament, Sami Atrushi in a statement to "Hawlati", "yet does not know the central bank and the Iraqi Ministry of Finance that the amount of Iraqi funds frozen by some countries."

Has been formed for this purpose by the Commission of the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to monitor the count and the return of the frozen funds.

Atrushi said, "The Committee monitors the funds frozen by some countries with the money placed on behalf of the Baath regime and registered on behalf of other people, which constitute most of the funds frozen."

He stressed that the money will be in Iraq's imports in general and 17% of them will be the share of the Kurdistan Region.

It also pointed out that those countries with a debt to it by Iraq, but it's turned off 80% of them, but still 20% of that debt granted to those countries of Iraq's budget public.

On the amount of Iraqi debt, he said Atrushi "It is guessing about $ 500 billion."

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ar&tl=en&u=http://hawlati.info/%28X%281%29A%2848fiXWVhygEkAAAAYjMyNTc4OTItZjE1OS00OTRhLTk4YWItYmI0MzFhNDMzMmZi102VFTGHetbdvD6pZA7I6FursVw1%29%29/Ar/NewsDetailN.aspx%3Fid%3D10865%26LinkID%3D79&rurl=translate.google.com

SEPT. 4th-5th: GLOBAL IMBALANCES TO HAUNT G20 MEETING

Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:57pm BST

Global imbalances to haunt G20 meeting

LONDON (Reuters) - The immediate crisis may be over but G20 policymakers meeting next week must still find a way to rebalance the global economy if the world is not to be doomed to repeat the past.

Almost a year after the entire financial system narrowly averted collapse, finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 rich and developing nations will gather in London on

Sept 4-5 to discuss what happens next.

Since their leaders last met in April, the worst global recession since the Great Depression seems to be ending with Q2 data in a number of countries showing growth and stock markets powering ahead on optimism the good times will soon return.

But G20 policymakers will be more guarded even though discussion of exit strategies from the huge fiscal and monetary stimulus thrown into their economies will be high on the agenda.

"It is vital that countries have an exit strategy but we are very clear that interventions need to remain in place for as long as needed," a UK government source told Reuters on Wednesday.

The world's top central bankers meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming last week had much the same message. They said the extraordinary stimulus from governments and central banks must not be withdrawn too soon.

While the G20 will tread a fine line between trying to convince markets it has credible plans to withdraw the stimulus in an orderly way and ensuring it does not derail the recovery, analysts warn it also has to act on settling global imbalances.

"This G20 meeting is as important as the London summit in April," said Gerard Lyons, chief economist at Standard Chartered bank in London. "The two issues that stand out are exit strategies and global imbalances."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has made finding "future sources of growth" -- or how the world economy can survive without relying just on the overstretched U.S. consumer -- his pet subject and this will also feature high on next week's agenda.

Economists and officials say finding a credible answer to the question could set the course of the global economy for another decade.

FUTURE SOURCES OF GROWTH

While there has long been agreement on paper that countries running large current account deficits need to save more and those with huge surpluses should be spending more, that has been harder to achieve in practice.

So far there is little sign the crisis has changed the strategies being pursued by surplus countries that have their own domestic politics in mind.

"Germany's (Chancellor Angela) Merkel has made it abundantly clear that the German export machine will not be one of the casualties of the crisis," said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York.

"In Japan, the DPJ (opposition Democratic Party of Japan) may be swept into office on Aug 30, but it shows no vision or desire to undermine the only part of the economy that has shown any life -- exports."

But perhaps the biggest issue likely to keep imbalances in play may not get much mention at next week's meeting -- the perceived undervaluation of Asian currencies, such as China's which are linked to the dollar. **hmm

"Currencies are clearly an important part of the story," said Lyons.

But officials have indicated little on the formal agenda to push China to allow its yuan currency to rise. The United States has, in fact, been taking a softer tack on Beijing during the crisis after years of hectoring with little effect.

Economists say that if anything the latest crisis may encourage countries to build up their foreign exchange reserves to protect themselves from volatile capital flows, much as the Asian crisis did in 1997-98.

"The rebuilding and expanding of the reserve war chest may in turn be recycled and help finance the budget deficits of industrialised countries," said Chandler. "Sound familiar?"

Nor is there much concrete expected that will radically change the way financial markets operate to prevent another crisis happening despite lip-service to ending risky behaviour.

"It can't be return to the old ways of high risk behaviour by financial institutions," the UK source said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced new limits on bonus payments to traders and said he would press his G20 partners to adopt the same standards as Paris.

He has said the G20 would consider setting upper limits on bonus payments or setting a global tax but few expect anything so radical to get off the ground.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE57P2FX20090826?sp=true

The Ratification Of The IAEA Safeguards Promote Exit from Chapter VII

August 31, 2009

Al-Dabbagh: The Ratification of the IAEA safeguards promote exit from Chapter VII

بغداد - الصباح BAGHDAD - morning

Between the government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh said Iraq authentication protocol and the safeguards system of the International Atomic Energy Agency will strengthen the country's efforts to emerge from Chapter VII and benefit from the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Dabbagh said in a press statement: that Iraq's accession to the protocol aimed at ending the mandate of the Task Force on Iraq of the International Atomic Energy Agency by removing the rationale behind some countries in the Security Council to continue its work and reduce the obligations and restrictions imposed on it and decisions, as well as enable it to take advantage of the use of peaceful nuclear energy and technical support provided by the Agency in this area, as well as strengthen its efforts to emerge from Chapter VII.

He added that he was voted the country's accession to the Protocol after the formation of a committee to study and make recommendations thereon and for transmission to the State Consultative Council to take action required, indicating that the Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, expressed his welcome to the signing of Iraq's comprehensive safeguards regime of the IAEA, saying that this will equip Iraq the request of the Security Council to lift the remaining sanctions imposed on it, and that the Agency develop a conclusion about the absence of material or of undeclared nuclear activities in Iraq and be of no importance in the implementation of the provisions of paragraph 3 of Security Council resolution No. 707 of 1991 and of paragraphs 12 and 13 of Security Council resolution 687 The 1991 and acknowledge the commitment of Iraq fully with the safeguards agreement with the IAEA.

The statement said that the Additional Protocol contains several paragraphs including the provision of supplementary information and preview and the designation of Agency inspectors and the protection of confidential information.

al sabah

The Tobin Tax - The Time is Ripe ... (London) ...

As the power of financial centres such as the City of London grew, James Tobin's transaction tax ideas failed to gain favour.

