Showing posts with label GDP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GDP. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Who are they defending?

Pakistan relentlessly pursues its nuclear agenda as millions suffer from malnutrition in the country

High level of poverty, malnutrition, widespread corruption and massive internal upheaval, all have a very strong connection. Taken together, they quite aptly describe the current socio-economic situation of Pakistan.

As per the National Nutrition Survey 2011, in Pakistan, among the children up to the age of five, 43.6% are stunted, 15.1% are wasted and 31.5% are underweight – this is worse than even the sub-Saharan African countries. The figure is also more than WHO’s 15% emergency threshold. These, by any standard, are atrociously shocking figures. The problem has been further exacerbated by the spate of floods in 2010 and 2011 that battered the Sindh province. As per a national survey, 58% of Pakistani households are ‘food-insecure’ and close to 30% suffer from hunger. As per United Nations Standing Committee on Nutrition, just three types of malnutrition directly strike off 3-4% of GDP in Pakistan in any given year.

In this light, the outrageously high spending on the military budget, a hefty proportion of which is spend on developing nuclear weapons, raises eyebrows. Pakistan has kept the amount spent on nuclear weapons under wraps, but a US-based non-profit body Reaching Critical Will estimates it to be close to $2.5 billion.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
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Thursday, January 17, 2013

380 deaths daily!

The shocking Chinese coal mines

Fushun’s Mengjiagou coal mine had a gas explosion in 2003, with a casualty of 25 miners ­– that was not as much a bad news­ ­as was their relatives being beaten up to death asking for compensation! In 2007, the official figure of the number of deaths in coal mines stood out at around 5000 miners, although independent research agencies estimate the actual figure to be as much as three to four times of that. It is reported that many sub-contractors in China run their mines like monster task masters. And the province of Shanxi is a crying shame of an example for China in this regard.

If last year’s coal mine accident in Shanxi that killed 270 people – and resulted in the resignation of Meng Xuenong, Shanxi’s governor – made you open your eyes, perhaps you missed out the fact that a few years back, the Director of State Administration of Production Safety in China accepted that 380 people died everyday in the coal mines of Shanxi, causing a direct economic loss of $12 billion every year. The figure is a staggering 2.5% of China’s GDP!

China’s fatality rate per million tonnes of coal production was reported half a decade back to be 3,824. Compare this to the 0.1 figure in the US and even Australia, top coal manufacturers.

In 2006, Premier Wen Jiabao made commitments to improve the safety standards. Eventually, in the same year, he passed an order to close down any coal mine with an annual output of less than 90,000 tonnes. Shanxi’s coal mines still continue haphazardly. This year, the new Shanxi governor commissioned that by 2011, the number of coal mines will be reduced by 1500 (to 1000) and by 2015 to 800. The claim is that any shaft with an annual output of less than 300,000 tonnes will be closed and taken over by the government. Are the Chinese true to their word?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Friday, November 2, 2012

THE OVERRIDING DOWNTURN IN THE RECENT PAST

THOUGH LATIN AMERICAN ECONOMIES LIKE ARGENTINA, VENEZUELA AND COLOMBIA HAVE SHOWN SOME RESILIENCE AGAINST THE OVERRIDING DOWNTURN IN THE RECENT PAST. BUT, WITH HUGE SOVEREIGN DEBTS AND THEIR GROWING INCAPABILITY TO SERVICE THEM AT A STANDARD RATE, THEY STILL STAND ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE, FEELS MANISH K. PANDEY…

For most countries, tolerating a short-term deficit to stimulate the economy is a reasonable tradeoff. But, for Argentina, however, the picture is complicated by the country’s limited access to foreign capital as it has been in default since 2001. Though Christina’s predecessor, her husband Nestor Kirchner had restructured most of the debt and even repaid money borrowed from IMF, Argentina still remains in default of over $20 billion of debt from its 2005 restructuring and over $6 billion in Paris Club debt. Worse, Argentina’s total debt, not counting that held by the holdouts, as of today stands at $140 billion (almost 50% of GDP)!

The Argentine government has also been questioned by analysts on the validity of certain economic indicators, which the government is reported to have skewed seemingly to get a favourable market standing. For instance, inflation has been ‘officially’ hovering around 9% since 2006. But it was privately estimated at 12-15% that year and over 15% in 2008. All this has led to a scenario where investors are left with little (or say no) faith on the Argentine government. According to Argentina’s central bank, capital flight from the country has reached $5.5 billion in Q2 2009, bringing a total of $11.2 billion in H1 2009. In fact, since 2007, capital flight has reached about $43 billion on worries over its economic outlook. Economist Rodrigo Alvarez from consultants Ecolatina, warns that capital flight from Argentina has reached levels similar to those of 2001. In his view, the government needs to restore confidence before it’s too late. Even as per Morgan Stanley analysts, Argentina’s fiscal accounts are moving toward deficits, which will likely increase worries on fiscal sustainability and “the country’s ability to honour its debt service obligations.” Considering this they have even lowered their “forecasts for Argentina’s fiscal balance to -0.6% of GDP (from 0.0%) for 2009 and -0.9% of GDP (from -0.4%) for 2010.”

The scenario is somewhat similar in Venezuela where high levels of government spending and unorthodox economic policies are catching up very fast. In fact, the country’s GDP has already fallen by 4.5% in Q2 2009, following a 2.4% decline in the first quarter.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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Monday, October 29, 2012

Rich dad, poor dad

Barack just needs to look to his neighbours to understand health policies

That America has not done as well in supporting health issues over the years is a given fact. But how bad is ‘not done as well’? The answer is pretty bad. Not many would know that in the US, the incidence of cancer among males and females is 562.3 and 417.3 per 1,00,000 respectively (American Cancer Society, Surveillance and Health Policy Research, 2009), life expectancy is 77.8 years, infant mortality rate is 6.9 deaths per 1,000 live births (CNN once reported that the US has the second worst newborn death rate in the modern world), mortality rate under the age of five years for males and females is 9 and 7 per 1,000 live births respectively, only 2.7 acute care beds per 1,000 people are available (5th worst amongst all OECD nations), 2.8 physicians per 1,000 and ranks 72nd by overall level of health on WHO parameters!

Perhaps today, the biggest issue in the US is the failure of its healthcare system, especially given the debate on Obama’s policy decisions. Though Obama is not labelled a failure, yet when it comes to healthcare reforms, it might not take too long for his 300+ million supporters to ‘change’ their point-of-view. One need not travel miles to prove what ails the States. Their next door neighbour – Canada – is a case in point, or rather, against the point. Canada has a healthcare model that is better; because it works!

Even after having a US-like healthcare model, Canada has successfully achieved better results in its healthcare report card. Healthcare spending in Canada is around $160 billion or 10.1% of its GDP in 2007, which is one percentage point higher than the average spending by OECD countries. But very interestingly, it is far lower than the US allocation, which is 16% of GDP. Canada also spends lesser on a per capita basis compared to the US. Canada’s total healthcare per capita spending was around $3,895, which is lower than the $7,290 per capita spending of the US. The critical reason why the system, despite spending less, works better in Canada is that while the public sector is the main source of funding for Canadian healthcare, the US system is dependent on private source funding.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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