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Showing 761 - 770 of 3072 results for "Benjamin"

Chief economist update: We're headed for surplus (if assumptions hold)

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 9 MAY 2018
No one can escape it, even if we try. The media - radio, TV, print, social - is full of it. Reports, assessments, and implications of Australia's Federal Budget 2018-19. There's the usual flood of "Budget winners and losers" and the "what's in it for ...

Chief economist update: Budget surplus can wait

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 8 MAY 2018
What better to focus the minds of the Australian Prime Minister and Federal Treasurer than a general election coming to a theatre near us - no later than May next year. This time is not different. The government of the day is going out here, there and ...

Chief economist update: Crying for Argentina

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 7 MAY 2018
The Argentinian central bank lifted interest rates, a move intended to stem the sharp and rapid depreciation of the Argentine peso and by extension put downward pressure on inflation. Whoa! Fret not whether the Fed is going to raise interest rates by ...

Chief economist update: Talking trade tariffs

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 4 MAY 2018
After the US-China "my tariffs are broader and bigger than yours" tit-for-tat, it's time for talks to bargain, hassle, negotiate and compromise. It's been nearly a month since America and China have exchanged tariff threats amounting to US$50 billion ...

Chief economist update: Fed's on target, BOJ takes out target

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 3 MAY 2018
The US Federal Reserve's 1-2 May FOMC meeting was both expected and a non-event - it kept the fed funds rate target at 1.5%-1.75% and more or less cut and pasted the FOMC Statement at its 20-21 March meeting. Well, maybe less, for May's statement was ...

Chief economist update: A$ falls to the occasion

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 2 MAY 2018
"My fellow Australians, ask not what your country can do for the Australian dollar, ask what the Australian dollar can do for your country." That's me bastardising John F. Kennedy's inaugural address as the 35th US President back in 1961 (before I was ...

Moving on up to target

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 1 MAY 2018
It's getting closer and closer - the inflation measure that the US Federal Reserve tracks in assessing monetary policy direction is just a pip short of its 2% target. The core PCE price index increased by 1.9% in the year to March, a significant increase ...

Chief economist update: Not as good as it gets

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 30 APR 2018
History was made when North Korean supremo Kim Jung-un took one step south of the Korean DMZ (demilitarised zone) to shake hands with his southern counterpart, South Korea president Moon Jae-in. An epic in itself, it invalidates Rudyard Kipling's (re-phrased) ...

Chief economist update: Prudence, patience and persistence

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 27 APR 2018
The European Central Bank's (ECB) 26 April Governing Council meeting produced unchanged monetary policy settings yet again, marking the 26th month of inaction. The eurozone's interest rates haven't changed - repo rate at 0.0%; deposit facility at -0.40% ...

Chief economist update: Inflation remains in the slow lane

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 26 APR 2018
The financial markets' response to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Consumer Price Index report was a big "HO-HUM." With the report released a day before ANZAC Day, the response could have been because market players' thoughts were on something ...