The time is ripe for a Tobin tax. James Tobin's transaction tax brainchild has become a possibility thanks to economic crisis

Thursday 27 August 2009

Lord Turner's championing today of a levy on financial dealings to curb the power of the City marks a breakthrough in the long struggle to have the neglected brainchild of American economist James Tobin become a practical policy proposition.

As they sift through the wreckage caused by the biggest crisis the global banking system has ever endured, policymakers are no longer prepared to dismiss a "Tobin tax" as impractical, pointless or plain wrong.

The struggle to get a hearing has, however, been a hard one. Towards the end of his long life, Tobin noted that during the neoliberal ascendancy following the oil shock of the mid-1970s, his idea had tended to fall on deaf ears. "It did not make much of a ripple. In fact, one could say that it sunk like a rock. The community of professional economists simply ignored it."

This was written in 1995, just as the first cracks were starting to show in the shiny new system of global finance ushered in by deregulation, the collapse of communism and the spread of market economies. But neither the Mexican peso crisis of that year nor the Asian financial meltdown two years in the future would change the generally held view that Tobin was harking back to an age of Keynesian economics that had disappeared for ever.

Tobin, who was born in 1918 and died in 2002, outlined his proposal in 1972, just after the break-up of the Bretton Woods fixed-exchange-rate system. The idea was simple: there should be a tax on foreign currency transactions that would allow national governments to stop their economies being at the mercy of speculators.

"My main objectives for the tax are two", he said in the foreword to a 1995 book. "The first is to make exchange rates reflect to a larger degree long-term fundamentals relative to short-range expectations and risk. My second objective is to preserve and promote autonomy of national macroeconomic and monetary policies."

Those operating in financial markets, predictably enough, hated the idea. But so did central bankers. Tobin recalls that when quizzed about the idea of a transactions levy, the then chief economist at the Bundesbank, Otmar Issing, replied: "Oh that again. It's the Loch Ness monster popping up once more." The next time Tobin bumped into Issing, he said cheerfully: "Here I am, the Loch Ness monster still!"

Nor was the idea of a tax universally supported by the remaining disciples of Keynes, many of whom doubted that a levy of between 0.1% and 0.25% on foreign exchange deals would really "throw sand in the wheels of global finance".

Tobin himself identified many of the main criticisms of his idea. At root, it was opposed by those economists who frowned on any interference in the working of free markets – the majority in the 1970s and 1980s. More specifically, opponents said it would drive financial business offshore, or that it would not prevent currencies from being overvalued, or being at the mercy of speculators.

As time wore on, the idea made a comeback when it was seen as a way of raising money for multilateral projects. The French president, François Mitterrand, was one of the first world leaders to see the money-raising potential of a Tobin tax back in the early 1990s. More recently, development campaigners have suggested a tax levied at .005% would raise between $30bn and $60bn (between £18bn and £35bn) a year – enough for the G7 countries to meet their commitment at the Gleneagles summit in 2005 to double global aid.

Interestingly, Tobin himself never envisaged this as being its principal purpose. Like Lord Turner in today's article in Prospect magazine, he thought a tax on finance would lead to greater economic stability.

"Most disappointing and surprising, critics seemed to miss what I regarded as the essential property of the transactions – the beauty part – that this simple one-parameter tax would automatically penalise short-horizon round trips, while negligibly affecting commodity trade and long-term capital investments," Tobin said.

The scale of the crisis has brought Tobin out of the shadows. Indeed, Turner appears to be considering throwing the net wider than simply a tax on foreign exchange dealings. "If you want to stop excessive pay in a swollen financial sector you have to reduce the size of that sector or apply special taxes to its pre-remuneration profit," he writes.

The first line of attack for the authorities will be higher capital requirements to prevent financial institutions from speculating so wildly during booms.

But Turner adds: "If increased capital requirements are insufficient I am happy to consider taxes on financial transactions – Tobin taxes. Such taxes have long been the dream of the development economists and those who care about climate change – a nice sensible revenue source for funding global public goods."

While not seeking to minimise the difficulties involved in getting universal support for a Tobin tax, Turner is one of the first policymakers to suggest that the effort might be worth it.

"The problem is that getting global agreement will be very difficult. But at least proposals for special financial sector taxes, with increased capital requirements, address the issue of excessive profits and therefore have a chance of doing something about it. Insisting that someone 'does something' about bonuses, by contrast, is a populist diversion."

Tobin believed that some of the practical objections to his tax were overblown. He argued that the threat of business being relocated offshore could be prevented by imposing a penalty rate on transfers to tax havens, or to levy the Tobin tax where the transaction occurred.

Turner says that the sheer scale of the crisis means nothing should be ruled out. "What has occurred has imposed huge economic harm throughout the world and so we really do have to work out how to stop it happening again in five or ten years' time," he said in today's interview. "And that requires a very major reconstruct of the global financial system."

Charity amid the crisisEvery year, $912tn (£561tn) is traded on the world's foreign exchanges and skimming a tiny proportion of that revenue into a fund to fight global poverty has long been a dream of campaigners.

But not everyone is waiting for regulators to start taxing City profits. Today, Ethical Currency will become the first foreign exchange broker in the world to voluntarily ringfence 0.005% of all its transactions into a single pot that will go to the Global Fund, set up to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.

Founded by foreign exchange trader Alastair Constance, Ethical Currency has been warmly received by campaigners. The timing of its launch, they say, comes as the financial crisis is having an adverse effect on poor nations. Oxfam estimates the number of people facing chronic hunger will rise to 1 billion. And the Global Fund, which buys life-saving drugs and distributes them to poor countries, is facing severe shortfalls in funding.

"As funding for international development becomes more scarce, we need to be creative about finding new and sustainable sources of income," said Ethical Trading's Constance. "We have chosen to base our model on the Currency Transaction Levy (CTL) with the specific aim of getting governments and international business to commit to widespread implementation and the delivery of the Millennium Development Goals. If we can prove that a single business can flourish then the case for implementing a CTL increases. If consumers vote with their business then they will prove the commercial case and force a structural change in the global financial architecture." Constance believes a currency transaction levy (CTL) would be easy to replicate, as forex transactions are electronic. He envisages the city and Wall Street "fighting tooth and nail" against it – but over time, he argues, the tax would be barely noticed.

Campaigners say that by introducing the levy on major currencies as they are traded, the ability to dodge the tax would be closed.

Ethical Currency is targeting charities and social enterprises who buy foreign currencies on a regular basis. It is confident it can give them a better deal than mainstream banks with the added bonus that banking with them will see money going to a good cause.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/aug/27/turner-tobin-tax-economic-policy/print

The Tobin Tax - G20 Urged to Tax Financial Deals to Fight Poverty and Aids

G20 urged to tax financial deals to fight poverty and Aids

Health charities and development groups call on world's richest nations to help countries hardest hit by economic crisis

Thursday 27 August 2009

G20 finance ministers meeting in London next Friday will face concerted pressure to introduce a tax on financial transactions as a coalition of anti-poverty campaigners aim to force the issue onto the agenda.

