2017.4

Nowadays, China is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and the largest energy consumer. The rapid development of China has brought the country to the brink of environmental collapse. In order to improve China’s environment, it is necessary to change the structure of energy consumption. Natural gas is a high-quality, highly efficient, clean, low-carbon energy source. It plays an important role in the diversification and optimization of China’s coal-dominated energy mix. Different official documents state that coal-to-gas switching is an integral part of the implementation of China’s low-carbon development strategy and a key element in the country’s transition to a sustainable energy system. This paper focuses on the dynamics and structure of gas consumption by sector and region. It also characterizes forecasts in this sphere for the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016–2020).

New trends in globalization are considered: some authors state that globalization is under threat, with the rise of protectionism and new labor-saving technologies. New trends in globalization of the 2000s include the increasing role of Asian countries in the world economy. In the first half of the 2010s, we can point out the growing importance of regional economic integration, including negotiations on the creation of regional mega-groups such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Possible future variants of the new world economic order, such as Globalization 3.0, Polarization, Islandization, and “Commonization” (version of E. Petersen and P. Laudicina), are depicted. Transnationals from Asian countries play an increasing role in the world economy. The author makes an attempt to show that TNCs from Asian countries are involved in these new trends in globalization: the increasing importance of internal and regional markets, the rise of robotics and automation, and the transfer of labor-intensive industries from Asian countries to “frontier” economies (some African countries).

The Asian crisis was sudden and unprecedented in its scale. It began as a currency crisis in Thailand but quickly spread to other Southeast Asian countries and almost paralyzed their financial systems, primarily banks and capital markets, then the real economies. Later the crisis was called a crisis of a new type in the globalization era. Four ASEAN countries – Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia – that had opened their capital accounts too soon found themselves in the epicenter of the crisis. As the crisis was financial by its nature, the above-mentioned countries in postcrisis years tried to promote more sound and efficient domestic financial systems, paid much attention to lessening the sensitivity of domestic economies and financial systems to external shocks, including “sudden stops” in foreign capital inflows, and to building a solid base of domestic investors. The aim of this study is to re-assess the scope of financial development of four Southeast Asian countries that were hit particularly hard during the Asian crisis.

The article represents a quantitative study of economic growth in the context of globalization and a country risk premium. The authors have analyzed the panel data for 94 countries for the period of 2001–2013 years. The sample of 29 Asian and African countries was considered for the same indicators and the time period. The hypothesis about correlation between the level of country’s globalization, its country risk premium and its economic growth was tested. The regression analysis showed that there was a negative correlation between the economic growth of Asian and African countries and their level of integration in the global economy. Qualitative indicators as independent variables were not investigated.

This article gives a general outline of the current state and perspectives of nuclear energy development in Arab countries. Special attention is paid to the reasons of utilization of this type of alternative energy and to analysis of existing plans for its development. Governments of a number of Arab countries expect it to become an important energy source in the future. The material analyzed in the article allows to conclude that the existing programs are too ambitious and don’t have a solid infrastructure basis yet. Taking into consideration the fact that the countries of the region significantly lag behind technologically and don’t have national human resources for nuclear power related projects, implementation of such projects is only possible with international assistance. Nevertheless, a number of Arab countries, namely the UAE, will be able to construct their own NPPs in the coming years. If such plans are realized, the issues of technological and geopolitical risks will become quite topical.

The article is devoted to the globalization impact analysis on the economic development of the Southeast Asian countries. The author notes that this process is characterized by the accelerated growth of their foreign economic relations and the increased involvement in the global economy. At the same time, it is accompanied by the increasing rates of economic development in these countries and significant changes in their economic structure. The globalization process stimulates the economies of Southeast Asian countries to gradually acquire the features of more developed markets, and facilitates their transformation from being the suppliers of food and raw materials to becoming large producers of modern industrial products. The author comes to the conclusion that at the same time with acquiring new increasingly modern development trends the globalization leads to the increase in the economic dependency of the region on the foreign markets and in particular on the main centers of the world economy.

In recent decades, the Japanese economy is in the low speed segment of the global economy, while partially losing its international competitiveness in those markets where it previously had a distinct advantage, namely high-tech markets of the manufacturing industry. For the period of 5 years (2011–2015) Japan had a negative trade balance. Low economic growth in the context of continuing deflation leads to stagnation of demand in the domestic market. In these circumstances, the country’s government and Japanese businesses are looking for new areas of capital investment and new export opportunities. The article analyzes the direction and results of the Japanese strategy aimed at overseas promotion of creative industries where intellectual property constitutes the core of the product. The government of S. Abe sees these industries as one of the drivers for economic growth and expansion of export potential of the country.

The article focuses on one of the most important features of Turkey’s economic development in recent decades: periodic crises of growth arising from a similar set of causes. During globalization, the sources of these crises changed. Whereas they previously had mainly external origins, domestic financial tensions and consequent macroeconomic instability also became sources. The author regards this change as a result of Turkey’s growing agency in international financial relations under conditions of financial openness, one of the main attributes of globalization.

The article deals with some issues of PPP-based international economic comparisons. Considering the case of the world’s two largest economies — China and the USA — it formulates the problems of accurately estimating economic size and the level of economic development. In particular, it identifies shortcomings in IMF and World Bank methods for PPP-based indicators that severely limit researchers’ capacity for analysis and forecasting. It stresses that, given the current quality of statistics, precise estimates of PPP-based GDP cannot be obtained for either developing (low- and middle-income) or developed (high-income) countries. It gives reasons for revising IMF and World Bank methods of adjusting PPP-based GDP.