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José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 9
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Coffee fair begins Friday in Frailes By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Coffee lovers will be in their element from Friday through Sunday when the XI Feria del Café is held in Frailes de Desamparados. Some 15,000 visitors are expected. Coffee is being collected now in Costa Rica and in Frailes. So visitors will have a close-up look at the harvest. Also a number of traditional dishes are promised. There also is a facility for children. The event is supported by the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo. The Instituto del Café de Costa Rica also is participating with the replication of a coffee farm or cafetal, said an announcement. Our readers' opinion
Monopoly sought for grain importsDear A.M. Costa Rica: You might mention that Costa Rican rice growers would be at a serious disadvantage competing against U.S. government subsidizing U.S. rice growers, while trade treaty prohibits Costa Rica from doing same for its producers! 'The disadvantage is worsened by Costa Rican business-political interests seeking to corner importation of cheap international excesses thereby doing in local producers. Destroying the local farmer and producer would leave them in permanent control of the market. Sharon Smith, M.D.
Costa Rica could play China against U.S. Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Well done for your alertness to the march of Chinese interests into Costa Rica. The alliance of such a small militarily impotent country with a global behemoth is interesting. Apart from Taiwan, which China continues to isolate, China is likely interested in a buffer zone between its new canal in Nicaragua and its U.S. backed competitor in Panama. Additionally, using the moral and green image of Costa Rica to gain support among Latin American countries against its global rival the U.S. is also important. From the Costa Rican point of view, an influx of Chinese investment in infrastructure could bring major benefits: Firstly, Chinese investment funds could postpone or even end the need for Costa Rica to keep on borrowing to fund its grossly inefficient public sector. This would prevent a currency collapse and default. Secondly, this country is bad at infrastructure and the U.S. is not much better. Visits to the Maglev railway in Shanghai and to the airports, ports and cities of China reveals that they can and do build infrastructure well and quickly. New York looks like a 1930s theme park in comparison. As to issues such as Chinese human rights, etc, Costa Rica can have no influence on those, just as it has little on global U.S. military intervention and internal politics. If clever, Costa Rican leaders will play off Chinese and U.S. interests to their advantage. If true to form, Chinese infrastructure investment will be channeled through ineffective and corrupt local operations and there will be little benefit. A pact with the Chinese devil could have major benefits and little downside risk. Let us hope for the best. Chris Clarke
Grecia 9/11 reaction was disproportionate Dear A.M. Costa Rica: Monday's guest editorial on the Paris attack struck a chord with me. Most particularly, I quote: "The lessons of our American cousins and the post 9/11 Patriot Act as a response to terror should remind us that threats to our freedoms can come from many directions." The hugely disproportionate reaction to the 9/11 attacks have given us the world's largest bureaucracy (the Department of Homeland Security) and the masher of the Constitution, the Patriot Act. If there is an afterlife, I bet that Osama bin Laden and his cronies are rolling on the floor as they watch the citizens of the "free" world deal with the TSA checkpoints and the news of NSA wiretapping. The results of their actions exceeded their wildest dreams of what they would accomplish with a few bombings. On another note, I first started reading AM Costa Rica in 2003; when you always had two pages and occasionally three. Look at you now! Congratulations! Pete Todd
Fort Collins, Colorado
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 9 | |
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| First U.S. spring break vacationers are less than six weeks
away |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Tourism operators are struggling to keep up with the influx of tourists for the high season, so they might be shocked to know that the first wave of U.S. college students on spring break will begin in less than six weeks. Most of the spring break weeks are in March, but some schools have scheduled the start of the traditional vacation as early as Feb. 23. The wave of young tourists ends sometime in mid-April. St. John's University in Queens has spring break set for Feb. 23 to 28. Valparaiso University in Indiana has a two-week break scheduled starting Feb. 28. Typical student tourists are seeking sun, waves and alcohol. However, some schools use the break time for short courses, and many of these are overseas. Students study the environment, archaeology and other specialties under the guidance of a teacher. Usually the U.S. State Department issues an advisory for students who may travel outside the United States. "Don't let your escape from dorm life and research papers turn into a Spring Break horror story," the department warns. The advisory urges students to avoid having drugs in their possession. Costa Rican tourism operators, because of air fares and location, find that attracting spring breakers is highly competitive. Tamarindo, Montezuma and Manual Antonio are the favored spots in Costa Rica. But students also can go skiing or find warmer weather along the U.S. gulf coast or in Florida. The 1960 movie "Where the Boys Are" enshrined Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as the place to be. |
 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
posterThis
1960 movie with Paula Prentiss, Connie Francis and Yvette
Mimieux, among others, solidified the spring break tradition.