An unprecedented coalition of health charities and development campaigners will ratchet up pressure on the G20 in the wake of comments made todayby Financial Services Authority chairman, Lord Turner supporting a Tobin-style tax on foreign exchange transactions.

Pressure on the G20 grew as senior officials at the United Nations also threw their weight behind a currency transactions levy. Philippe Douste-Blazy, the former French foreign minister now the UN's secretary-general's special adviser on innovative financing for development, told the Guardian: "I hope one head of state will propose this tax. I don't know who it will be. I think it's a good idea for two reasons.

"Firstly, this economic crisis is going to have serious consequences on developing countries. The price of commodities will fall because investment from western countries will decrease and aid commitments will not come through. And second, this is a crisis of ethics, a problem of cynicism with the system. We can't continue like this. We have to redefine the system."

His intervention is crucial because he was the architect of a groundbreaking tax in France that skims a tiny sum from airline ticket sales to buy cheap medicines for those suffering from Aids, malaria or tuberculosis. The scheme now extends to 30 countries with more set to follow. In two years it has raised $1bn.

Next week's G20 finance meeting will be followed by a co-ordinated push by campaigners to persuade leaders of the world's 20 most powerful countries meeting at Pittsburgh in four weeks to adopt a currency transaction levy.

It comes as evidence of increasing international support for a currency transaction tax to help poor countries affected by the global economic crisis grows. In May, the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, announced the formation of an international working party that includes fellow G20 country Brazil to study how to implement currency transaction levies for development and health. It was the first time such a high level public endorsement of the proposal was made by a country.

"The bankers got the poorest countries in the world into this crisis. Now they have the chance of getting them out of the mess they created," said David Hillman, co-ordinator of Stamp Out Poverty, a longstanding campaigner for a currency transaction levy. "This has specifically united campaign groups focused on child health, maternal health and combatting HIV/Aids in the world's poorest countries.

"This is an unprecedented coming together of health organisations critically aware that G8 commitments, such as universal access to HIV/Aids treatment by 2010, won't be achieved and in fact are going into reverse. If you stop the supply of life-prolonging drugs to someone, you are effectively killing them. So this is a matter of life and death. That's why such a strong coalition is rapidly building around this idea."

Anton Kerr, policy manager at the International HIV/Aids Alliance, said: "The G8 has just over a year to meet their Gleneagles commitment to universal access to HIV treatment. The current economic crisis is putting achievements made to date on the health development goals at risk, and is having a significant impact on the health of the poorest and most vulnerable. There is a need to explore innovative options to raise additional resources so we don't lose ground.

"In response, civil society organisations working on HIV, TB, malaria, child and maternal health from across the globe are campaigning for the establishment of a currency transaction levy for health. Now is the time, while minds are focused on fixing the global financial system."

Calls for a tax on banks were made by Turner as a way of tempering excessive bonus culture which has reappeared in the City despite the affects of the financial crisis on the wider economy.
__

First Gulf Conference on Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Investments October 20th

Gulf conference on oil and gas industry

Oman Daily Observer - 29 August, 2009

The GCC Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture Union will organise on October 20, 2009 the first Gulf conference on oil, gas and petrochemical investments during the global financial crisis.

The two-day conference aims at analysing the current status of the oil, gas and petrochemical market and displaying investment opportunities in the field.

The conference will discuss the horizons of oil, gas and petrochemical industry during the period from 2010 to 2014, as well as, the major Gulf investment opportunities in the field of energy and the future challenges lying ahead.

It will also develop a road map and benefit from the current recession in developing strategies. The organisation of the conference comes out of the joint responsibility to spread individual and corporate awareness towards the current global financial crisis which paralyses all sectors in the world, especially, the investment sector.

A number of specialists and researchers from the leading Gulf energy and investment companies and major banks in the region will take part in the conference.

IMF grant to Iraq $1.8 billion

August 30, 2009

Iraq a grant of $ 1.8 billion to overcome the financial crisis

قدمها صندوق النقد الدولي By the International Monetary Fund بغداد ـ حسين النجم Baghdad, Hussein star

Said the Iraqi Central Bank Consultant Dr. Mazhar Mohammad Saleh said Iraq received a grant from the International Monetary Fund worth 1.8 billion dollars for the development of the economy.

Dr. Saleh said in a statement singled out the "morning," the IMF decided unanimously at the last meeting to give Iraq $ 1.8 billion in support of liquidity and achieve development and higher out of the recession caused by the global financial crisis.

The Fund was approved to give $ 283 billion of SDR of the member states in the fund in grants to affected countries, including Iraq, revealing that members of the fund of the Fund and amending the law to give a balanced feature of the members as their contribution to the Fund's resources. and the price of central bank consultant this step, which he described as "distinctive" and grant the driving of the Iraqi economy from for empowerment to overcome the recession, which may affect the Iraqi economy by the global financial crisis, calling to spend this money on the rehabilitation and improvement and development of strategic sectors of the Iraqi economy. The quota for Iraq in its contribution to the IMF amounting to less than 1 percent.

Is specialized in the International Monetary Fund to provide loans to Member States to deal with temporary deficits in their balance of payments, thus working to stabilize the exchange rates.

صفحة للطباعة

IRAQ - NEW COINS TO BE ISSUED ...

29/8/2009 3:08 pm

An official source in the Iraqi Central Bank that the bank will be issued soon, the coin market and better after the reform of currency management system overhaul.

The source of the reporter (news agency, Iraqi Information / conscious) that "the process of issuing coins retained a good monetary policy will come back to be issued soon after the elimination of some constraints in addition to that there must be a socio-economic environment is ripe for acceptance in the market and there is something else that he must the existence and the means to pay for the system of payments Iraqi, who missed the Iraqi market, more than 17 years, adding that Iraqi banks are currently not equipped to receive the absence of a counting device, sorting and classification, storage, noting that Iraq has started to take forward for publication, but they have to put the pictures in full the public about this version. "

http://al-iraqnews.net/new/iconomi/30873.html

Central bank of Canada stands ready to inflate currency in response to strong loonie

August 25, 2009

Canada remains on track to resume growth this quarter, Deputy Governor says, but surging dollar renders rebound fragile

Bank of Canada deputy governor Timothy Lane said “persistent strength” in the loonie could derail the country’s recovery from recession and signalled the central bank is prepared to weaken the currency if necessary.

