Brazilian minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, spent the weekend in Geneva, Switzerland, trying to push forward negotiations in the World Trade Organization (WTO). However negotiators from the more than 180 member countries of the organization were unable to achieve the progress they had hoped in drafting the 'modalities document', by the April 30 deadline set at the Hong Kong Ministerial Summit in December of last year. Agriculture is the issue impeding the negotiations. Modalities include deciding the formula for tariff reductions, the products considered sensitive, and safeguards.
The International Monetary Fund said that it expects China's current account surplus this year to be the same as last year, at around 7% of GDP. IMF also said that it expects the current account surplus to decline to 6% of GDP by 2011. China's current account surplus has been increasing together with rising exports and an increasing trade surplus. At the same time, China's domestic consumption has declined to 40% of GDP, a decline of 10 percentage points since 1980.
Johannesburg-based Standard Bank Group has received approval from Argentina's central bank to operate as a commercial bank and will begin operations on May 2, the central bank said in a press release. Last July Standard Bank bought Dutch financial services giant ING's Argentine banking unit and is expecting regulatory approval to take over Bank of America's Argentine unit BankBoston too.
Interest rates on loans provided by commercial banks in Slovakia rose for the third consecutive month in March. They grew to 6.15% on average, up 0.14 percentage points from February and 0.19 percentage points from January. Interest rates on loans for non-financial companies reached 4.94% on average in March, 0.3 percentage points more than in February. The average interest rate on household loans was 7.97%, down 0.01 percent from February, according to statistics released by the National Bank of Slovakia in line with EU harmonized methodology.
Retail sales grew 15.8% in the first quarter of the year according to Latvia's Central Statistical Bureau. Turnover in the retail sector increased by 13.9% in February compared to March. The main component of retail trade was sales of motor vehicles, motorcycles and parts and accessories, which increased by 27.7% compared to the previous year.
According to the Bank of Korea, household debt has continued to remain stable and the ability of individuals to repay debt is improving. South Koreans have continued to take out loans to finance house purchases. Household debt increased by 11.2% last year but financial assets increased by 8%, leaving the ratio of financial assets to debt 50.4%. Disposable income rose by 3.6% over the year.