For marijuana, they have the several U.S. states where personal use is legal. Although Costa Rica does not seem to be promoting itself strongly yet as a spring break destination, México, the Bahamas and other Caribbean hot spots are, as well as U.S. locations, including California. |
| Vacation relief for parents: 'Summer' workshops for children |
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By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Public school does not start until Feb. 9, and kids are getting bored and parents are worn out from the holidays. That is one reason many private clubs, organizations and government agencies plan summer vacation classes for kids. The Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud said that various activities for youngsters are scheduled at the Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, the Museo Histórico Cultural Juan Santamaría and the Museo de Arte Costarricense. |
These workshops
are
all free. Most of the programs include various forms of artistic efforts. Alianza Francesa started a program for youngsters 6 to 10 this week and there is a fee. One of the three courses is cooking. The Museo de los Niños started a program this week, but it will be repeated starting Jan. 21. Costa Ricans call this period, the dry season, summer, although the season is winter in the north. |
| You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015, Vol. 15, No. 9 | |||||
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| Bilingualism changes way youngsters think about the world,
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By the Concordia University news staff
Most young children are essentialists: They believe that human and animal characteristics are innate. That kind of reasoning can lead them to think that traits like native language and clothing preference are intrinsic rather than acquired. But a new study from Concordia University in Montreal suggests that certain bilingual kids are more likely to understand that it’s what one learns, rather than what one is born with, that makes up a person’s psychological attributes. The study, forthcoming in Developmental Science, suggests that bilingualism in the preschool years can alter children's beliefs about the world around them. Contrary to their unilingual peers, many kids who have been exposed to a second language after age 3 believe that an individual’s traits arise from experience. For the study, a psychology professor, Krista Byers-Heinlein, and her co-author, Concordia undergraduate student Bianca Garcia, tested a total of 48 monolingual, simultaneous bilingual (learned two languages at once) and sequential bilingual (learned one language and then another) 5- and 6-year-olds. The kids were told stories about babies born to English parents but adopted by Italians, and about ducks raised by dogs. They were then asked if those children would speak English or Italian when they grew up, and whether the babies born to duck parents would quack or bark. The kids were also quizzed on whether the baby born to duck parents would be feathered or furred. |
“We predicted
that sequential bilinguals’ own experience of learning
language would help them understand that human language is actually
learned, but that all children would expect other traits such as animal
vocalizations and physical characteristics to be innate,” says Ms.
Byers-Heinlein. She was surprised by the results. Sequential bilinguals did, in fact, show reduced essentialist beliefs about language. They knew that a baby raised by Italians would speak Italian. But they were also significantly more likely to believe that an animal’s physical traits and vocalizations are learned through experience: That a duck raised by dogs would bark and run rather than quack and fly. “Both monolinguals and second language learners showed some errors in their thinking, but each group made different kinds of mistakes. Monolinguals were more likely to think that everything is innate, while bilinguals were more likely to think that everything is learned,” said the professor. “Children’s systematic errors are really interesting to psychologists, because they help us understand the process of development. Our results provide a striking demonstration that everyday experience in one domain, language learning, can alter children’s beliefs about a wide range of domains, reducing children’s essentialist biases.” The study has important social implications because adults who hold stronger essentialist beliefs are more likely to endorse stereotypes and prejudiced attitudes. “Our finding that bilingualism reduces essentialist beliefs raises the possibility that early second language education could be used to promote the acceptance of human social and physical diversity,” said Ms. Byers-Heinlein. |
Here's reasonable medical care
Costa Rica's world class medical specialists are at your command. Get the top care for much less than U.S. prices. It is really a great way to spend a vacation. See our list of recommended professionals HERE!amcr-prom
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2015 and may
