CBS Investment

In the first part of our reviews on how the world is changing through the crisis, we tried to describe the degree of the preparedness of countries to the intellectual economy, highlighting those that, in our opinion, are leaders in building the new economy. Now we want to share our views on what countries will become the main victims of the global depression.
But before going to the figures, on which we will carry out our “sentence” we should first explain what happened to these countries and how they have come to bankruptcy.
The 20th century became a century of socialism, and the reason lies not in the USSR and other countries of the socialist camp, but in the fact that the social-democratic ideas began to shape the development of Europe. So how did this happen?

American auto concern Ford, the only one of the Detroit three which was able to avoid bankruptcy, will still receive almost 6 billion U.S. dollars from the government. That, however, is not for the purpose of saving the company from bankruptcy: Ford will receive funding for the development of «green» technology. Analysts, however, note that any credit from the government will support the auto company during the crisis.

The optimism of the global investors lasted only a few months. This week, to concerns about the global economy returned to the markets once again. Now, optimism is not enough for market participants, for positive attitudes they need economic data, confirming the end of the recession and early recovery of world economy, transmits Reuters.

However, until now there is nothing to please them with. At the beginning of the week the World Bank (WB) published another negative forecast that the world economy will decline to 2.9 per cent this year. This projection finally frustrated investors and caused a sharp decline in world stock and commodity markets.

Russian foreign trade turnover in January-April 2009 decreased by 45.3% compared to that of the same period last year and amounted to $ 124.3 billion, says the message of the Federal Customs Service. Foreign trade turnover with foreign countries amounted to $ 106.3 billion (down 45.1%), and with the CIS countries – 18 billion (down 46.5%).

The trade balance was positive in the amount of $ 31.3 billion, which is $ 38.8 billion less than that in January-April 2008. In the trade with foreign countries the balance was equal to $ 24.7 billion (down 34 billion dollars), and with the CIS countries – 6.6 billion dollars (a decrease of 4.8 billion dollars). Export of the Russian Federation in January-April 2009 amounted to $ 77.8 billion as against that of January-April 2008 – a decrease by 47.7%, including export to foreign countries – $ 65.5 billion (down by 48, 1%), and the CIS countries – $ 12.3 billion (down by 45.4%).