The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have declared Somalia eligible for assistance under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, based on a preliminary assessment, Reuters reported Feb. 13.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said his company would not invest in building infrastructure for 5G telecommunications networks and brushed off U.S. Attorney General William Barr's suggestion that U.S. companies should invest in or take control of European telecom equipment makers Ericsson and Nokia to counter Huawei's 5G influence, the Financial Times has reported.
A U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey of its member firms with manufacturing operations in Vietnam found that more than half have been affected by supply chain disruptions attributable to the coronavirus outbreak in China, The New York Times reported Feb. 14.
In his annual state of the nation address, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called for a number of new measures to improve the country's embattled economy and electricity grid, including allowing big power-consuming companies, such as mining firms, to build their own power generation capacity, Reuters reported Feb. 14.
According to an Israeli defense official, Hamas has offered to stop conducting rocket and incendiary balloon attacks on Israel, Haaretz reported Feb. 13.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to use "any means necessary" to protect his army's observation posts in Idlib province in northwestern Syria, where Turkey is trying to preserve its buffer zone from the advance of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Al-Jazeera reported Feb. 12.
Beijing replaced the top Communist Party leader in Hubei province with a former mayor of Shanghai and close ally of President Xi Jinping, the South China Morning Post reported Feb. 13.
The Trump administration is considering raising the United States' bound World Trade Organization tariffs in order to trigger a renegotiation of U.S. tariff ceilings at the WTO, with the expectation that other WTO members will not agree to a multilateral deal, Bloomberg reported Feb. 12.
In its Winter Economic Forecast released Feb. 13, the European Commission indicated that while all 27 members of the European Union were expected to experience economic growth averaging 1.2 percent in 2020, the bloc's three biggest economies, Germany, France and Italy, would grow the slowest.
According to new government data, India’s retail inflation rate climbed to 7.59% in January, marking the highest rate since Prime Minister Modi came to power in 2014, The Hindu reported Feb. 13.
