The Chinese economy has continued to struggle despite repeated efforts to stimulate activity, according to official data, raising the prospect of further measures from Beijing if the country is to reach its growth targets.  China's enormous manufacturing sector surprisingly contracted for the third consecutive month in October, while its services sector - the economy's growth engine - expanded at the slowest rate since 2008's financial crisis.  The figures raise new fears that growth in the world's second-biggest economy could fall below 7pc this year, after official data last month showed expansion of 6.9pc in the year to September. Weak demand in China has already had a huge effect on the world economy, potentially delaying interest rate rises and hitting commodity prices.  The country's central bank has repeatedly cut bank lending requirements in an attempt to boost growth and ward off deflation, but economists suggested the new figures could herald further measures. "As deflation risks intensify, a further RRR cut [the reserves a bank must hold against lending] before end of this year is still possible," economists at ANZ Bank said. Sunday's PMI figures from China's National Bureau of Statistics gave a reading of 49.8 for the country's manufacturing sector, below the 50 mark that separates contraction from expansion for the third month in a row. Markets had widely expected a rebound, with expectations set at 50..."Because of the recent weak recovery in the global economy and downward pressure in the domestic economy, manufacturers still face a severe import and export situation," Zhao Qinghe, a senior statistician at the NBS, said.  Meanwhile, the services sector, which has helped make up for disappointing factory output, saw its slowest growth for seven years. The non-manufacturing PMI fell from 53.4 in September to 53.1. China's official figures for economic growth, which are widely believed to over-estimate the true level, fell to 6.9pc in the third quarter of the year, the lowest pace of expansion since early 2009. This compares to a rough target of 7pc set by Beijing.

Note that all the "disadvantages" of Brexit are expressed in terms of financial or trading loss. Remember also that the EU itself funds many of the "independent" think tanks and lobby groups that promote continued EU membership.  Never forget that all the financial figures are deliberately skewed to support the EU. Never forget either that, for people like Osborne and Cameron, any financial or trading benefit is irrelevant to the decision they want YOU to make: for them, and many of the others with the same Common Purpose, a United Europe is a political and philosophical dream that will not be deflected or defeated by anything approaching financial or political reality.  If economic advantage or disadvantage had had anything to do with it, Britain would NEVER have declared war on Germany, NEVER have attempted to defend the Falkland Islanders. At the end of the day, it's NOT about any short or medium-term financial benefit. It's about Britain's right to choose its own lawmakers – those who govern our lives and control our borders. It boils down to a parliament in London that we can kick out if we think they are getting it wrong – or a European consortium stretching from Turkey to Portugal, whose own interests, and whose views of our own relevance to them will result in laws that govern us. Permanently.  For me, it's clear: I'm not British but I want British people to decide who runs Britain, whether I personally like the result or not...Could? Might? May? They tried this when UK refused to join the Euro. Now America too, is threatening not to negotiate a single trade deal with the UK. The EU have not secured a trade deal with the USA in the forty years we have been an EU member. Now the EU are bending every rule in the book at the expense of  EU citizens, because it is being blackmailed to ignore existing food standards, by the USA in order to get a deal. We are the 5th largest economy in the world. According to the World bank Britain has jumped ahead of the USA, Germany, France and Italy to be the no.1 country of G7 members, which the world want to do business with. It's all a bluff, by vested interests. If it's so good in the EU why did Norway refuse to join twice, and they are 23rd (nominal) and 45th (PPP).

President to name a new PM to form government after Victor Ponta resigns following protests by 20,000 people

 The Romanian prime minister has announced the resignation of his government following huge protests in the wake of a nightclub fire that killed more than 30 people.

“I’m handing in my mandate, I’m resigning, and implicitly my government too,” Victor Ponta said in a statement. He said he would stay on until a new government is in place.

“I am obliged to take note of the legitimate grievances which exist in society,” he said. “I hope handing in my and my government’s mandate will satisfy the demands of protesters.”

President Klaus Iohannis is to name a prime minister to form a new government, which needs to be approved by parliament. If this fails twice, snap elections will be called. Romania is due to hold parliamentary elections in December 2016.

The deputy leader of the opposition Liberal party, Cătălin Predoiu, hailed the resignations. “This is a victory of the street. It is a lesson for all politicians,” he said.

About 20,000 people took to the streets of Bucharest on Tuesday evening in a spontaneous protest calling for the resignation of Ponta, the interior minister, Gabriel Oprea, and the mayor of the district where the Colectiv nightclub was located.

