News headlines for “Trade, Economy, & Related Issues”
Why lower fertility does not have to mean economic decline
- UN News

Globally, most people say they want two or more children, but many are having only one, or none at all. According to a senior UN economist, fears of a demographic timebomb are unwarranted.
The Grocery Bill Is Calm – The AgriFood System Is Not
- Inter Press Service

ROME, April 17 (IPS) - The headlines are wrong about food prices — but right to be afraid, very afraid. Walk into a supermarket in Chicago, Berlin, or Mumbai today, and you will not find the shelves stripped bare or the prices dramatically higher than last month. Despite weeks of alarming headlines about commodity markets, food inflation in most major economies has risen only marginally — a tenth or two-tenths of a percentage point between February and March of this year. In the United States, food inflation moved from roughly 2.9 percent to 3.1 percent. In Germany, from 0.8 to 0.9. In India, from 7.8 to 8.0.
Global Shocks Push Geoeconomics to the Center Stage at Foreign Policy Forum
- Inter Press Service

SRINAGAR, India, April 17 (IPS) - As war in the Middle East ripples through global markets, policymakers, economists, and industry leaders gathered in Washington this week to agree that economics is no longer separate from geopolitics. It is now its core instrument.
Africa’s Future Depends on Innovation, Data, and Frontier Technologies
- Inter Press Service

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, April 17 (IPS) - Across the continent, GDP has risen on the back of more workers, more capital and a commodity super-cycle, rather than through genuine gains in productivity and innovation. Too little labour has moved out of subsistence agriculture into higher-productivity manufacturing and modern services.
Bridging Knowledge Systems: How Pacific Communities Are Reclaiming Climate Solutions Through Nature
- Inter Press Service

NAIDIRI, FIJI, April 17 (IPS) - Climate change is no longer a distant threat. Across the Pacific, it is a daily reality reshaping coastlines, livelihoods, and the delicate balance between people and the environment. But in a region long defined by resilience, solutions are not being invented from scratch. They are being remembered, strengthened, and scaled.
Shockwaves of Middle East war reach Caribbean as food prices soar
- UN News

Six weeks since war erupted in the Middle East, the shockwaves have spread to the Caribbean region, already pushed to the brink, amid fears of a looming El Niño-linked climate disaster.
AI: ‘African Governments Are Using “smart City” Systems to Monitor Dissent and Consolidate State Control’
- Inter Press Service

CIVICUS discusses the spread of AI-powered surveillance in Africa with Wairagala Wakabi, executive director of the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) and co-editor of Smart City Surveillance in Africa: Mapping Chinese AI Surveillance Across 11 Countries, the latest report by the African Digital Rights Network (ADRN) and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS).
The Cape Water Performance-Based Bond: A New Alliance for Cape Town’s Water Future
- Inter Press Service

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, April 16 (IPS) - In 2018, Cape Town came perilously close to becoming the first major city in the world to run out of water. Known as “Day Zero”, it was more than just a crisis, it marked a pivotal moment. It made clear that water insecurity is not a distant threat, but an immediate reality.
Explainer: How the GEF Funds Global Environmental Action
- Inter Press Service

SRINAGAR, India, April 16 (IPS) - The Global Environment Facility, widely known as the GEF, plays a central role in financing environmental protection across the world. It supports developing countries in tackling climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, pollution, and threats to ecosystems.
Shipping Industry Seeks Certainty as Experts Back Strong Net-Zero Framework
- Inter Press Service

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, April 16 (IPS) - As global shipping braces for another round of high-stakes negotiations, a volatile mix of rising fuel costs, geopolitical tensions and deep political divisions is testing the fragile consensus around a proposed Net-Zero Framework (NZF) aimed at decarbonising one of the world’s most polluting industries.
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