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Economy

Worldwide Trade Forecasts Slashed, Europe Blamed


REUTERS, AFP, DIE WELT
(Germany)

Worldcrunch

SINGAPORE — Held back by the financial crisis in Europe, world trade will grow by a meager 2.5 percent this year, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Friday.

Reuters reports the WTO cut the 2012 estimate (originally set at 3.7 percent growth in April). "I see the risk more on the downside than the upside," WTO Director General Pascal Lamy told a news conference in Singapore. "What could be surprising is that you have a volume of trade that is lower than world growth."

The WTO also lowered its forecast for 2013 to 4.5 percent growth from 5.6 percent, reports AFP. Lamy said Europe's crisis explains much of the downward revision. "The main reason for growth slowing down is being of course Europe where growth is slowing. But not only Europe, we also know that US is lower than expected," said Lamy.

The news comes a day after Germany, Europe's largest economy, which has largely withstood the crisis, reported an expected rise in unemployment in 2013, Die Welt reports.

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Geopolitics

How Argentina Has Become China's Foothold In Latin America

China has become one of Argentina's most important trading partners and is increasing its military bases in the country. As China seeks to challenge the liberal world order, Argentina risks rifts with other key allies.

Photo of Alberto Fernández and  Xi Jinping

President of Argentina Alberto Fernández and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in November 2022

*Rubén M. Perina

-Analysis-

BUENOS AIRES — There was a media furore worldwide in February over the sighting and subsequent downing of mysterious Chinese balloons by the U.S. coastline. The unnerving affair naturally raised a question mark in countries beyond the United States.

Here in Argentina, currently run by a leftist administration with leanings toward Russia and China, we might pertinently wonder whether or not the secretive Chinese base set up in the province of Neuquén in the west of the country in 2015-17 had anything to do with the communist superpower's less-than-festive balloons. It is difficult to say, of course, given the scarcity of information on the base, but the incidents are an opportunity to revise China's presence in Argentina.

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