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In the 2007 ranking of World’s Top Ten Richest Countries, Luxembourg topped the list. Once bolstered by iron and steel industry, Luxembourg economy at present gains momentum by providing international banking and financial services. Luxembourg, whose population now enjoys high standard of living, is also a favorite destination among European countries for hosting political activities. Luxembourg, situated in northwestern Europe, is also one of the smallest countries of the world. Among other countries in the list, four are from Asia (Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Singapore), one from Africa (Equatorial Guinea), three from Europe (Luxembourg, Norway and Ireland) and two from Americas (USA and Bermuda).

All the countries are fully or partially industrialized and none of them are agrarian. International financial services, tourism, petroleum and natural gas exports, electronic goods manufacturing, aiding movement of goods (as in the case of Singapore) and flourished service sector are the keystones behind this economic success.

Bermuda Tourism has gained tremendously from the small country’s strategic location in Atlantic Ocean. For travelers embarking on a tour of Bermuda, nonstop flights are available from eastern US cities like Chicago, New York, Washington DC as well as from Toronto, Halifax and London. There are also weekly cruises to three principal ports of this country.

UAE is a shopper’s paradise. Artificially created beaches UAE, multiplexes UAE and amusement parks UAE are rife in this country. Other tourist activities in this desert kingdom include, UAE mountain hiking, UAE desert safaris, UAE oases, UAE camel racing, UAE camel riding, and UAE markets.

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ZHANG:
Economic meltdown is having a mixed effect on the sale of luxury brands in India. The crisis has put a dent in consumers’ spending power.

STORY:
Ajit Joshi, the CEO and marketing director of Chroma, a consumer electronics retail chain has some positive views on this global situation.

[Ajit Joshi, Chroma CEO]:
“As far as my knowledge of economics is concerned, there is no recession in the country when you have 5 percent year on year growth in your GDP. Recession happens only when you start showing the negative role. There is a slowdown but it has not come to ‘Chroma’ (a retail brand) as yet. It has come to certain pockets of the industries. The builders and their community are rolling out of the stores. We see a little slowdown coming in to the real estate but we haven’t seen the slowdown coming in to the sales.”

The slowdown of the economy has adversely affected a few big brands across Mumbai.

But mostly the bigger brands are coping with the situation and waiting for a stable economy. They are coming up with new shopping outlets like ‘The Loot’, but somewhere their sales have gone down, too.

[Jay Gupta, The Loot Retail Limited]:
“The industry as such is getting badly affected. In retail the footwalls are coming down, in the malls the footwalls are coming down. Lot of lifestyle chains and restaurants are getting hit badly. But at this time, I feel we have a model which is a value retailing model and if you have limited funds basically you cannot stop eating or wearing clothes, it’s a need of human being and we are here to give you the best offers. So we are selling jeans at rupees 500, a trouser at rupees 500 and a shirt at rupees 300. So somehow this has been working positive for us.”

Although the recession has affected everyone’s lives, some people dont seem to have stopped buying as such. They are waiting for the economy to stablize.

[Sanjay Kshetri, Customer]:
“Recession is a part of our life now in the present condition. It is a global recession and we can’t just keep ourselves out of this. But I think to some extent it has affected my personal life as well and so we can’t just ignore it.”

The Indian luxury goods market was once thought immune to the ebbs and flows of economic fluctuations. But it has finally begun to feel the heat of the worldwide economic slowdown.

Duration : 0:2:25

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IN THE FIELD: Japans economy contracted by 4.0 percent in the January-March quarter, the fastest pace on record in the first quarter, fuelled by a global and domestic fall in demand for cars, electronic and other goods.

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