Calendar of Economic Events. Third Quarter 2016

The USA and China ratified the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. After the UK's vote to leave the EU ("Brexit") the remaining 27 EU member countries, convinced that the EU will continue on its successful path, stressed in their Bratislava Declaration that the EU was needed for peace, democracy and security. The volume of distressed loans held by European banks (especially in Italy) was judged to be large. The bank stress test arrived at below-average findings for the two Austrian banks (Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG and Erste Group Bank AG) included in the 51 tested banks. The free-trade agreement between the EU and Canada (CETA), which needs to be passed by the Austrian Parliament, was appraised quite differently by the two parties that make up the Austrian coalition government.