Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams - 16 June, 2014

Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams

The International Monetary Fund foresees the U.S. economy growing a modest 2 per cent this year, below its previous estimate of 2.7 per cent.
That would be nearly identical to the economy’s 1.9 per cent growth in 2013.A brutal winter and a slowing housing recovery caused the economy to shrink during the first three months of 2014, the IMF noted in a report .

Even before the effect of deficient monsoons begins to kick in, wholesale price inflation hit a five-month high of 6.01 per cent in May with the rate of rise of food prices running at 9.5 per cent. The bad news came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned: “To improve the economic health of India, pull the country out of the current mess shouldn’t we take some bitter decisions?”
In April, the rate of growth of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) was 5.2 per cent; food price inflation had risen at the rate of 8.6 per cent. The pick-up in food inflation was led primarily by higher poultry and milk prices, according to the official data released here on Monday. Wholesale prices of potato are up more than 40 per cent since March. The build up in wholesale inflation in vegetables since March is touching 18 per cent.

U.S. medical device maker Medtronic Inc said it agreed to buy Dublin-based Covidien Plc for $42.9 billion and shift its executive headquarters to Ireland in the latest move by U.S. firms to harvest lower corporate tax rates abroad.
While the cash and stock deal will allow Medtronic to reduce its overall global tax burden, the Minneapolis-based company said on Sunday it was driven by a complementary strategy with Covidien on medical technology. “The real purpose of this is strategic, both in the intermediate term and the long term,’’ Medtronic Chief Executive Omar Ishrak said in an interview after the deal was announced.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has sought the views of its members about submitting a bid for hosting the Asian Games in 2019.
With the deadline for submitting the bid being July 1, the secretary general of the IOA, Rajeev Mehta, has written to the members, stating that there was not enough time to call a general body meeting.
“The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has already shown its keenness in supporting a bid from IOA to host the Games.

Jitu Rai continued to excel on the global stage as he shot a silver medal for the second week in succession in the shooting World Cup in Maribor, Slovenia.
After having won the air pistol silver in the last World Cup in Munich, the 26-year-old Jitu missed the gold by 0.1 point in the 50-metre free pistol to Damir Mikec of Serbia.Qualifying in second place with a national record 568, behind the London Games bronze medallist Zhang Zhiwei (572) of China who eventually failed to win a medal, Jitu shot a brilliant final before being undone by an 8.7 penultimate shot.