economics

MOSCOW -- Russia, holder of the world's fifth largest stash of foreign currencies, is increasing its gold purchases. One reason for this is the country's increasing wariness of the dollar and euro now that Russia has come under U.S. and European sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. Another reason is that these currencies are becoming increasingly risky to hold due to the swelling debts of the governments that back them.

Rubén Beltran, Ambassador of Mexico to the Russian Federation from January, 2013. A diplomat by education, he started his career in the Mexican diplomatic service in 1981. Among other positions, he headed General Consulate of Mexico in New York (2007-2010), General Consulate of Mexico in Phoenix, Arizona (2001-2003) and was deputy secretary on Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Today, Helicopter engineering is one of the leading and most stable sectors of the Russian economy. This high-tech and knowledge-intensive industry maintained its competitiveness both in difficult post-Soviet times and during the global financial crisis.

The Russian National Committee for BRICS Studies will draft a new strategy for emerging world powers.

Out of all Russian foreign policy think tanks that focus on a variety of international issues, there is one that deals with a single but very acute topic. The National Committee on BRICS Studies was founded in 2011 and has since then been dealing exclusively with the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa economic and political alliance.

Active expansion of Russian ties with Latin America has generated a need for an annual international forum, which will make it possible to share experience and technologies, and strengthen investment cooperation. The first experience was the conference "Russia - Latin America. Ways of Development and Strengthening of Trade and Economic Relations" in Moscow organized by the International Investment Cooperation Fund.

It is no secret that today Switzerland is one of the most stable trading partners of Russia. And for the Swiss side, Russia is part of the seven priorities in the cooperation in the scientific field, where a new phase of development is expected after the signing of the bilateral treaty on cooperation in science and technology.

Unemployment has shown its darker side, becoming perhaps the biggest economic and social problem worldwide. The current situation is not very different from the Great Depression of the 1930s, when millions of people were left without work.

WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES (26/JUN/2013.) - The U.S. economic performance during the first three months of the year was weaker than initially reported to register a growth of just 1.8 percent, reported the Commerce Department.

The figure represented a substantial retreat from the 2.5 growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which was first reported by the Commerce Department last April.

However, the figure was placed above the paltry 0.4 percent that was reported during the fourth quarter of 2012.

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (14/JUN/2013.) - The Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2011 managed to have a greater number of people living in the middle class than in poverty, but the region is still far from reaching the prosperity of the rich countries as one out of four Latin Americans lives on less than four dollars a day, reported the World Bank on Friday.