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Showing 41 - 50 of 757 results for "Corona"

Chief economist update: Chinese activity indicators disappoint but growth target intact

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 21 JUN 2021
Disappointing. This is the one word that describes the latest batch of activity indicators out of China. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released retail sales, industrial production and fixed asset investment that were still stronger than usual ...

Chief economist update: Anchoring the recovery

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 15 JUN 2021
"We have to take the economy through the pandemic and into a recovery phase, which has now started. We need to really anchor the recovery. We always talk about inflation anchoring and we are not oblivious to that. But the recovery needs to be firm ...

Chief economist update: Deflated expectations lift deflation expectations

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 10 JUN 2021
Inflation? What inflation? We need inflation. While many, if not most, of its central bank peers - led by the Fed -- are pushing back against inflation concerns, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) cannot seem to drive growth in the country's consumer prices ...

Chief economist update: A delicate balancing act

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 4 JUN 2021
"The demand picture has shown clear signs of improvement." So declared Saudi Arabia's oil minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman as the OPEC+ group of oil producing nations met and decided to gradually increase oil production in July. The OPEC+'s ...

Chief economist update: Australia on top

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 3 JUN 2021
In the words of Frank Sinatra, Australia's now "A-number one, top of the list, head of the heap, king of the hill..." Ol' blue eyes was, of course, singing about the Big Apple (New York) but comparing apples with apples, Australia's on top. ...

Chief economist update: RBA cash rate on ice until 2024

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 2 JUN 2021
Except to reinforce its message that interest rates will remain at record lows "until 2024 at the earliest", the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) June board meeting was largely a ho-hum affair. As expected, the RBA left monetary policy settings ...

Chief economist update: OECD upgrades global growth but advises continued policy support

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 1 JUN 2021
"The global economy has now returned to pre-pandemic activity levels." This was what the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) latest 'Economic Outlook' report revealed as it upgraded its projections for the world ...

Chief economist update: Victoria's victory against the virus voided

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021
Australia's state of Victoria is back in lockdown. So are Victorians' irritation and anger at having their lives and livelihood restricted for the fourth time since the coronavirus began early last year. So are estimates of the cost to the state ...

Accessing super cements inequality: Report

ELIZABETH MCARTHUR  |  TUESDAY, 25 MAY 2021
A new report has assessed the impact of COVID-19 on low-income earners in Australia, with findings illustrating harm caused by the early release of super program. The Brotherhood of St Lawrence Shocks and Safety Nets report found that financial wellbeing ...

Chief economist update: Recovery flashing hot, hot, hot

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 24 MAY 2021
The impact of decelerating coronavirus infections, accelerating vaccination momentum - permitting relaxation of restrictions - sprinkled with generous dashes of fiscal and monetary largesse have been captured in Markit Economics' latest PMI surveys. ...