VOA慢速英语 2007 1207a

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Last month, America's biggest bank, Citigroup, agreed to sell five percent of its shares to the government of Abu Dhabi. The deal, worth seven and a half billion dollars, was another example of growing investments by sovereign wealth funds.

These are owned by governments. They are separate from the holdings of central banks. Sovereign wealth funds are estimated to hold more than two trillion dollars.

 
Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates
The largest is the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, established in nineteen seventy-six. The emirate does not say how much its fund is worth. Estimates are between five hundred billion and nine hundred billion dollars.

Most sovereign wealth funds are tied to money from oil exports. Oil prices reached a record high near one hundred dollars a barrel in November. Oil is traded in dollars. And dollars have been flowing into Gulf¹ economies like Abu Dhabi.

But there is a limit to how much money can be pumped into an economy without causing inflation to jump.

Brad Setser is a fellow for geoeconomics at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He notes that one problem facing these oil exporters is that their currency values are linked to the dollar, and the dollar has fallen.

Oil exporters can use sovereign wealth funds to build up reserves of money to protect against a drop in oil prices. But a severe drop seems unlikely. So instead they are making foreign investments that they hope will pay good returns.

Sovereign funds are known for highly conservative investments. But now some appear willing to take more risk.

Not all funds involve oil money. A good example is the China Investment Corporation. This newly formed company is financed by selling government bonds and buying foreign exchange from the Chinese central bank.

Much of the money in the China Investment Corporation is meant to provide capital for state-owned Chinese banks. The fund will also support the international expansion of state-owned Chinese companies. The fund is expected to reach a value of about two hundred billion dollars.

Back to Abu Dhabi: Ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum² Exporting Countries met there on Wednesday. They decided³ to leave OPEC production unchanged for now, but agreed to meet again February first. They also welcomed their thirteenth member, Ecuador, which rejoined OPEC in November.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

 

1 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

2 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。