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IMF-Global Financial Stability
August 26, 2019--"It's awful. Why did nobody see it coming?" asked Queen Elizabeth II in November 2008 during a visit to the London School of Economics, wondering why nobody had predicted the Global Financial Crisis. The bewilderment wasn't unique to the British monarchy; across the world, many asked the same question.
Ten years on, it remains difficult to forecast financial instability. However, progress is afoot to improve the understanding of important links between the financial sector and the economy. We now understand better how financial vulnerabilities can amplify negative shocks and hurt output and employment.
Artificial intelligence promises to enhance ESG investing
August 20, 2019--Computers and data scientists can unearth key themes missed by traditional research.
Investment managers within the environmental, social and governance sector are looking to gain an edge by using artificial intelligence, a computer-driven discipline already employed by some of the world's most successful hedge funds.
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Worsening Water Quality Reducing Economic Growth by a Third in Some Countries: World Bank
August 20, 2019--The world faces an invisible crisis of water quality that is eliminating one-third of potential economic growth in heavily polluted areas and threatening human and environmental well-being, according to a World Bank report released today.
Quality Unknown: The Invisible Water Crisis shows, with new data and methods, how a combination of bacteria, sewage, chemicals, and plastics can suck oxygen from water supplies and transform water into poison for people and ecosystems.
To shed light on the issue, the World Bank assembled the world's largest database on water quality gathered from monitoring stations, remote sensing technology, and machine learning.
$4.2 Trillion Can Be Saved by Investing in More Resilient Infrastructure, New World Bank Report Finds
August 19, 2019--The net benefit on average of investing in more resilient infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries would be $4.2 trillion with $4 in benefit for each $1 invested, according to a new report from the World Bank and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR)
The report, Lifelines: The Resilient Infrastructure Opportunity, lays out a framework for understanding infrastructure resilience, that is the ability of infrastructure systems to function and meet users' needs during and after a natural hazard. It examines four essential infrastructure systems: power, water and sanitation, transport, and telecommunications. Making them more resilient is critical, the report finds, not only to avoid costly repairs but also to minimize the wide-ranging consequences of natural disasters for the livelihoods and well-being of people.
view the World Bank Lifelines: The Resilient Infrastructure Opportunity report
IMF Working Paper-Finding the Bad Apples in the Barrel: Using the Market Value of Equity to Signal Banking Sector Vulnerabilities
August 16, 2019--Summary:
This paper measures the performance of different metrics in assessing banking system vulnerabilities. It finds that metrics based on equity market valuations of bank capital are better than regulatory capital ratios, and other metrics, in spotting banks that failed (bad apples). This paper proposes that these market-based ratios could be used as a surveillance tool to assess vulnerabilities in the banking sector.
While the measures may provide a somewhat fuzzy signal, it is better to have a strategy for identifying bad apples, even if sometimes the apples turn out to be fine, than not being able to spot any bad apples before the barrel has been spoiled.
Beyond Big Pharma | Investing in the Future of Healthcare | WELL Trends in Healthcare and Life Sciences
August 15, 2019--Health and wellness are key components to the success of any society. Demographic and economic changes, coupled with increased patient expectations, have led to an exponential increase in the pace and scale with which health care innovations are emerging and disrupting the healthcare sector worldwide.
New entrants from outside the traditional business of healthcare are redefining the $9.59 trillion global healthcare market for consumers, providers, payers, and investors in both developed and developing nations [1].
In addition, major global trends are increasing the need for healthcare services globally. These include:
1.1 Aging Populations
People worldwide are living longer. Between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the world's population over 60 years of age will nearly double from 12% to 22%.
Global uncertainty places bond investors in a binary bind
August 14, 2019--August 14, 2019--With more than $15-trillion of bonds now offering negative yields and US Treasuries now well below 2% and possibly heading for zero, bond market investors are facing tricky times.
Their future investment experience hinges on whether governments lead the global economy into a worst-case or best-case scenario-something over which they have no control.
IMF-Fuel for Thought: Ditch the Subsidies
August 14, 2019--Pensions, education, healthcare, better infrastructure, technology, and climate change: fiscal policymakers have their work cut out for them on many fronts. Whether you live in a rapidly aging advanced economy, or a low-income or emerging market economy with a young, booming population, all these issues matter for you.
As the Fiscal Monitor in April 2019 shows, government policies on taxes and spending have to adapt and should shift to growth-enhancing investment. This means, for example, more money to build classrooms, hospitals and roads, while cutting wasteful spending, such as inefficient energy subsidies.
Our chart of the week shows that removing fossil fuel subsidies, which typically benefit the rich more than the poor, could gain up to 4 percent of global GDP in additional resources over the medium term to invest in people,, growth, and help protect the most vulnerable.
World bond market sets quarterly record after boom in first-half activity
August 8, 2019--The world's green bond market hit a record quarterly high in the last three months, as investor appetite in environmental assets picked up pace.
Issuers brought $66.6bn (£54.8bn) of green bonds to market globally in the second quarter of 2019, propelling issuance in the first half of the year and shattering records.
Markets dip after renminbi hits weakest level in 11 years
August 5, 2019--Global markets dip after renminbi hits weakest level in 11 years.
The renminbi lingered at its weakest level since the 2008 global financial crisis on Monday, triggering an angry response from US president Donald Trump and causing a wave of jitters across global markets.