“If a stronger dollar were to alter the path of projected inflation relative to that presented in our July Monetary Policy Report, we would need to take that into account,” Mr. Lane said in a speech at the Canadian Association for Business Economics summer conference in Kingston, Ont., Tuesday.
“As we have said before, even though we are at the effective lower bound for our policy rate, we retain considerable flexibility through the use of unconventional monetary policy instruments, including quantitative easing.”
The remarks – Mr. Lane’s first in public since being named to the policy-setting Governing Council in February – are the central bank’s strongest yet in a series of comments about the potentially harmful affects of a surging dollar that date back to June.

Mr. Lane’s speech, which was released on the Bank of Canada’s website, marks the first time the central bank telegraphed that a rising currency could trigger a program of quantitative easing, which would involve the central bank creating new money to buy government debt.
“Other things being equal, a persistently strong Canadian dollar would reduce real growth and delay the return of inflation to target,” Mr. Lane said.

Canada’s dollar gained 7.9 per cent in July, the second biggest monthly increase on record, and climbed above 94 U.S. cents earlier this month, the highest in more than 10 months.

The currency was trading lower – at about 93 U.S. cents – for the first time in six days before Mr. Lane spoke as oil prices declined in New York. The loonie dropped further after Mr. Lane’s remarks were published at 12.45 p.m. (ET), according to Bloomberg News.

For now, Mr. Lane said Canada’s economy remains on track to resume growth this quarter, which the central bank first when it updated its economic outlook in July.
Canada is getting a lift from “signs of a nascent recovery” of the global economy, especially China, where domestic demand is boosting prices for raw materials, and in the U.S., where gross domestic product should grow this quarter, Mr. Lane said.
More specifically, the future looks bright for Canada because the U.S. rebound heralds increased demand for some of this country’s biggest exports: automobiles and automotive parts and lumber, Mr. Lane said.
Canada’s “well-functioning” financial system means there should be plenty of credit available to allow companies to take advantage of the global rebound, and households, businesses and governments are relatively free of debt.
“While the outlook is clouded by uncertainty, there are encouraging signs that we will return to positive growth this quarter,” Mr. Lane said.
The central bank predicted in July that GDP will expand at an annual rate of 1.3 per cent in the third quarter after shrinking 3.5 per cent between April and June.
Still, Mr. Lane maintained the Bank of Canada’s position that the rebound is fragile.

Along with the currency – which is rising because of higher commodity prices and because speculators are seeking alternatives to the U.S. dollar – the central bank continues to worry that the rebound is too reliant on rock-bottom interest rates and trillions of dollars in stimulus spending.“While these policy actions have been timely and effective, they imply that the incipient recovery depends to a considerable degree on official action,” Mr. Lane said. “At what stage will private demand be robust enough to make the recovery self-sustaining? Clearly, we haven’t reached that point yet.”

http://statismwatch.ca/2009/08/25/central-bank-of-canada-stands-ready-to-inflate-currency-in-response-to-strong-loonie/

Central bank of Canada stands ready to inflate currency in response to strong loonie

Central bank of Canada stands ready to inflate currency in response to strong loonie

August 25, 2009

Canada remains on track to resume growth this quarter, Deputy Governor says, but surging dollar renders rebound fragile

Bank of Canada deputy governor Timothy Lane said “persistent strength” in the loonie could derail the country’s recovery from recession and signalled the central bank is prepared to weaken the currency if necessary.

“If a stronger dollar were to alter the path of projected inflation relative to that presented in our July Monetary Policy Report, we would need to take that into account,” Mr. Lane said in a speech at the Canadian Association for Business Economics summer conference in Kingston, Ont., Tuesday.

“As we have said before, even though we are at the effective lower bound for our policy rate, we retain considerable flexibility through the use of unconventional monetary policy instruments, including quantitative easing.”

The remarks – Mr. Lane’s first in public since being named to the policy-setting Governing Council in February – are the central bank’s strongest yet in a series of comments about the potentially harmful affects of a surging dollar that date back to June.

Mr. Lane’s speech, which was released on the Bank of Canada’s website, marks the first time the central bank telegraphed that a rising currency could trigger a program of quantitative easing, which would involve the central bank creating new money to buy government debt.
“Other things being equal, a persistently strong Canadian dollar would reduce real growth and delay the return of inflation to target,” Mr. Lane said.

Read the full speech

Canada’s dollar gained 7.9 per cent in July, the second biggest monthly increase on record, and climbed above 94 U.S. cents earlier this month, the highest in more than 10 months.
The currency was trading lower – at about 93 U.S. cents – for the first time in six days before Mr. Lane spoke as oil prices declined in New York. The loonie dropped further after Mr. Lane’s remarks were published at 12.45 p.m. (ET), according to Bloomberg News.

For now, Mr. Lane said Canada’s economy remains on track to resume growth this quarter, which the central bank first when it updated its economic outlook in July.

Canada is getting a lift from “signs of a nascent recovery” of the global economy, especially China, where domestic demand is boosting prices for raw materials, and in the U.S., where gross domestic product should grow this quarter, Mr. Lane said.

More specifically, the future looks bright for Canada because the U.S. rebound heralds increased demand for some of this country’s biggest exports: automobiles and automotive parts and lumber, Mr. Lane said.

Canada’s “well-functioning” financial system means there should be plenty of credit available to allow companies to take advantage of the global rebound, and households, businesses and governments are relatively free of debt.

“While the outlook is clouded by uncertainty, there are encouraging signs that we will return to positive growth this quarter,” Mr. Lane said.

The central bank predicted in July that GDP will expand at an annual rate of 1.3 per cent in the third quarter after shrinking 3.5 per cent between April and June.

Still, Mr. Lane maintained the Bank of Canada’s position that the rebound is fragile.

Along with the currency – which is rising because of higher commodity prices and because speculators are seeking alternatives to the U.S. dollar – the central bank continues to worry that the rebound is too reliant on rock-bottom interest rates and trillions of dollars in stimulus spending.

“While these policy actions have been timely and effective, they imply that the incipient recovery depends to a considerable degree on official action,” Mr. Lane said. “At what stage will private demand be robust enough to make the recovery self-sustaining? Clearly, we haven’t reached that point yet.”

Asian Currencies Decline for a Third Week as China Plans Curbs

Asian Currencies Decline for a Third Week as China Plans Curbs

Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Asian currencies declined for a third week, led by the Philippine peso and the Indonesian rupiah, on concern China’s plan to restrict industrial production will hold back an economic recovery in the region.

The rupiah had its second weekly decline in more than two months as companies sought dollars for month-end payments for imports and debt.

