Issue No. 630, 1-15 December 2016
Real wages see drop in growth  –  ILO

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Global wage growth at lowest level in four years, says ILO
Global growth in real wages has slowed over the last four years, according to the International Labour Organization, potentially adding to deflationary pressures.
by Kanaga Raja

WTO General Council holds final meeting for 2016
Accession requests, the Doha negotiations and the e-commerce work programme were among the areas looked into by the WTO’s last General Council meeting of the year, which also set the dates for the next Ministerial Conference. Kanaga Raja reports.

Circular economy path could benefit India by $624 billion
Taking India as an example, a new study says that moving from the present linear economic model to a regenerative and restorative circular system would yield economic, environmental and social benefits.
by Kanaga Raja

Opinion: World Bank’s Doing Business report continues to mislead
The World Bank’s much-read Doing Business report makes use of weak empirical evidence and selective reporting to push its advocacy of corporate-friendly deregulation.
by Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Opinion: Fiscal austerity has been blocking economic recovery
Fiscal austerity policies are slowing down, not accelerating, economic recovery, contends Jomo Kwame Sundaram.

Analysis: Sowing the seeds of corporate capture
The world’s largest agribusiness companies are rolling out a public-private partnership programme to take control of food and farming in the Global South. This extract from a report by farmers’ rights NGO GRAIN looks at the narrow corporate interests driving the Grow initiative at the expense of food security and the sustainable livelihoods of small farmers.