Word: fending
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...more remarkable aspects of Chinese government efforts to fend off the global economic downturn has been a surge in lending. To keep struggling enterprises afloat, Beijing urged Chinese banks to open the credit floodgates - and bankers have done so. The People's Bank of China, the central bank, estimates that $224 billion in new loans were made in June alone, bringing the total for the first half of the year to $1.08 trillion - 50% more than the amount of loans Chinese banks issued in all of 2008. (Read "China's Banks Become the Government's Foot Soldiers...
...Putin's more optimistic forecasts, which some saw as an attempt to fend off political instability, "suffered a radical readjustment," wrote the daily Nezavisamaya Gazeta. "We all understand what a difficult situation our country, our economy, is in," Medvedev said as he announced that budget expenditures would exceed revenues for the first time in 10 years. He said the government would move "to a strict regime of saving budget resources" along the lines championed by bearish Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. (See pictures of Putin...
Iraq's economic woes stem mainly from the huge drop in the price of oil, which accounts for 90% of the country's revenues. Last summer the price of oil soared to nearly $150 a barrel. Now the price is roughly a third of that, leaving Iraq struggling to fend off a financial collapse within its government. Iraq has an estimated $30 billion in surplus funds generated from oil sales in years past, but that money is dwindling. Iraq expects to run a deficit this year of roughly $20 billion, which could be covered by the surplus funds...
...reassert himself at some point with two powerful political cards he currently retains: a sizeable bloc of loyalists in the parliament and, most importantly, the still powerful Mahdi Army militia. Sadr issued a cease-fire edict to the Mahdi Army late last year as the militia struggled to fend off a crackdown by strengthened Iraqi security forces. But dormant fighters with the group say they are ready to take to the streets again if Sadr sends out the call, a prospect that has many in Baghdad increasingly worried lately as sectarian violence appears to be inching upward...
...state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have grown into giants, eclipsing the relatively young, private companies that have contributed heavily to the country's progress. That trend is being reinforced as China implements economic stimulus measures that in practice boost state-owned giants while private companies are left largely to fend for themselves. (See pictures of China's electronic waste village...