PR Resource – Muarateweh.net

American economist Alan Blinder once said: “Price stability is when ordinary people stop talking and worrying about inflation.”

With inflationary pressures predicted to stay in India this year, the greatest concern for the Union government is to take appropriate measures to combat inflation. A steep rise in food prices will make inflation control more difficult, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said and he urged the global community to act together to ease a supply-demand mismatch.

Opposition politicians have pounced on the figures, which are seen as deeply embarrassing for the Indian government. Ruling politicians in India have a wise regard for the onion, which on occasions has proved as potent enough for removing governments.
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U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs David McCormick said, “Over the past fifteen years, India has emerged as a strong and confident player in the global economy, an important trading partner, a major consumer of global commodities, goods, and services, and an attractive destination for global investment capital.” Speaking to a meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry and the American Chamber of Commerce in Chennai, India, Mr. McCormick said “throughout this period of remarkable growth, we also witnessed a deepening U.S.-India partnership.”

Average growth of nearly seven percent over the past decade has allowed India to raise its Gross Domestic Product per capita by over fifty percent since 2000, creating a large and growing middle class in the process. Trade between the United States and India has continued to expand, reaching over fifty billion dollars in 썗. The United States is India’s largest trading partner.
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First came the booming economies. Then came the rush of investors. Now the so-called BRIC nations — Brazil, Russia, India and China — are talking about forming a political alliance.

The four largest emerging economies are sending their foreign ministers to Yekaterinburg, Russia, to meet on May 16 for the first time outside the venue of the United Nations. On the agenda are such non-economic issues as weapons proliferation, counter-terrorism, energy and climate change.

The term BRIC was coined by Jim O’Neill, London-based chief global economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., in 2001. Last year the combined gross domestic product of the four nations made up 12 percent of global GDP, up from 8 percent in 2000, according to the International Monetary Fund. In the past two years stocks in the BRIC nations have risen 70 percent, versus the 42 percent increase of emerging markets overall. (continue reading…)

PARIS/SEOUL (Reuters) – July rice futures dropped more than 3 percent in early Asian trading on Thursday after falling by the same margin overnight as worries eased over the world’s supply of rice.

U.S. rice prices have been falling all week, with the July contract down 9 percent from Friday’s close, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast a record world rice crop for 2008 and said stocks to grow.

Corn futures were weaker, pressured by improving U.S. weather conditions, which are set to boost corn seedings in the world’s largest corn exporter.

At the Chicago Board of Trade, July corn futures eased 0.5 percent to $5.93-1/2 per bushel by 5:20 a.m. EDT (0920 GMT) and September was off 0.4 percent at $6.05-3/4.
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The price of Thai rice has swung back to Bt27,000 from Bt23,000 a tonne of paddy regular rice in two days, thanks to the export of a big lot of 200,000 tonnes to Malaysia.

According to the Rice Exporters Association, the five per cent regular rice price jumped by Bt4,000 per tonne to Bt27,000 a tonne in two days. Paddy jasmine rice remains high at Bt35,000 per tonne.

The Malaysian government

yesterday agreed to close a deal with the association for Thai exporters to ship ᎈ,000 tonnes of rice next month. For half of the stocks, Thai exporters agreed on a price of US$950 (Bt30.400) a tonne for 5 per cent white rice and $940 a tonne for the remaining 15 per cent white rice.
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An organization of the largest U.S. rice growers supported a plan to enable Japan to sell some of its stockpile of the food staple to ease soaring prices.

A spokesman for the U.S. Rice Producers Association, based in Houston, Texas, said today that the group would not oppose Japan’s emergency rice sales. Japan’s reserve, which amounts to aboutń.4 percent of the world’s rice trade, may help ease prices that have doubled in the past year.

Japan, the second-biggest market for U.S.-grown rice, is obliged to import rice from the U.S. under the Uruguay Round of world trade talks that ended in 1993 and can’t re-export it without U.S. government approval. The American rice lobby’s backing is key to getting support of Congress and the Bush administration.
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The rise in food prices is attributed largely to rising crude oil prices. However, the expansion of biofuel production as a result of higher crude prices has also fuelled speculation on food prices in the commodity markets. StarBizlooks at the complexities of the problem and how it has affected local consumption.

IS the proverbial third horseman of the apocalypse here? With riots and political instability due to higher prices of staple foods in the poorer parts of the world bringing to mind impending starvation, one will certainly think so.

Traditionally depicted as carrying scales and riding a black horse, the third horseman represented famine, drought and mass starvation in popular literature.

Yes, there have been droughts and following that, famine and mass starvation before. In recent times, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan come to mind. (continue reading…)