 

BUCHAREST - NOV. 03. 2015 - PEOPLE ON THE STREETS AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT

This summer’s change in outlook means there is now at least a one-in-three chance of a downgrade over the next two years. Britain’s credit rating could be slashed below Austria and Finland's if it leaves the European Union, Standard & Poor’s has warned. Moritz Kraemer, the agency’s chief sovereign rating officer, said Britain would be stripped of its top AAA rating with a one-notch downgrade if it voted to leave the bloc, and possibly double that if relations between Britain and Brussels soured. “Should we conclude that departure from the EU is likely over the medium term, we could lower the rating by potentially more than one notch, depending on the circumstances, such as the expected future relations with the EU,” Mr Kraemer told Reuters. The UK has maintained its AAA rating with S&P since 1978, but Mr Kraemer warned that, if Britain voted to leave the EU and this triggered a Scottish secession, it would also prompt a two-notch downgrade.  While any reduction in Britain’s credit rating would still rank the UK at investment grade, it would mean just a handful of countries are rated AAA by S&P, including Germany and Luxembourg. A two-notch downgrade would also mean Britain would be deemed less credit worthy than the EU, which is currently rated AA+.  Paul Stephenson, a Vote Leave spokesman, said: "Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland all have AAA ratings from Standard & Poor's and are outside of the EU.  "We will negotiate a UK-EU relationship based on free trade and friendly cooperation so there will not be disruption to the UK economy that would warrant a downgrade."   Moody’s and Fitch, the other main rating agencies, stripped the UK of its top rating in 2013.  Moody’s warned in June that it could cut Britain’s credit rating if it left the EU. It said a British exit was likely to have “negative implications for the UK’s growth prospects".

This is hilarious on various levels. Firstly, leaving the EU cannot possibly have a negative impact on credit rating. We heard all of this crap about not joining the Euro. It didn't work then, and it won't work now.  Secondly - there is going to be a popular vote on this. S&P will not get a vote. And the likes of S&P are the most despised people in the world today. So by backing the Remain campaign, they can only help Leave.  But the real fact is this. There has been no substantive discussion of Cameron's "renegotiation". And there never will be because the EU has already made clear, that "renegotiation" is NOT on the table, and it won't be.  Cameron is a liar. The EU is a fascist dictatorship. UK does not have to put up with this. Love Europe. Hate the EU.  Get us out of this sickness...Here come the scare tactics and it will get worst. Look, Cameron has lost the argument with respects to discussions with Brussels as he's not going to get a thing. He will now fire every shot possible about the business and that we will be hit substantially. I tell you what - let's look at the population reaching 75 million in ten years. Let's talk about our standard of living dropping due to wage compression. Let's talk about importing terrorists as the EU can't and won't vet immigrants (oops, sorry refugees. Don't make me laugh). Let's talk about our NHS being overwhelmed. Let's talk about bumper to bumper traffic in our major cities. Let's talk about lack of housing. Let's talk about TB at its highest since Victorian times. Let's talk about the EU 2016 budget increase of £10billion. AND MANY MANY MORE! Get me the hell out of the EU and do so now!

One year ago, Gazprom dropped South Stream after the European Commission announced that the project does not comply with the legislation of the Third Energy Package. The pipeline was supposed to cross the Black Sea avoiding Ukraine and transporting the natural gas through Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria towards Western Europe. Immediately after abandoning South Stream, the Russian giant promoted Turkish Stream, a pipeline also going below the Black Sea, but which connects Russia to Turkey directly. Russia has told Europe that starting in 2019, it needs to connect its infrastructure to the new pipeline because it wants to stop transporting natural gas through Ukraine.  Turkey did its job well and has negotiated very harshly with Russia the price of natural gas that should "flow" through Turkish Stream. Meanwhile, the conflict with Syria has begun, in which Turkey and Russia have diverging interests, and Gazprom has announced in the beginning of the month, that it is postponing the project, after signing a deal in September with five major European energy companies to build Nord Stream 2.  At the end of last week, Ali Riza Alaboyun, Turkish minister of energy, said, quoted by trend.az, that the implementation of Turkish Stream will be clarified soon, mentioning that the intergovernmental agreement would be reevaluated after the parliamentary elections in Turkey, scheduled to take place on November 1st.  Minister Alaboyun felt the need to stipulate that Turkey will support every action that "puts energy resources at work for peace ands security". Besides, for 28 years, Turkey has been one of the main markets for Russia to sell its natural gas on. The official further said: "Currently, 10 billion cubic meters of Russian gas is being imported by Russian private companies and 20 billion cubic meters by state owned company Botas. We are also importing natural gas from Azerbaidjan, Iran, Nigeria and Algeria". Turkish Stream is designed to have four transport avenues, each with 15.75 billion cubic meters each.  The American Energy Information Agency (EIA) showed, in a recent report, that the reason why Turkish Stream "froze" was that Turkey could not agree with Russia on the price of natural gas. Turkish Stream was supposed to be the connection for Eastring, which would bring the Russian gas to South-Eastern Europe, involving, among other countries Slovakia, Hungary and Romania (ed. note: the networks exists and a better interconnection is being built).

     The EIA noted that alternative suppliers for Europe aside from Azerbaijan would Iran and Iraq, but it mentioned that Iranian natural gas would be hard to bring in due to the lack of infrastructure.