Most currencies in the region gained yesterday, paring the week’s losses, after better-than-expected U.S. gross domestic product data eased concern that a rebound in exports would falter.

“There’s been concern China might restrict lending, thereby curbing their growth and that will hamper sentiment in the region,” said Gundy Cahyadi, an economist in Singapore at IDEAglobal. “China is after all the driving factor that will bring the countries out of this recession.”

The peso dropped 0.8 percent in the past five days to 48.805 at the 4 p.m. local close in Manila, data from Tullett Prebon Plc show.

Indonesia’s currency slid 0.4 percent this week to 10,050 in Jakarta and India’s rupee fell 0.1 percent to 48.665 in Mumbai. The ringgit slid 0.2 percent this week to 3.52.

The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index, which tracks Asia’s 10 most-traded currencies excluding the yen, slipped, adding to a 0.5 percent loss in the previous two weeks. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 3.4 percent, a fourth weekly loss, after China’s cabinet said on Aug. 26 it’s considering placing restrictions on industries such as steel and cement.

Month-End Demand

The rupiah declined this week as trading volumes were lower than normal because of the monthlong Muslim festival of Ramadan that started Aug. 22, which exaggerated moves in the currency, said Joanna Tan, a regional economist at Forecast Singapore Pte.

“The rupiah fell due to the month-end dollar demand,” said Tan. “Also, the rupiah is very sensitive to risk appetite and sentiment this week has been jittery due to the China concerns.”

The rupiah rose 1.1 percent yesterday after a Commerce Department report on Aug. 27 showed U.S. GDP shrank at a 1 percent annual rate in the second quarter, less than the 1.5 percent decline projected by economists in a Bloomberg News survey.

Indian Rupee

The rupee and the peso posted a third weekly loss on speculation importers bought dollars to settle month-end bill payments.

The rupee dropped to the lowest level against the greenback in more than a month on Aug. 27, with rising oil prices pushing up costs for importers such as Indian Oil Corp., the nation’s largest refiner. Asia’s third-biggest economy sources almost 70 percent of its energy needs from abroad.

“Importers are preferring to meet most of their dollar needs because there’s more demand than supply,” said Naveen Raghuvanshi, a trader at Development Credit Bank Ltd. in Mumbai. “The bias is tilting toward the dollar.”

Malaysia’s ringgit declined this week after Japan’s export slump deepened. Asia’s biggest economy reported on Aug. 26 overseas sales dropped 36.5 percent in July. Malaysia relied on China and Japan for 21 percent of shipments in the first half of 2009.

Won Gains

The won rose 0.5 percent this week to 1,244.25 in Seoul, climbing yesterday after the nation posted a current-account surplus for a sixth month in July, helped by an increase in overseas shipments as the global economic slowdown eased.

The currency completed its first weekly advance since Aug. 7, as overseas investors bought more local shares than they sold in each of the past six trading days. The current-account surplus was $4.4 billion, compared with $5.43 billion in June, the Bank of Korea said in Seoul yesterday.

“The Korean data has generally been encouraging,” said David Cohen, an economist with Action Economics in Singapore. “It’s pretty broad-based, not entirely dependent on exports.”

Elsewhere, the Singapore dollar was little changed this week at S$1.4390. The Taiwan dollar fell 0.1 percent to NT$32.925. The Thai baht was at 34.01, unchanged from Aug. 21.


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aE_8.oJ9zJsE

IMF NEEDS TO COORDINATE REFORM OF GLOBAL SYSTEM

IMF needs to co-ordinate reform of global system

Friday 28/8/2009

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been one of the few beneficiaries of the global economic crisis. Just two years ago, it was being downsized, and serious people were asking whether it should be closed down. Since then, there has been a renewed demand for IMF lending. Members have agreed to a tripling of its resources. It has been authorised to raise additional funds by selling its own bonds. The Fund is a beehive of activity. But the crisis will not last forever.

Meanwhile, the IMF’s critics have not gone away; they have merely fallen silent temporarily. The Fund only encourages their criticism by failing to define its role. It needs to do so while it still has the world’s sympathetic ear. The IMF’s first role is to assist countries that, as a result of domestic policies, experience balance-of-payments crises. Their governments have no choice but to borrow from the Fund. To safeguard its resources – that is, to be sure that its shareholders are paid back – the Fund must demand difficult policy adjustments on the part of these borrowers.

The problem is that the IMF has bought into the rhetoric of its critics by agreeing to “streamline” its conditionality. In fact, where structural weaknesses are the source of problems, the Fund should still require structural adjustment as the price of its assistance. By seeming to give ground on this point in the effort to win friends and influence people, the IMF has created unnecessary confusion.

A second role for the IMF is to act as a global reserve pool. Countries have accumulated large reserves in order to insure against shocks. This is costly for poor economies, which could better use the resources for investment and consumption. Unfortunately, the recent demonstration of the volatility of global financial markets only encourages the tendency to stockpile reserves. It would be more efficient to pool the reserves of countries that need them at different times.

The IMF has moved in this direction by creating a Short-Term Liquidity Facility (STLF) through which countries with strong policies can draw from the Fund up to five times their quota without conditionality. But the STLF still requires a burdensome application process, which only Mexico, Colombia, and Poland have been willing to endure. This made sense so long as the IMF’s resources were limited, as the application process allowed the Fund to limit its liability.

But, with the tripling of resources, this rationale no longer exists. The IMF should categorically announce which countries qualify for the facility, automatically making them members of the pool. A third role for the IMF is macro-prudential supervisor. Recent events have made clear that someone needs to anticipate and warn of risks to global financial stability. The G-20 suggests that the Financial Stability Board (FSB), made up of national supervisory authorities, should take the lead in these tasks.

The Fund, through its early-warning exercises and joint IMF-World Bank Financial Sector Assessments, is to only play a supporting role. But why the FSB should head up this process is far from clear. The IMF, with its universal membership, is more representative, and it has a larger expert staff. National supervisors may be reluctant to surrender this responsibility to a multilateral organisation. If so, this is shortsighted.

Financial markets and institutions with global reach need a global macro-prudential regulator, not just a loosely organised college of supervisors. Or it could be that national policymakers don’t trust the IMF, given that it essentially missed the global financial crisis. If so, the Fund needs to win back their confidence.

This brings us to the IMF’s fourth role, namely using its bully pulpit to warn of risks created by large-country policies. Small countries are subject to market discipline, as any Latvian will tell you. But when large economies whose currencies are used internationally need more resources, they can just print more money. Not only do they feel less market discipline, but they are subject to less IMF discipline, since they are not compelled to borrow from the Fund. But, as the sub-prime mortgage debacle reminds us, large countries’ policies can place the global financial system at risk. The Fund, wary of biting the hand that feeds it, has been reluctant to issue strong warnings in such instances.

