English
ÐóññêèéOn line Data
March, 2008 Issue Prepared by the UNECE Statistical Division, the UNECE Facts and Figures articles are based on data from the UNECE Statistical Database. For more information contact support.stat@unece.org.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Short-term interest rates up to seven-year highs in 2007
|
17 March 2008
In the second half of 2007, three-month money market interest rates (in our chart represented by monthly averages of daily quotes for inter-bank loans), had risen to their highest levels in seven years in the Euro area, the United Kingdom and the United States; they edged up in Switzerland and Russia as well. The short-term interest rate dynamics in the last months of 2007 was influenced markedly by the response of major central banks to the distress on financial markets in North America and Europe.
The credit market turmoil that began in August 2007 has raised concerns about the willingness of banks to lend money to consumers and businesses, and also about tightening of inter-bank lending. The responses of the central banks to the credit crunch varied: the Federal Reserve of the United States cut its target for the federal funds rate by one percentage point during the September-December period and the Bank of England lowered a similar target by 25 basis points (in December 2007), while the European Central Bank kept its key interest rates unchanged and the Swiss National Bank raised its target rate by 25 basis points in September. In December 2007, five major banks – the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Swiss, Canadian and British central banks announced joint action to ease liquidity tensions.
Source:UNECE statistical database (www.unece.org/stats/data) and national Central Banks.
*2005 instead of 2006 in case of France and 2001 instead of 2000 in case of Ireland.
More women in ambassadorial positions in the UNECE region
|
10 March 2008
In the last few rounds of national legislative elections, citizens of many UNECE countries voted for a more balanced gender participation in the parliaments (see UNECE Weekly #242). Improvement towards gender parity was also observed in some other important areas of public life. Ambassadorships, i.e. the official country representation to a foreign sovereign or government or to an international organization, represent one such area. As our chart attests, over the last six years, the share of women ambassadors has risen in most countries in the region; more markedly in a number of the eastern EU members and also Sweden. Only in Ireland and Bulgaria did the share of female ambassadors decline.
Overall, however, the foreign diplomatic service remains male-dominated, especially in the higher representative positions, across the UNECE region. In our sample, only in Estonia, Latvia and Sweden, was the share of female appointments to ambassadorial positions close to or exceeded one quarter of total appointments in 2006. In the majority of countries it fluctuated around the ten per cent mark.
Source:National statistics.
*2005 instead of 2006 in case of France and 2001 instead of 2000 in case of Ireland.
Price levels vary significantly across UNECE member countries
|
3 March 2008
The OECD recently published the 2005 International Comparisons Programme (ICP) results for OECD member states, EU-27, Western Balkans, CIS countries, and Israel. The graph shows the comparative price levels* for selected economies and regions, with OECD average equal to 100 %. GDP price level in the Western Balkan countries is approximately half of that of the OECD states, and in the CIS** it is even lower (41%).
Among countries, Iceland faces the highest level (150%), followed by Denmark (138%) and Switzerland (136%). On the other side, the lowest levels are estimated for Tajikistan (23%), Kyrgyzstan (27%) and Ukraine (32%).
Similar picture is presented for the Actual Individual Consumption (AIC), which is a measure of the real prices consumers pay in different countries. Iceland takes the lead with price level of 53 % above the OECD average, while in Tajikistan it is 80% below. In other words, in 2005 in Tajikistan a consumer paid, on average in real terms, almost 8 times lower price than in Iceland.
Source:OECD
*Comparative price level is defined as the ratio between the purchasing power parity (PPP) and the exchange rate for a given country, both measured in national currency per base currency unit (in this case - US$). If it is larger (smaller) than 100, residents' purchasing power is lower (higher) than suggested by exchange rate conversion.
**Excluding Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Print this page