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| Anti-blasphemy cases aided by postings on the Internet By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Dozens of governments around the world, most notably in majority-Muslim nations, are turning to anti-blasphemy laws to aggressively punish alleged transgressions, especially against Islam. And while in the past blasphemy charges were most often brought against people for something they said in public, these days governments are turning their attention to what people say and do while online, analysts say. According to Peter Henne, an analyst with the Pew Research Center, 22 percent of governments have some form of anti-blasphemy law on the books. No region is immune: anti-blasphemy laws can be found in at least one nation on every continent, he said. “Seventy percent of the nations that have anti-blasphemy laws are located in the Middle East or North Africa,” he said. “Fourteen of the 20 nations in that region criminalize blasphemy, but again it’s not unique to this area.” Among the nations that most aggressively pursue blasphemy cases, he said, are Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Indonesia. While the Pew study didn’t specifically track the punishments imposed in each nation, in general the sentences vary widely, from forms of house arrest to life in prison or death. Recently, a 30-year-old blogger and Saudi citizen, Raif Badawi, founded the Free Saudi Liberals Web site to foster discussion about religion and Saudi religious figures. In 2012, he was arrested for insulting Islam on his blog and committing apostasy, a charge that was later dropped. He was convicted on the first charge and lost his appeal and is now serving a sentence of 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes, to be meted out 50 each week for 20 weeks. His first flogging on Friday reportedly lasted approximately 15 minutes. U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said Badawi’s punishment is inhumane and has called on Riyadh to cancel his punishment. So far the Saudi government, which has denounced the attack on the staffers of the French publication Charlie Hebdo over the issue of blasphemy, has shown no signs of changing course on Badawi. Increasingly, Badawi’s story is becoming more common across large portions of the Middle East and North Africa. In 2013 Kuwaiti blogger Hamad al-Naqi was found guilty of insulting the Prophet Muhammad while making comments on Twitter, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. In Mauritania, a blogger named Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed was sentenced to death after being found guilty of insulting Islam and apostasy, or renouncing Islam, relating to an article he published in 2013. In Pakistan alone, more than 30 people have been sentenced to death or life in prison for allegedly committing blasphemy, either online or in person. Around the world it’s estimated that at least 50 people are currently in prison or facing death sentences for violating these laws. And just this week, India's solicitor general, Tushar Mehta, argued before that nation's Supreme Court that outrageous and offensive material targeting religion online should be blocked. And as Internet use spreads, so too do prosecutions based on people’s online activities. “It’s easier to scrutinize what people are doing online,” said Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Amnesty International. The Web has made it easier for governments to prosecute people, in part, he says, because online comments and social media posts live on forever. Amnesty International has called Badawi’s conviction and sentence in Saudi Arabia a vicious act of cruelty and, like the United States, is urging the government there to stop his punishment. “Our position is quite clear; we consider him to be a prisoner of conscience,” Luther said. “He’s done nothing more than express his views peacefully, and it’s unquestionable he should be released immediately and his sentence quashed.” Luther points to several nations as leading offenders, including Egypt, Pakistan, Iran and Indonesia. “Indonesia is an interesting case,” he said. “Over the past decade there’s been a real increase in the use of a range of blasphemy laws there. "We’ve documented more than 100 individuals who served in prison during the administration of former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, compared to just a handful in the preceding decade, so there’s clearly been a surge in prosecutions there,” he said. In a challenge to the law, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court in 2010 ruled 8-to-1 that the laws would remain, stating in the majority opinion that the blasphemy law “…is still needed to maintain public order among religious groups.” While only some of those 100 cases in Indonesia stem from Internet use, analyst Luther said there’s a growing trend among prosecutors to use the Web and social media to gather evidence for possible charges. “An Iranian man was sentenced to death on the thirtieth of August last year for Facebook posts insulting the prophet of Islam,” he said. “In Egypt, both Muslims and Christians have been prosecuted for showing contempt for religion online. "So the fact that it’s easier to scrutinize what people are doing online has made it easier for governments like these to prosecute people,” he said. While the United Nations has repeatedly called freedom of expression and religion to be universal rights, the U. N. General Assembly is considering a resolution that some fear might chip away at that. Pushed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, resolution 16/18 aims to combat “…intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization of, and discrimination, incitement to violence, and violence against persons based on religion or belief.” While on the surface that might sound innocuous, some rights groups see it as giving