But if the IMF is to have a future, its management will have to issue stronger warnings about the next dangerously large US current-account deficit, the next unsustainable housing boom, or whatever large-country problem succeeds them. There can be no more mincing of words.

Finally, the IMF needs to co-ordinate reform of the international system. If, in the long run, a supra-national unit, the Special Drawing Right, is to replace national currencies in international use, then the Fund will need to guide its development.

If stop-gap measures are required during the transition, the Fund must provide leadership there as well. So far, however, the innovative ideas for reforming the international system have come from the United Nations, 10 Downing Street, and the People’s Bank of China. The Fund has been notable mainly for its silence.The crisis is not yet forgotten, but the window is closing.

The next meeting of the IMF’s Board of Governors will be in early October in Istanbul. If the Fund does not provide a clear vision of its future by then, the opportunity will have been missed.- Project Syndicatel Barry Eichengreen is professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=311511&version=1&template_id=46&parent_id=26

Saturday 29 August 2009 --

financial confirm the safety of all files and documents and to resume work at alternative sites

Rivers invest Trliunin and 868 billion dinars in the electricity sector بغداد ـ وفاء عامر BAGHDAD mediawidget

The Ministry of Finance the safety of all documents, files and official papers of arson or damage by the bomb attack last Wednesday, while the announced move of a number of its departments to alternative sites for the resumption of work.

An official source at the ministry for the "morning" that all documents, files and papers intact and has not been any damage or burning in the blast, adding it all archived electronic systems, especially in case of any sabotage.

While noting Chambers transition budget and financial accounting and the resumption of work at an alternative site soon the building of the ministry, without naming it, noting that it is not possible to stop work for a longer period in these two constituencies, which depends on them financial transactions and accounting, many significant. The source pointed out that the work was delayed more than that would be a flaw in the system of public finances in many institutions, He pointed out that the rest of the departments of the Ministry will resume work sequentially and relevant until the rehabilitation of the building, denying the issuance of a directive or circular to suspend work at some banks.

He added, the ministry instructed all institutions, departments and affiliated banks not to stop work and resume normal, both in terms of the transaction grants or loans and advances to banks. On the other hand, adopted the Administrative Board of the Bank of Iraq a number of resolutions in its last meeting, including approval of funding for the electricity sector Trliunin amount of 868 billion dinars and interest rate cut from 14 percent to 6 percent.

The general director of the bank Abdul Hussein al-Yasiri told "aware" that the authority was asked many projects and has taken a serious and important decisions, including investment in the electricity sector.

And on the reduction of interest, said that the decisions that have been discussed, but it needs to be ratified and approved by the Ministry of Finance to reduce the interest rate from 14 percent to 6 percent.

Iraq least developed countries of the region affected by the global financial crisis

27/08/2009

Iraq least developed countries of the region affected by the global financial crisis

Ruled out the Iraqi Central Bank Consultant rising inflation, the economic return to Iraq after the latest report issued by the Arab Economic Unity Council about the high inflation rates in all Arab countries.

Appearance, "said Dr. Mohammed Saleh, said Iraq is less countries of the global financial crisis, which hit those countries Baktaatha all, without exception, unlike Iraq, which continued inflation rates to decline over the past two years.

He said the inflation report Makeshvh the foundation for the last month of the arrival of the annual rate to 7,8 percent, indicating the success of the monetary and fiscal policy to control the economic dilemmas that were likely to occur due to security disturbances.

He praised the plans for programmed for fiscal policy to assign the strategy of monetary policy set by the Central Bank of years ago.

Referring to the bank to follow-up studies on the development of areas related to the financial sector by the experts.

It should be noted that the Council of Arab Economic Unity issued a report about the high inflation rates in the Arab countries, among which the possibility of the spread of the phenomenon in the Arab countries.

alsabah

The heads of Iraqi banks and U.S. discuss security system of the Iraqi banks

The heads of Iraqi banks and U.S. discuss security system of the Iraqi banks

Multinational headquarters for the transfer of security responsibility -
Iraq

PRESS RELEASE

August 28, 2009

US, Iraq Bank Leaders Discuss Safety of Iraq's Banking System US, Iraq Bank Leaders Discuss Safety of Iraq's Banking System

The heads of Iraqi banks and U.S. discuss security system of the Iraqi banks Baghdad, Iraq, officers met with the mission of training and instruction is working with the Iraqi leadership multinational transfer of security responsibility in Iraq with Iraqi officers in major banks Qsraadnan took place on 18 of the father to discuss security issues to the largest banks in Iraq.

They have three banks and the Central Bank of Iraq Bank and Rasheed Bank, Iraq, and they bank is owned by the Iraqi government more than 115 branches in Baghdad, securing these banks is a priority to establish a balanced and economical means by which the Iraqis to feel confident that their money would be safe.

The conference was attended by the Director of the Bank of Iraq security, Col. Hosam and the U.S. Treasury officer, Lt. Cardinal Mark Taylor and director of the Facilities Protection Service of the Central Bank of Iraq, Iraqi army colonel, brilliant and U.S. Army Colonel Arthur Austin and the forces of police support mission in the guidance and training of Iraq and Director of the Facilities Protection Service, Colonel Ahmed and Director General of the Central Bank of Iraq, Mr. Ali, a teacher and consultant for the Facilities Protection Service, Mr. Kauoski addition to the Director-General of the Rasheed Bank, Fouad Hussein, Deputy Director-General of the Bank of Iraq, Mr. Mohsen Abdel Hassan.

Follow the group agreed to work together to improve system security, Iraqi banks.

Menttmp meetings will be held between the group with a view to improve the security of banks.

radionawa.com

cooperation in the field of transport between Jordan and Iraq

August 28, 2009

Nuri al-Maliki emphasizes the importance of strengthening cooperation in the field of transport between Jordan and Iraq

Research and Iraqi Transport Minister Amir Abdul Aljabbarvi the Jordanian capital of Amman with Jordanian Prime Minister Nader Dhahabi ways to support and develop trade relations between the two countries.

The agency announced the official Jordanian news that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation in the field of transport between Jordan and Iraq, which will contribute to increasing the volume of bilateral trade and strengthen bilateral relations and joint cooperation in various fields.

Turning al-Maliki in his speech during the meeting the importance of the railway link between the two countries, which would increase trade and strengthen the role of Jordan in support of efforts to rebuild Iraq by facilitating Iraqi imports through Aqaba.

