LONDON (Reuters) – From competitive devaluations to resource nationalism and financial fragmentation, the sinews of the global economy are feeling the strain of years of sub-par growth, adding urgency to the G20′s efforts to revive demand.

Things could be a lot worse. Traditional trade protectionism is muted. Japan’s success in driving down the yen by pre-announcing an easier monetary policy was a shot heard around the world but it has not touched off feared currency wars.

LONDON (Reuters) – From competitive devaluations to resource nationalism and financial fragmentation, the sinews of the global economy are feeling the strain of years of sub-par growth, adding urgency to the G20′s efforts to revive demand.

Things could be a lot worse. Traditional trade protectionism is muted. Japan’s success in driving down the yen by pre-announcing an easier monetary policy was a shot heard around the world but it has not touched off feared currency wars.

LONDON (Reuters) – Central banking is in a state of flux as policymakers from Tokyo to Washington ditch prevailing orthodoxies to try to grab a bigger share of a slow-growing global economic pie.

That’s why the focus this week will be on what European Central Bank (ECB)Governor Mario Draghi has to say about the strength of the euro and what Canadian central bank chief Mark Carney might have in mind when he succeeds Mervyn King at the Bank of England (BOE) in July.

LONDON (Reuters)- Greece, Portugal and Spain are reversing the loss of wage competitiveness that was a significant cause of the euro zone crisis, the Conference Board said on Wednesday.

The business research organisation said unit labour costs, which measure how much a worker earns per hour for the output produced, tumbled 9.2 percent in Greece between the second quarter of 2011 and the same period of 2012.

LONDON (Reuters) – Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands all hold lessons for countries seeking to ease what German Chancellor Angela Merkel calls Europe’s biggest burden – youth unemployment, a think-tank said on Tuesday.

The London-based Work Foundation said there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem because the reasons for long-standing cross-country differences in jobless rates are complex.

LONDON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve’s ultra-loose monetary policy is a root cause of the “currency wars” that some see as a looming threat to the world economy, but don’t expect the U.S. central bank to signal a shift back to normal any time soon.

The Fed, whose policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday, said just last month that it expects to keep short-term interest rates exceptionally low until the U.S. unemployment rate falls to 6.5 percent, inflation permitting.

LONDON (Reuters) – The euro zone crisis is entering a new, treacherous phase for governments, which can only cross their fingers that slow-burn reforms will pay off before voters get fed up with austerity and high unemployment.

On the face of it, 2013 should be a much less traumatic year than 2012 for the 17-nation single-currency area.

LONDON (Reuters) – The euro zone crisis is entering a new, treacherous phase for governments, which can only cross their fingers that slow-burn reforms will pay off before voters get fed up with austerity and high unemployment.

On the face of it, 2013 should be a much less traumatic year than 2012 for the 17-nation single-currency area.

LONDON, Jan 20 (Reuters) – The prospect of stronger European
manufacturing surveys and decisive monetary easing in Japan this
week ought to bolster confidence that the global economy can
look forward to better days.

It is definitely not yet time to break open the champagne.

The index derived from polls of purchasing managers across
the euro zone, though recovering, is likely to remain well below
the 50 threshold that signals expansion.

PARIS, Jan 16 (Reuters) – China’s trade surplus with the
United States shrinks by a quarter when calculated according to
which countries provide the parts and services that go into its
exports and imports.

The new estimate is one of the key findings of an ambitious
project by the OECD think-tank and the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) to present a truer picture of underlying trade flows in an
age of global supply chains when intermediate inputs can cross
borders several times during the manufacturing process.