Stockholm :
US economists William Nordhaus and Paul Romer on Monday shared the 2018 Nobel Economics Prize for integrating innovation and climate with economic growth, the jury said.

Nordhaus, a professor at Yale University, and Romer, a former World Bank chief economist now at New York University's Stern School of Business, have addressed "some of our time's most basic and pressing questions about how we create long-term sustained and sustainable growth," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement.

It said the pair have "significantly broadened the scope of economic analysis by constructing models that explain how the market economy interacts with nature and knowledge." Nordhaus, 77, was specifically honoured for "integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis."       The 62-year-old Romer meanwhile won for "integrating technological innovations into long-run macroeconomic analysis." Both have been tipped as frontrunners for the Nobel in recent years.
The pair will share the nine million Swedish kronor (about $1.01 million or 860,000-euro) prize.

Last year, the honour went to US economist Richard Thaler, a co-founder of the so-called "nudge" theory, which demonstrates how people can be persuaded to make decisions that leave them healthier and happier.

Unlike the other Nobel prizes which were created in Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel's last will and testament and first awarded in 1901, the economics prize was created by the Swedish central bank, the Riksbank,in 1968 to mark its tricentenary. It was first awarded in 1969.

The Nobel, which also consists of a diploma and a gold medal, will be presented at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.

The Nobel economics prize wraps up the 2018 awards season, notable this year for the lack of a literature prize, postponed by a year for the first time in 70 years over a rape scandal that came to light as part of the #MeToo movement.

Last week, after the prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry were announced, the most highly-anticipated Nobel, that for peace, went to Yazidi women's campaigner Nadia Murad and Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege for their work in fighting sexual violence in conflicts around the world.

Islamabad :

A second team of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is in Pakistan to hold meetings with top officials to discuss the measures taken by the country to counter money laundering and terror financing after it was added in the ‘grey list’ for providing monetary assistance to terrorists.

The nine-member delegation, comprising members of FATF’s Asia Pacific Group (APG), arrived here on Sunday on a 12-day visit to see the implementation of the action plan Pakistan had issued earlier this year, official sources said.

The team includes experts from British Scotland Yard, US Department of Treasury, Financial Intelligence Unit of Maldives, Indonesian Ministry of Finance, Peoples’ Bank of China and Justice Department of Turkey.

Pakistan was formally added to the ‘grey list’ of countries involved in providing monetary assistance to terrorists and related causes after a FATF meeting in Paris in June.

The FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.

Sources in the finance ministry said that “Pakistan has done its homework” and the delegation will be briefed about the measures to curb terror financing through money laundering and illegal remittances.

The team will carry out on-site inspections in order to see the systems and mechanisms put in place while its three members will stay for longer period to review progress on the 10-point action plan agreed with Pakistan.

Pakistan and FATF negotiated a 10-point action plan to be implemented by September 2019 to get out of the grey list.

Earlier, a team of FATF visited Islamabad in August to identify deficiencies in Pakistan’s anti-money laundering/counter-terror financing laws and mechanisms.

During the current visit, the experts will meet officials from ministries of Interior, Finance, Foreign affairs and Law.

They are also likely to meet officials of State Bank of Pakistan, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, National Counter-Terrorism Authority, Federal Investigation Agency, Federal Board of Revenue, National Accountability Bureau, Anti-Narcotics Force, Financial Monitoring Unit, Central Directorate of National Savings and provincial counter-terrorism departments.

Kennebunkport (US) :

Former first daughter Barbara Bush (36) has married 37-year-old screenwriter Craig Coyne. Her father, former President George W Bush, escorted his daughter down the aisle while her grandfather, former President George HW Bush, watched the ceremony at the family’s Walker Point compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, on Sunday. The bride is the co-founder of public health nonprofit Global Health Corps. The couple will live in New York. 

US Marines leader in Oz replaced over alcohol charge       

Darwin (Australia) : The commander of more than 1,500 US Marines in northern Australia was relieved of his duties after the police caught him driving under the influence of alcohol, the Marine Corps said on Monday. Col James Schnelle (48) pleaded guilty in the Darwin Local Court on Monday to driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.102 per cent after his breath was tested by the police in the early hours. The reading was more than double the legal limit in Australia of 0.05 per cent.

IMF projects India’s growth at 7.3 pc in 2018, 7.4 pc in 2019

Washington :
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday forecast a growth rate of 7.3 per cent for India in the current year of 2018 and that of 7.4 per cent in 2019.

In 2017, India had clocked a 6.7 per cent growth rate.

“India’s growth is expected to increase to 7.3 per cent in 2018 and to 7.4 per cent in 2019 (slightly lower than in the April 2018 World Economic Outlook [WEO] for 2019, given the recent increase in oil prices and the tightening of global financial conditions), up from 6.7 per cent in 2017,” the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook report.

This acceleration, the world body said, reflected a rebound from transitory shocks (the currency exchange initiative and implementation of the national Goods and Services Tax), with strengthening investment and robust private consumption.

India’s medium-term growth prospects remain strong at 7¾ per cent, benefiting from ongoing structural reform, but have been marked down by just under ½ percentage point relative to the April 2018 WEO, it said.

If projections are true, then India would regain the tag of fastest growing major economies of the world, crossing China with more than 0.7 percentage point in 2018 and an impressive 1.2 percentage point growth lead in 2019.

China was the fastest growing economy in 2017 as it was ahead of India by 0.2 percentage points. For the record, the IMF has lowered the growth projections for both India and China by 0.4 per cent and 0.32 per cent, respectively, from its annual April’s World Economic Outlook.

Released in Bali during the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank, the IMF’s flagship World Economic Outlook said its 2019 growth projection for China is lower than in April, given the latest round of US tariffs on Chinese imports, as are its projections for India.