support to anti-blasphemy laws. “Blasphemy laws violate both internationally protected rights of freedom and expression, and they should be repealed,” said Elizabeth Cassidy, deputy director for policy research at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent federal government organization. “They completely turn the human rights regime on its head,” she said. “Human rights are about protecting human beings, not protecting ideas. If you’re protecting ideas, you have to face the question of deciding what ideas are acceptable and what aren’t.” Ms. Cassidy said the online world over the past few years is proving to be a source for many blasphemy allegations, adding that the trend accelerated following the Arab Spring and the rapid growth of social media use around the world. “I think we saw people willing to say things online that they weren’t willing to say before, so that’s been a worry,” she said. “And we’re seeing more moves against people who say they are atheist or are questioning the existence of God.” Many French Muslims blame government for youth woes By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Most Muslims in France were quick to distance themselves from last week’s attacks on a French satirical magazine and a kosher market. But they tend to blame the French government, saying the bloodshed is a reminder there is much to do to address the problems of the country’s disaffected minority youths. At the Grand Mosque of Paris, midday prayers drew a small, and somewhat nervous congregation Monday. Worshipers knew public attention was focused on France’s large Muslim community, and not in a good way. “It is a little difficult to bear because we feel solidarity with the French and all the communities that live here in France," said a cashier named Mohamed. "There are a lot of Muslims here. It is the second largest religion in France. We lived in peace and suddenly something happened. Muslims feel a bit afraid.” France is largely a Catholic country. The landmark Notre Dame Cathedral is guarded by a statue of Charlemagne, the 9th Century emperor who forced people he conquered to convert to Catholicism. But the French Revolution, nearly 1,000 years later, cemented a different set of values. Liberty, equality and brotherhood were on display during Sunday’s unity march. France’s relatively new Muslim community has become one of the biggest challenges to that concept, and the government has a lot of work to do to address the problems of poor, disaffected young men like last week’s attackers, according to Susan Perry of the American University in Paris. “They have lived on the margins of society, and there were no mechanisms to bring them in before it was too late. And so it is a government problem, but it is also a local community problem,” said Perry. Parisians agree both the government and the Muslim community have to address the problem of Islamist militancy, particularly in neighborhoods with large, poor Muslim populations. “The problem in France is the suburbs, they are like powder kegs. We really have to fix this problem,” said a retired secretary named Betty. “The Muslim community has work to do in order to be better regarded by people in France and throughout the world. They can not stay like they are. They have to rectify some things,” said a retired taxicab driver named Armando. At the mosque, though, people put most of the responsibility on the government. “Actually, I do not think that it is only an Islamic problem," said a student named Saqina. "But maybe it is more deep, the problem is more deep, and maybe it is a social problem.” “I think it is not only the problem of Muslims. It is everyone’s problem. In my opinion, it is a problem of politics, of economic, of global politics, in fact,” said Osman, an information systems engineer. Osman was among a few who said French Muslims also could do more. “I think they could, in fact, work on education, really on the basics of what Islam is, that Islam truly teaches tolerance above everything.” High altitude stall considered as factor in AirAsia crash By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Now that the data and voice recorders from AirAsia Flight 8501 have been found, investigators are closer to finding out what caused the plane to crash Dec. 28. Some are suggesting a high altitude stall in bad weather. The flight data recorder from AirAsia flight 8501 is drying out before it can be examined. It and the cockpit voice recorder were retrieved from the bottom of the Java Sea. Data recorders can indicate what happened. The two hours of talk between the pilots and air traffic control could tell why the plane crashed. Given the circumstances, however, experts have an idea. Pilots aboard the Airbus A320 asked to climb to a higher altitude to avoid heavy monsoons, but air traffic control denied their request. It’s thought the plane may have been cruising below its normal speed in the thin air at a high attitude and lost lift, causing it to stall. Pilots are taught an easy fix to a stall: They are to point the nose down to gain airspeed and increase lift. It’s not the first time a stall has caused a crash. National Transportation Safety Board Acting Chairman Christopher Hart: “It would come under the topic that we have procedural compliance. We saw, Asiana, Asiana for example, where they almost stalled. We saw in Colgan where it stalled, so it’s an issue in all airplanes with the focus on that issue for general aviation." Hart is talking about the procedures pilots are supposed to