Global News
Brexit – Finally, a deal. After a turbulent week of negotiations, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that the UK had reached a ‘fair and balanced’ divorce deal with the European Union, which he believes will get through a Parliamentary vote on Saturday. Although the UK and the EU have agreed the terms of the deal, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, as well as the Labour Party, have said they would not back the current deal. Saturday’s vote is now crucial to moving forward towards leaving the EU by the 31st October.
US-Turkey sanctions – The US announced that they had imposed new sanctions on Turkish officials and institutions on Monday, after the incursion in northern Syria. At the start of the week, President Donald Trump spoke to President Erdogan of Turkey to request an immediate ceasefire between the Turks and US allied Kurdish fighters. After this, President Trump ordered a hike on steel tariffs and cancelled negotiations of $100 billion trade deal with Turkey. The threats seemed to have worked, with Turkey agreeing a five-day temporary pause of military operations in Syria, which will be extended if the Kurdish fighters leave the border region.
IMF growth forecast – On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that global growth is set to fall to its slowest rate since the financial crisis this year. The world economy is now estimated to grow at a pace of 3% in 2019, which is 0.3% lower than forecasts predicted 6 months ago. The IMF warned that the tit-for-tat trade war between the US and China has created a “precarious” economic situation.
