On July 15th leaders of the BRICS nations agreed to establish a New Development Bank (NDB) while attending the group summit in Fortaleza, Brazil. This announcement has caused extraordinary attention all around the world, marking the undeniable significance for the future development of the BRICS, as well as the entire foundation of the international financial institutions. Naturally, the NDB creation initiative has prompted optimistic feedback as well as raised questions and skepticism. WEJ has invited two renowned experts to explain the meaning of the BRICS New Development Bank announcement and attempt to predict what this initiative might bring to global financial and economic development.

Real estate is playing an increasingly important role in global investments, and wealthy people are looking for new alternative areas for investing their capital. Internationally important cities remain the most popular and safest places for purchasing real estate assets. In these markets, investors can expect large and quick profits without much trouble. New hot locations are now appearing on the real estate market, and over the next few years, they have every chance of taking their place alongside London and New York or even overtaking these cities in terms of their ability to attract investments.

On June 27 the EU signed an Association Agreement with three post-Soviet states: Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. Traditionally, the EU uses Association Agreements to strengthen economic ties with countries outside the Union. The EU simplifies trade and harmonizes certain standards, including technical and legal ones, by creating a more favorable environment for economic cooperation. But in the cases of Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, the Agreement has obvious political significance.

The new book “Russia and the World on the Way to Sustainable Economic Growth” was released recently by the World Organization of Creditors. This work was prepared on the basis of WOC analytical studies, published in the World Economic Journal in 2013-2014 years.
While reading this book, it becomes obvious that the current economic crisis is threatening mankind with a real catastrophe. And the financial issues are just the tip of the iceberg. So there can be no simple or quick solution to the crisis. If they want to avoid a social disaster, leading countries need to push to recover industrial production, to ensure that businesses and capital return home, to create new jobs, and to provide tax breaks for investors. And the task of servicing financial institutions is to provide investment, and to create opportunities for investors to obtain a real income.

On the future of EU-Russia energy relations WEJ spoke with Jack D. Sharples, expert on the EU-Russia energy relations and a lecturer at the European University at Saint-Petersburg.

Dear Mr. Sharples, how would you assess the current state of EU-Russia trade relations – who is more dependent on whom?
Currently mineral products (mainly oil and gas) account for around 71 percent of Russia’s exports. Taxation oil and gas production and export contributes around 50 percent of the Russian federal budget. The EU is the main export market for Russian oil and gas. According to Gazprom Export, in 2013, Russia exported 133 bcm of natural gas to the EU. This is 68 percent of Russia’s total pipeline gas exports. According to the latest figures from Eurostat, in 2012 Russia exported 170 million tonnes of crude oil to the EU – some 71 percent of Russia’s total crude oil exports of 240m tonnes in 2012. So clearly, oil and gas exports to the EU are important for Russia.

The legislation specifies requirements for the payment card system as well as regulatory functions and features to be carried out by the Bank of Russia. The main goal of the NPS is to ensure complete independence from international payment systems, foreign regulators, and political risks that could result in the partial or complete blocking of foreign payment systems. If the NPS project is successful, widely used international payment systems could lose up to $4 billion which the companies earn from commissions on approximately 85% of all transactions in Russia. And this despite Russians using bank cards much less than in the West. Out of all bank card operations within Russia, 81% are cash withdrawals and only 19% are for cashless purchases.