Economy

Georgia became an independent nation in 1991 after 190 years of, first, annexation by Russia and then forceful incorporation in the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Georgia experienced the most dramatic peacetime economic decline in human history – a 75% drop in GDP. The country needed to restart its economy, and quickly.

South Korea has embarked on a completely opposite course by recently announcing its intention to regulate digital currencies. The Financial Services Commission decided to proceed with further regulation in the light of the increasing popularity of Bitcoin in the country.

At the beginning of September, the representatives of the biggest Polish trade union “Solidarity” submitted in the Polish parliament a policy proposal to ban Sunday trading. This proposal, signed by hundreds of thousands of Poles, became a trigger for a public discussion on potential effects of this regulation.

The major talking point of the past two weeks undoubtedly was the much anticipated outcome of the U.S. presidential election that affected the price of Bitcoin. To a similar extent, attention has been paid to India, where Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are on the verge of a successful breakthrough.

Despite Brexit, we are trying to move forward and keep working on other initiatives that would help European companies to expand their businesses. In June, I organised a breakfast debate with the European Internet Forum to discuss taxation in the digital economy.

Just in time for the upcoming climate conference in Marrakech, Germany’s council of economic experts, the Sachverständigenrat, is appealing to the government to change tactic towards a global climate policy. Germany’s energy transition is beyond reform.

As usual, the wording of this political declaration is vague and the purpose is unclear. Will it bring more flexibility to the EU economy and labor markets or will it make them more rigid? The whole text is permeated with the spirit of having your cake and eating it at the same time.

Argentina reports that one of its start-ups has been testing an app called Signatura. It is used as a tool verifying official or administrative documents, without the need for third party confidentiality agreements. Potential areas of application include both the public and the private sector.

Unified tax rules can hardly contribute to trade liberalisation. A diversity of tax systems is not a roadblock for free trade. Quite the opposite, differences in tax systems might serve as a stimulus to trade. Taxes constitute a significant share of costs and a large share of the price of factors of production, labour in particular.

It is estimated that even though the sharing-economy now contributes only EUR 28 billion to the EU economy per year it can grow to up to EUR 572 billion per year. In order to use as much potential as possible, both the EU and its Member States have to implement a regulatory model that is flexible and applicable to different business models.