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Showing 1001 - 1010 of 2991 results for Benjamin Ong

Buying American

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 9 FEB 2017
"We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with winning." (Donald Trump) POTUS appears to be fulfilling another of his campaign promises if the latest stats on the country's international trade are anything to go by. The US ...

RBNZ on steady

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 9 FEB 2017
Central bankers have been singing the same tune, at least so far this year. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) joined its counterparts in Japan, the US, the UK and Australia in keeping current monetary policy settings steady while at the same time ...

Little pay, little spend

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 8 FEB 2017
Data updates on Japan have been a mixture of good and bad in recent times. The latest stats on wages belong to the not so good ones, particularly with respect to the Bank of Japan's goal of reviving inflation in the economy. Average monthly cash earnings ...

Dwindling reserves

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 8 FEB 2017
China's foreign exchange reserves continued to decline, falling by US$12.3 billion in January to US$2.988 trillion - the first time since February 2011 that reserves had fallen below the important psychological threshold of US$3 trillion. Though this ...

RBA joins the bulls in central bank shop

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 8 FEB 2017
As expected, and following the lead from the three big central banks - BOJ, Fed, BOE - that met last week, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) kept the official cash rate unchanged at 1.5% while at the same time offering a positive outlook on the global ...

Help wanted

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 7 FEB 2017
The ANZ job advertisement survey is a definite positive no matter how it's measured. Job ads increased by 4.4% over the month of January following a 2.2% decline in the previous month. Over the past 12 months, growth in job advertisements quickened ...

Christmas not spent

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 7 FEB 2017
Bah, humbug! This appears to be the message from the Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) latest update on retail spending. The report showed that domestic retail sales fell by 0.1% in the month of December following a small 0.1% gain in the previous ...

Trump's tweets and deeds

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 6 FEB 2017
The times they are a-changin'. Three major central banks - the Bank of Japan (BOJ), the US Federal Reserve (Fed) and the Bank of England (BOE) - one day after another last week but did many give a hoot? Sure, it was hardly news because all three kept ...

Three for three

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 3 FEB 2017
Three major world central banks met this week - all three kept monetary policy unchanged, all three expect better growth ahead. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) was first off the bat. The Japanese central bank decided to keep policy settings as they are at the ...

Heading the ECB's way

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 1 FEB 2017
Growth and inflation in the Eurozone economy continue to head in the right direction. Preliminary estimates show that the region's GDP expanded by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, quicker than the third quarter's 0.4% pace and expectations for the same and ...