World stockmarkets veered between relief at the rescue of many countries’ banks and alarm at the prospects for the world economy. The MSCI world index rose by 9.3% on Monday October 13th, only to fall by 7.1% two days later.

America’s economy looked particularly weak. The value of retail sales fell by 1.2% in September, following a 0.4% fall in August. Car sales fell by 4.2% in September, leaving them 20.2% lower than a year earlier. ...

Up to $50 billion a year is lost to poor management, inefficiency and overfishing in world fisheries, according to a new report published jointly by the World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. The report puts the total loss over the past three decades at $2.2 trillion. The industry’s fishing capacity continues to increase year after year. The number of vessels is flat, but each boat has greater capacity thanks to improved technology. Because of overcapacity, much of the extra investment in new technology is wasted. The amount of fish caught at sea has barely changed in the past decade. Fish stocks are depleted, so the effort expended in catching each fish is higher than it need be.

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In its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook, the IMF cut its 2009 forecast for global GDP growth to just 3%. In its previous update, in July, it had said the world economy would grow by 3.9% next year. The downgrade was driven mostly by a gloomier outlook for rich countries, particularly in Europe. The fund remains relatively upbeat about the developing world, where GDP growth is expected to top 6% next year. The fund’s economists reckon China will grow by more than 9% this year and next. They have become less sanguine about India, but still think its GDP will rise by almost 7% in 2009. Russia was the one big emerging economy that saw its forecast cut by as much as those of the worst-hit rich countries.

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Britain’s Vodafone is the world’s largest multinational infrastructure firm, according to World Investment Report 2008 from the United Nations. Three other telecoms operators, one each from Spain, France and Germany, are in the top six firms ranked by the value of foreign assets. The remaining top-six companies are EDF and E.ON, the French and German electricity giants. Hutchison Whampoa, a seaports, electricity and telecoms group, is the only Asian firm in the top ten. Liberty Global is the highest-ranked American firm, though its foreign operation is small compared with those of European telecoms firms. America Movil, another telecoms firm, has expanded beyond its home market in Mexico.

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