follow in a stall. Asiana Flight 214 came in too low and too slowly to San Francisco in July 2013. Facing an impending stall, pilots tried to abort the landing but were too late and the plane crashed into a seawall. The same with Colgan Flight 3407, when pilots did not react to stall warnings quickly enough, and the plane crashed into a house on approach to Buffalo, New York, in February 2009. The safety board has not yet been asked by the Indonesian government to assist in the investigation of AirAsia Flight 8501. The plane was flying from Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore late last month when it crashed into the Java Sea. One hundred-sixty-two people were killed. The commander of the Western Fleet of the Indonesian Navy, Rear Admiral Widodo, says Indonesian forces will keep looking for the plane's main cabin in search of bodies." More than 100 bodies are thought to still be in the fuselage, which is somewhere on the bottom of the Java Sea. Thailand reports progress in human trafficking By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Thailand is reporting progress in efforts to curb human trafficking and abusive labor practices for migrant workers. The government is taking steps, including tougher regulations and new anti-trafficking measures, after coming under criticism from rights groups and the United States. In 2014 the United States lowered Thailand’s rating in its Trafficking in Person’s report in an assessment that the country showed few signs of improving its record on human tracking and illegal labor. In a wide range of Thai industries, from fishing vessels, factories, and farms, rights groups have complained that many foreign workers are exploited, paid very little, and expected to work long hours under threats of violence. The U.S. downgrade placed Thailand on the lowest ranking, Tier 3, leaving the country open to non-trade and non-humanitarian sanctions, as well as the withholding of assistance from international financial institutions such as the World Bank. Thailand has a migrant worker population estimated at up to three million people, mostly undocumented workers from Burma, as well as Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The U.S. report said victims of human trafficking often subject to forced labor and the sex trade also included people from China, Russia, Uzbekistan, India and Fiji. Last year Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha called for the creation of special committees to oversee the creation of new policies to crack down on trafficking and improve worker rights in a range of industries. This week, the Thai Foreign Ministry released an interim report on the government’s tougher legislation and new anti-trafficking measures. Thai Deputy Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai told a news conference he believed the initiatives marked progress in addressing the issues of human trafficking. Measures include tougher regulations to protect labor in the fishing industry, including raising the minimum age for workers to 18 years and ensuring each has a labor contract. In the agriculture sector the age has been increased to 15. The government says it reached out to civil society and non-government organizations to implement and monitor the policies. The fault, dear readers, was not in his stars, but in himself By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
In Sri Lanka, it was not just the country’s powerful president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who suffered a debacle when he was unexpectedly trounced in last week’s elections. His astrologer, who had confidently forecast a certain win for him, has also quietly stepped away from the limelight in a country where faith in star power is high. When former president Rajapaksa called elections two years ahead of schedule, it was not just on the basis of political calculations. He was also given the go-ahead by his trusted astrologer of over 30 years, Sumandasa Abeygunawardena. Calling Rajapaksa an “invincible personality and a blessed man,” the astrologer forecast that the president would win a great victory. In the days preceding the Thursday vote, Abeygunawardena maintained that the election date was immensely fortunate for Rajapaksa. And in the run up to the election, astrologers confidently predicted on state run television that nothing would stop a Rajapaksa victory. Rajapaksa is a firm believer in astrology. While most politicians in the country share that belief, many observers noted that the former president had an excessive dependence on astrology. “It became talked about quite openly and a matter of public discussion. Apparently the astrologer had said it was a good period for him and he should not delay it, the date was set according to some astrologer’s prediction, his time of handing over the nomination paper, everything was determined by an astrologer,” said Harini Amarasuriya, who teaches at the social sciences faculty at Sri Lanka’s Open University. But all calculations, planetary and political, were thrown into disarray when Maithripala Sirisena defected from Rajapaksa’s party, and cruised to victory after bringing together a disparate opposition. The turn of events was unexpected. When Rajapaksa had called the election, there was no credible opposition to a leader once known as the strongman of Sri Lanka. Now, Rajapaksa’s shock defeat has put the man who was called the royal astrologer in the line of fire. Abeygunawardena has given up his official car and resigned from