In China, growth is projected to moderate from 6.9 per cent in 2017 to 6.6 per cent in 2018 and 6.2 per cent in 2019, reflecting a slowing external demand growth and necessary financial regulatory tightening, the report said.

The 0.2 percentage point downgrade to the 2019 growth forecast is attributable to the negative effect of recent tariff actions, assumed to be partially offset by policy stimulus, it said.

Over the medium term, growth is expected to gradually slow to 5.6 per cent as the economy continues to make the transition to a more sustainable growth path with continued financial de-risking and environmental controls, it noted.

“Owing to these changes, our international growth projections for both this year and next are downgraded to 3.7 per cent, 0.2 percentage point below our last assessments and the same rate achieved in 2017,” the report said.

The growth rate of the United States for 2018 is 2.9 per cent and that of 2019 has been powered to 2.5 per cent.

In India, the report said, important reforms had been implemented in the recent years, including the Goods and Services Tax, the inflation-targeting framework, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, and steps to liberalise foreign investment and make it easier to do business.

“Looking ahead, renewed impetus to reform labour and land markets, along with further improvements to the business climate, is also crucial,” it said.

According to the World Economic Outlook, in India, reform priorities include reviving bank credit and enhancing the efficiency of credit provision by accelerating the cleanup of bank and corporate balance sheets and improving the governance of public sector banks.

In India, a high interest burden and risks from rising yields require continued focus on debt reduction to establish policy credibility and build buffers.

“These efforts should be supported by further reductions in subsidies and enhanced compliance with the Goods and Services Tax,” the IMF report said.

It also said inflation in India is on the rise, estimated at 3.6 per cent in fiscal year 2017/18 and projected at 4.7 per cent in fiscal year 2018/19, compared with 4.5 per cent in fiscal year 2016/17, amid accelerating demand and rising fuel prices.

The report said the aggregate growth in the emerging market and developing economy group stabilised in the first half of 2018.

Emerging Asia continued to register strong growth, supported by a domestic demand-led pickup in the Indian economy from a four-year-low pace of expansion in 2017, even as activity in China moderated in the second quarter in response to regulatory tightening of the property sector and nonbank financial intermediation, it said.

Seoul :

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was ready to allow international inspectors into the North’s nuclear and missile testing sites, one of the main sticking points over an earlier denuclearisation pledge.

Pompeo, who met Kim during a short trip to Pyongyang on Sunday, said the inspectors would visit a missile engine test facility and the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site as soon as the two sides agree on logistics.

“There’s a lot of logistics that will be required to execute that,” Pompeo told a news briefing in Seoul before leaving for Beijing.

The top US diplomat also said both sides were “pretty close” to agreement on the details of a second summit, which Kim proposed to US President Donald Trump in a letter last month.

Trump and Kim held an historic first summit in Singapore in June.

“Most importantly, both the leaders believe there’s real progress that can be made, substantive progress that can be made at the next summit,” Pompeo said.

Stephen Biegun, new US nuclear envoy who was accompanying the secretary, said he offered on Sunday to meet his counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, “as soon as possible” and they were in discussion over specific dates and location.

Pompeo’s trip to Pyongyang, his fourth this year, followed a stalemate as North Korea resisted Washington’s demands for irreversible steps to give up its nuclear arsenal, including a complete inventory of its weapons and facilities.

He told South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Sunday his latest trip to Pyongyang was “another step forward” to denuclearisation but there are “many steps along the way”.

Inspection

At last month’s inter-Korean summit, the North expressed its willingness to close the Yongbyon nuclear complex if Washington takes corresponding action, which Moon said would include a declaration of an end to the 1950-53 Korean War.

Pompeo declined to comment whether there was progress on a shutdown of the Yongbyon site.

Moon also said the North will “permanently dismantle” its missile engine testing site and launch platform in the northwestern town of Tongchang-ri in the presence of experts from “concerned countries”.

But Pyongyang failed to keep its pledge to allow international inspections of its demolition of the Punggye-ri site in May, fanning criticism that the move could be reversed.

In July, satellite imagery indicated the North has begun dismantling the engine test site in Tongchang-ri, but without allowing outsiders access for verification. And the Stimson Centre’s 38 North said last week that no dismantling activity was spotted since Aug. 3.

Some experts say that opening the Tongchang-ri or Punggye-ri sites for inspection could be a goodwill gesture but has little significance in quickening denuclearisation.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Kim had invited inspectors to visit the Punggye-ri nuclear test site to confirm it had been irreversibly dismantled. The statement did not provide further details.

Smiles, handshakes

In a more upbeat note, Pyongyang’s state media said on Monday Kim lauded his talks with Pompeo, where Kim “explained in detail the proposals for solving the denuclearisation issue.” “Kim Jong Un expressed satisfaction over the productive and wonderful talks with Mike Pompeo at which mutual stands were fully understood and opinions exchanged,” North Korean news agency KCNA said.

Kim said the bilateral dialogue would continue to develop “based on the deep confidence between the two leaders”, and expressed gratitude to Trump for making a sincere effort to implement the agreement made at their June summit, KCNA said.

KCNA also said the two sides agreed to hold working negotiations for the second summit as early as possible.

But it did not mention any inspection-related issue.

Commenting on Pompeo’s meeting with Kim, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Kim was expected to visit Russia soon. He said Chinese leader Xi Jinping was also expected to travel to North Korea but did not elaborate further.

North Korea’s state newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, featured eight photos of the meeting on its front page, including shots of Kim and Pompeo smiling and shaking hands, as well as some with Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong.

North Korea denounced Pompeo on his previous trip to Pyongyang in July for making “gangster-like demands”. Pompeo did not meet Kim on that trip.