Affirmed the support of efforts to establish a committee to facilitate transport and trade involving the public and private sectors in both countries and promote the creation of coalitions between carriers Jordanians and Iraqis and give them the privileges and facilities especially in the transport process.

The research as well as the possibility of establishing a joint venture or modify the company's objectives for the Iraqi-Jordanian Land Transport for the purposes of logistics management.

radionawa

Saudi Arabia Ready to Treat Wounded Iraqis

August 28, 2009

Saudi Arabia confirms its readiness to treat the wounded in the bombing that targeted the Iraqi Foreign Ministry

Saudi Arabia voiced willingness to treat the wounded in the bombing that targeted the Iraqi Foreign Ministry on the nineteenth of this month in hospitals.

According to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry said Hoshyar Zebari, the Foreign Minister had received a cable of condolences from his Saudi counterpart Saud al-Faisal for the criminal incident that targeted the ministry and killed hundreds of dead and injured.

The telegram of condolence that Saudi Arabia shares the mourning of those infected and mitigate damage suffered heavy it is willing to treat the wounded in the blast in its hospitals.

The ambassador, in his message that Saudi Arabia expresses his most heartfelt condolences and sympathy in this hour of sorrow.

radionawa.com

UN official: al-Maliki will Discuss with the Secretary-General

UN official: al-Maliki will discuss with the Secretary-General bombings in Baghdad next month

28/8/2009

An official source at the United Nations to discuss Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon next month's issues of recent bombings in Iraq and hand over the perpetrators who are in Syria.

The source speculated that put Maliki in a meeting with Ban on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly at its fifty of the 64 (sept.15) and (sept. 23-30) to intervene with Syria on suspicion of the relationship of some residents on its territory in the terrorist attacks that took place in Baghdad last week.

The Iraqi government has recalled its ambassador to Damascus earlier this week and called on Damascus to extradite several of the accused leaders of the Baath Party Iraqi regime suspects blew up two trucks in Baghdad recently.


http://74.125.115.132/translate_c?hl=en&sl=ar&tl=en&u=http://al-iraqnews.net/new/siaysiah/30749.html&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhg750GO0jcpI5N0TTb4At8m9Y26xQ

Transcript of IMF Press Briefing August 27th

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Transcript of a Press Briefing -

Director, External Relations, IMF Washington, D.C.

MS. ATKINSON: Good morning. I am Caroline Atkinson, Director of the External Relations Department at the IMF. I'd like to welcome you and the journalists contributing and participating via the Media Briefing Center to our biweekly press briefing. This is the first one we've had for a couple of weeks or a few weeks because of the recess.

Let me start with a couple of announcements. First, on the Managing Director and his travel, he will be in Berlin on September 4 where he will deliver a speech on sustainable growth and a stable international monetary system at a Bundesbank event. It's scheduled for 11:00 a.m. local time, and is an invitation-only event, but we hope to distribute an embargoed copy of the speech ahead of time to the press.

The Managing Director will then travel to London for the G-20 Ministerial Meeting on September 4 and 5, and we will give you further details about his press availability closer to the time. But please also contact Media Relations Division if you have any specific questions or requests. He will then be going to Brussels for a seminar and returning back here. We're not sure whether there will be prepared remarks, but of course if there are we will release those to you.

On the operational side, you've got used to talk about SDR allocation and we want to let you know that tomorrow, August 28, the IMF will officially implement the recently approved general allocation of special drawing rights, equivalent to about $250 billion. This was the allocation initially pressed for at the G-20 meeting in the spring in London. It was formally approved by the IMF's Board of Governors on August 7 and is designed to provide more global liquidity to the world economy by supplementing our members' foreign exchange reserves. And it is of course a prime example of the quick multilateral response to the financial crisis.

The equivalent of nearly $100 billion of this $250 billion will go to emerging markets and developing countries, and over $18 billion to low-income countries. This general allocation is made in proportion to members' existing quotas and will count immediately toward their reserves. Members can choose either to hold them in their reserves or if they wish to, sell all or part of their allocations to others in order to finance immediate hard currency imports. That is possible, and likewise it's possible to enter into an agreement to buy these SDRs from another member.

Separately, we are about to implement on September 9 a special allocation, a one-time allocation, of 21.5 billion SDRs, about US$33 billion. This allocation, which is sometimes called the Fourth Amendment Allocation because it required an amendment to the Fund's Articles of Agreement, will mean that every member country has an SDR allocation. Until now, countries—which is about a fifth of the membership which had joined the Fund after 1981, had not received any allocation, so now this will rectify that imbalance. More information and background on these two SDR allocations is available on our website at www.imf.org, and there are also fact sheets and Q's and A's there.

Lastly, on the Annual Meetings which of course as you know are going to take place in Istanbul in late September and early October, just to remind you that online press registration is open. A link to the registration feature is available on the home page of our website and on the journalist page. And we have also just this week put up a Road to Istanbul webpage.

Let me now turn to questions and ask people to submit questions also at this time.

I have a question here on Latvia asking for any more guidance on when the Latvia release will be distributed. Just to let you know that the Latvia review, as you know, is being discussed today by our Executive Board and we will let you know later today whether there will be a press release today or tomorrow morning. We plan a conference call tomorrow morning as we had done after the staff-level agreement and we will make all of those timing arrangements available to you as soon as we know them. Are there other questions?

QUESTIONER: I was looking at the Board agenda and there is something next week about an exercise with the Financial Stability Forum. Is there any way to know what's going on, what type of exercise it is?

MS. ATKINSON: I'm afraid I'll have to get back to you on that one. I'm not sure what it is. The exercise that we're doing with the Financial Stability Board of course is concerning early warnings, but I'm not sure if that's at the Board and I apologize. I'll get back to you on that one.

QUESTIONER: When the Managing Director will be in Europe at the upcoming G-20, is he going to present any paper there to the ministers, and what type of message is he going to give about growth or the economy in general?

MS. ATKINSON: He will be as I said giving a speech on September 4 which will lay out his key messages at the start of that process leading into the Annual Meetings. I don't want to scoop him on that. As you know, for the ministers there will of course be discussions on the outlook and I think that as John Lipsky and others have said recently and made clear recently, the global economy is of course improving and that's welcome, and today's U.S. GDP numbers I think support that. The outlook is improving, but we do feel that it's very important to stress that it's no time for complacency and that we expect that there are still vulnerabilities and policy support that is very important in cutting short or lessening the severity of the recession remains important. So it's a message that we do believe the recovery is in sight and is going perhaps to be a little better than we had at one time thought, but we expect a rather muted recovery. Obvious the Managing Director will have more details on that when he's talking to the ministers, and as I said, there will be some press availability around the G-20.