the directorship of a state-run bank, which were just some of the privileges bestowed on him. His credibility has taken a huge hit. The astrologer said that he knew Rajapaksa was doomed to lose, but did not have the heart to tell him. Defending himself, he said that even the French seer Nostradamus had some incorrect forecasts. Millions of people in South Asia believe that the movement of planets has a deep influence on their lives. Marriage dates and auspicious events are decided as per the calculations of horoscopes, which are made on the basis of the time, place and date of birth. However, the high profile astrological error made in Sri Lanka’s election has triggered a debate on star power. In recent days, there also have been many jokes and humor on social media targeting astrologers who had forecast Rajapaksa’s victory. |
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2015 and may
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 Municipalidad de Palmares
photo
A worker for Puente
Prefa Ltda. is preparing a skeleton of steel fora concrete pour at the site of a new bridge between Santiago and Rincón de Zaragoza in Palmares. Study says feeling cold is contagious By the University of Sussex news
service
Just looking at somebody shivering is enough to make others feel cold, new University of Sussex research has found. Volunteers who watched videos of people putting their hands in cold water found their own body temperature drop significantly. The research by scientists in the Brighton and Sussex Medical School shows that humans are susceptible to temperature contagion. Neuropsychiatrist Neil Harrison, who led the research, suggests that such unconscious physiological changes may help individuals empathize with one another and live in communities. He said: “Mimicking another person is believed to help us create an internal model of their physiological state which we can use to better understand their motivations and how they are feeling.” “Humans are profoundly social creatures and much of humans' success results from our ability to work together in complex communities - this would be hard to do if we were not able to rapidly empathize with each other and predict one another's thoughts, feelings and motivations.” For the research, which was published in the journal PLOS ONE, 36 participants each watched eight videos of actors putting their hands in either visibly warm or cold water. At the same time, the temperature of their own hands was measured. Their hands were significantly colder when watching the ‘cold’ videos. However, the ‘warm’ videos did not cause a change. Harrison explains: “We think that this is probably because the warm videos were less potent. The only cues that the water was warm was steam at the beginning of the videos and the pink color of the actor's hand whereas blocks of ice were clearly visible throughout the duration of the cold video. “There is also some evidence to suggest that people may be more sensitive to others appearing cold than hot.” |
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| From Page 7: Global economy characterized as uncertain By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
World Bank experts on Tuesday predicted an uptick in global economic growth in 2015, but they cut the prediction they made in June and said much of the economy was still fragile. The organization's twice-yearly Global Economic Prospects report predicted an increase in growth of 3 percent, down from the previous forecast of 3.4 percent. The annual figure will reach 3.3 percent in 2016, as opposed to a June forecast of 3.5 percent, before dipping to 3.2 percent in 2017, it said. The changes for the 2015 forecast were the result of disappointing economic prospects in the eurozone, Japan and some major emerging economies, which offset the benefit of lower oil prices. Strong growth prospects in the United States and Britain separated them from other wealthy nations which continue to face anemic economies and deflation fears, the report said. Other threats to global growth include weak trade, rising interest rates and possible volatility in financial markets, it said. "The global economy is running on a single engine ... the American one," World Bank chief economist Kaushik Basu told reporters. "This does not make for a rosy outlook for the world." Among emerging markets, Brazil and Russia in particular weighed on the bank's global growth predictions, along with China, which is in a managed slowdown as it transitions away from an investment-led growth model. Basu said India's economic growth should finally catch up to China's next year and in 2017, at a clip of about 7 percent. Like other forecasters, the World Bank predicted the roughly 60 percent drop in global oil prices since June should be a net positive for the world economy, boosting oil-importing countries. But while the bank expected oil prices to stay low this year, it said the positive price shock could take several years to feed into its growth outlook, while increasing short-term market volatility and reducing investments in unconventional oil such as shale and deep sea oil. The immediate impact of lower crude prices was limited to a 0.1 percentage-point boost to the global outlook this year, the World Bank said. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said the uncertain economic outlook makes it vital for developing nations to expand programs that help the poor and to remove obstacles to the private investment that is a key source of new jobs. |
