OECD [to 20 June 2015]
http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/publicationsdocuments/bydate/
[We generally limit coverage to regional and global level initiatives, recognizing that a number of country-level announcements are added each week]

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Financial sector must promote inclusive growth
Finance is a key ingredient of modern economies, but too much finance may hamper economic growth and worsen income inequality, according to new research from the OECD.
17-June-2015
The OECD’s latest work on Finance and Inclusive Growth analyses 50 years of data to demonstrate the variable effects that further expansion of different types of finance can have on both economic activity and inequality.

“The global financial crisis has raised deep questions about the influence of finance on economic activity and the distribution of income,” OECD Chief Economist Catherine L. Mann said while launching the new research in London. “What our research has shown is that avoiding credit over-expansion and improving the structure of finance can lead to improvements in both economic and social well-being.”

The OECD identifies a number of risks to long-term growth posed by an over-reliance on bank lending, versus other types of market-based finance, such as bonds and equities. These include misallocation of capital, by funding investments with low profitability; magnifying the cost of implicit guarantees for too-big-to-fail banks; drawing highly talented workers away from sectors with greater productive potential; and generating boom-bust cycles.

At today’s level of financial development, further expansion of bank credit to the private sector is shown to slow growth in most OECD countries. A rise of bank credit by 10% of GDP translates into a GDP growth rate that is 0.3 percentage points less than would otherwise be the case, according to the OECD.

Greater levels of stock market financing, on the other hand, are still seen to boost growth. An increase in stock market capitalisation by 10% of GDP is, on average across OECD and G20 countries, associated with a 0.2% rise of GDP growth…

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Rising diabetes and obesity threaten progress in tackling cardiovascular diseases
Rising levels of obesity and diabetes around the world could halt a trend of decreasing mortality rates for cardiovascular diseases, such as strokes and heart attacks, and even cause rates to start rising again, particularly among younger people, according to a new OECD report.
16-June-2015