QUESTIONER: Exactly what you were talking now about, the signs of recovery and the last data on the U.S. GDP, could you articulate more? If I heard correctly you said something like it's important that the measures taken will be kept in place so there is no complacency. What are the main measures and efforts that the IMF believes it's important that the different governments will keep in place to assure a smooth recovery?

MS. ATKINSON: As we stressed before, the support in three areas where governments have taken measures on the financial system, the fiscal policy and monetary policy. And of course, going forward, at some point these extraordinary measures will need to be unwound and it be time to thinking about that now, but we don't believe it's quite yet time to be implementing exit strategies.

I might just refer you on these issues of the recovery. You may have noticed or you may have been informed that we have begun a blog called IMF Direct, and this week John Lipsky has been and is blogging including on topics like this, so you may well be interested in seeing what he has been saying about that.

I have a question online about Jamaica. It's asking, "In Jamaica there are protests about what's seen as the IMF dictating cuts in government spending as a condition for a loan. Please confirm what changes are being requested."

As you know, there are discussions that have been underway with the IMF and the Jamaican authorities. The authorities themselves are designing their macroeconomic program and that is something that they are very much in the lead on. I don't want to go into discussions about particular issues and I think that we've been having good discussions with the authorities. We are impressed by the fact that they are taking measures and considering measures and have committed as it is very important as we've been stressing recently to a program that will be very much their program.

Are there any other questions?

QUESTIONER: Just an agenda question. I hope I didn't miss it, but have you already started putting out an agenda or releasing documents on Istanbul for us journalists located here? Is everything going to happen there or are you going to release some report and prepare us here during the month of September?

MS. ATKINSON: Yes, all of that information will be available through Media Relations. There will be a run of certain let's say non-Istanbul-related reports such as discussing Latvia and there will be other country matters. Then the particular issues to do with Istanbul, we have a number of press availabilities and particular papers that will be released like the Managing Director's speech at the Bundesbank, and the Managing Director will also be speaking later in September on low-income countries, on September 17. Then of course there will be press availability in London and then again prior to his going to Istanbul, and in Istanbul there will be a major press conference and then various remarks that will be released.

So we have a number of things, and our Media Relations Division can tell you what the timetable of those will be. Thank you all very much indeed, and I look forward to seeing you in this intensive period going forward.

http://www.imf.org/external/np/tr/2009/tr082709.htm

IMF says Global Economic Recovery in Sight

IMF says global economic recovery in sight

Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:17pm

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The global economic recovery is near and may be stronger than once thought, but it is too soon to remove policy supports, a spokeswoman for the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

"We do believe the recovery is in sight and is going perhaps to be a little better than we had at one time thought, but we expect a rather muted recovery," Caroline Atkinson, director of external relations at the IMF, told a news conference.

"It is very important to stress that it's no time for complacency," she said. "There are still vulnerabilities and policy support that has been very important in lessening the severity of the recession remains important."

Atkinson said IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn planned to give a speech in Berlin on Sept. 4, where he will lay out his key messages for finance ministers from the Group of 20 rich and developing nations, who are meeting in London on Sept. 4 and 5.

Strauss-Kahn will then head to London for the G20 meetings.

http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-42028720090827?rpc=401&=undefined&sp=true

League''s Economic and Social Council Begins Meetings for its 84th Session

Thursday 27 August 2009 --

Iraq chairs the meetings of the Council of 84 Arab Economic and Social
تبدأ جلساتها بعد غد في القاهرة Its start the day after tomorrow in Cairo بغداد ـ مهدي كريم

الطائي Baghdad Mahdi Karim al-Tai

Iraq 84 session chairs for the meetings of the Economic and Social Council of the Arab League, which will hopefully convene in Cairo next week. The Director General of the Department of Foreign Economic Relations, Ministry of Trade, Dr. Khairallah Raad al-Asadi said in a statement singled out the "morning"

That the meetings of the Council for the session 84 to be held on the third of next September at the ministerial level will be headed by Minister of Trade and Agency Dr. Safaa net debt, while the same will be headed by al-Asadi preparatory meetings of senior officials and experts in the Arab countries, which will begin its meetings on Saturday and ends on the first of September in order to prepare files and submission to the Council meeting at the level of the Arab ministers, adding that an extraordinary meeting to be held in the second of September to discuss the structure of the Secretariat of the Council of Arab Economic and Social.

He disclosed that the Council's meetings will focus on discussion of topics specific to the Greater Arab Free Trade and the United Arab Alkmarki and requirements for increased efficiency bilateral trade and activated between Arab countries and access to economic integration, the Council will continue at the expert level and senior officials of the implementation of the decisions of the Arab Economic and Social Development, held in Kuwait earlier this year, which resulted in the issuance of a number of resolutions aimed to push forward economic development as will endorse the recommendations of the Board and submitted to a meeting at the ministerial level for the session 84 for approval.

Asadi warned to be taken by a number of measures within the Council by the Arab states to reach an agreement to enact a law for a unified Arab customs legislation and laws that contribute to the simplification of customs procedures in general, and during the liberation of trade between these countries, especially that an agreement was reached in early 2005 includes zero-tariff, which means the absence of tariffs between Arab countries, pointing out the need to adopt a unified customs tariff in case of dealing with foreign countries, noting that these measures will greatly assist in the transfer of capital money and goods between the Arab countries and Walt easily deal with foreign countries, and one window in the customs sector

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League''s Economic and Social Council holds its 84th session next Thursday

Economics 8/27/2009 3:57:00 PM

CAIRO, Aug 27 (KUNA) -- Meeting of the Economic and Social Council of the League of Arab States holds its 84th session at the level of Arab economy ministers next Thursday to be chaired by Iraq.

The meeting is scheduled to discuss the development of the Council's work and follow up the implementation of resolutions of the Arab Economic Summit tha was held in Kuwait last January.

Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League for Economic Affairs Ambassador Mohammed Bin Ibrahim Al-Tuwaijri said in a statement that preparatory meetings would preceed the upcoming session on Saturday, including a meeting of the Social Committee to be followed by a meeting of the Economic Committee on Sunday and Monday.

He added that a meeting of the Economic and Social Council at the level of senior officials would be held on Tuesday and Wednesday to be followed by the ministerial council meeting next Thursday.

Al-Tuwaijri pointed out that a meeting of a Council Committee groupng eight countries will also be held to discuss implementation of resolutions of the Arab Economic Summit that was held in Kuwait.

(end) mfm.az.tg KUNA 271557 Aug 09NNNN