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2021 was the year clean energy finally faced its mining problem
December 29, 2021--A clean energy revolution will hinge on getting mining right
This year, the clean energy sector finally started grappling in earnest with one of its biggest challenges: how to get enough minerals to build solar panels, wind turbines, and big batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage. Figuring that out will be critical for escaping fossil-fueled ecological disaster.
It'll also be crucial for policymakers and industry to move forward without throwing certain communities under the bus in the transition to clean energy.
ETF assets close to $10tn after second year of record growth
December 24, 2021--Investors pour in more than $1tn of new cash during 2021 despite coronavirus concerns.
The inflows took global ETF assets under management to $9.92tn at the end of the month, meaning the figure is likely to surge beyond the $10tn....
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Global Investors Pump Money Into China Equity ETFs-FT
December 22, 2021--ChinaAMC MSCI China A 50 Connect, E Fund MSCI China A 50 Connect ETF and China Universal MSCI China A 50 Connect ETF were among the top 15 globally for net inflows in November.
Investors are pumping money into exchange traded funds (ETFs) focused on Chinese equities despite jitters over government interventions that have rattled stocks and sectors this year, the Financial Times reported.
ISS Insights-Financial Clarity: Passive Investment 2021 Q3 Report-Net Flows Fall to Lowest Level in Years
December 22, 2021--Stock pickers have their work cut out for them; building a portfolio that can beat the market is difficult and competition among other fund managers in the UK is fierce. Competing against passive funds? That makes their job even more difficult. Passive investors don't overwork themselves trying to find the right fund that can beat its benchmark, they'd rather pick a passive fund that closely tracks an index of their choice. Yes, it does remove the chances of outperforming the market, but it also removes the risk of underperforming the market.
On top of this, passive funds charge significantly lower management fees. Judging by the speed at which the passive investment market has grown over the last decade, many retail investors are more than willing to make this performance-fees trade-off. Particularly when most active funds underperform their passive counterparts in short to long-term horizons.
Not everyone is sold on passive investing though, sceptics have long claimed that active fund managers would prove their worth in times of market uncertainty. We heard this a lot at the beginning of the pandemic too. Supposedly, stock pickers are better able to navigate the turmoil of difficult market conditions and can be more nimble than passive funds. Unfortunately for the passive fund sceptics, it appears as though most active funds failed to meet their benchmarks in 2020 according to research by SPIVA[1]. Now there's a new challenge though, one that passive funds haven't faced before, high inflation.
Global Debt Reaches a Record $226 Trillion
December 22, 2021--Policymakers must strike the right balance in the face of high debt and rising inflation.
In 2020, we observed the largest one-year debt surge since World War II, with global debt rising to $226 trillion as the world was hit by a global health crisis and a deep recession.
Debt was already elevated going into the crisis, but now governments must navigate a world of record-high public and private debt levels, new virus mutations, and rising inflation.
Global debt rose by 28 percentage points to 256 percent of GDP, in 2020, according to the latest update of the IMF's Global Debt Database.
Borrowing by governments accounted for slightly more than half of the increase, as the global public debt ratio jumped to a record 99 percent of GDP. Private debt from non-financial corporations and households also reached new highs.
2021 Year in Review in 11 Charts: The Inequality Pandemic
December 21, 2021--From uneven economic recovery to unequal access to vaccines; from widening income losses to divergence in learning, COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on the poor and vulnerable in 2021. It is causing reversals in development and is dealing a setback to efforts to end extreme poverty and reduce inequality. Because of the pandemic, extreme poverty rose in 2020 for the first time in over 20 years and around 100 million more people are living on less than $1.90 a day.
Through this series of charts and graphs, we share select research from the World Bank Group that illustrates the severity of the pandemic as it enters its third year. We also reflect on the Bank's rapid and innovative response to the crisis.
1. Unequal Vaccines Access
The quickest way to end the pandemic is by vaccinating the world. However, with just over 7 percent of people in low-income countries receiving a dose of the vaccines compared to over 75 percent in high-income countries, we need fair and broad access to effective and safe COVID-19 vaccines to save lives and strengthen global economic recovery.
2021 Year in Review in 11 Charts: The Inequality Pandemic
December 21, 2021-From uneven economic recovery to unequal access to vaccines; from widening income losses to divergence in learning, COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on the poor and vulnerable in 2021. It is causing reversals in development and is dealing a setback to efforts to end extreme poverty and reduce inequality.
Because of the pandemic, extreme poverty rose in 2020 for the first time in over 20 years and around 100 million more people are living on less than $1.90 a day.
Through this series of charts and graphs, we share select research from the World Bank Group that illustrates the severity of the pandemic as it enters its third year. We also reflect on the Bank's rapid and innovative response to the crisis.
1. Unequal Vaccines Access
The quickest way to end the pandemic is by vaccinating the world. However, with just over 7 percent of people in low-income countries receiving a dose of the vaccines compared to over 75 percent in high-income countries, we need fair and broad access to effective and safe COVID-19 vaccines to save lives and strengthen global economic recovery.
Five trends that will dominate industry in 2022
December 21, 2021-Global industry emerged strong in early 2021, following a lacklustre performance the year before. But with a right jab from renewed restrictions, a left hook from deepening supply chain disruptions, and an uppercut from pent-up consumer demand-it has taken a bit of beating recently. So what's in store for 2022?
Services will outpace industry early in the year. Industrial production will lag services growth globally going into 2022 as supply chain pressures continue to bite and the post-pandemic recovery in household spending on services continues. The new, more transmissible Omicron Covid-19 variant, however, remains a key downside risk to our outlook.
Bond ETF inflows slump to lowest level since start of pandemic
December 17, 2021--Fixed income ETFs attracted global net inflows of just $14bn in November on inflation fears
Bond ETFs saw global net inflows of just $14bn in November, according to data from BlackRock's iShares arm, the weakest reading since March 2020
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IMF-Drivers of Emerging Market Bond Flows and Prices
December 16, 2021--Summary:
An interesting disconnect has taken shape between local currency-and hard currency-denominated bonds in emerging markets with respect to their portfolio flows and prices since the start of the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging market assets have recovered sharply from the COVID-19 sell-off in 2020, but the post-pandemic recovery in 2021 has been highly uneven.
This note seeks to answer why. Yields of local currency-denominated bonds have risen faster and are approaching their pandemic highs, while hard currency bond yields are still near their post-pandemic lows.
Portfolio flows to local currency debt have similarly lagged flows to hard currency bonds. This disconnect is closely linked to the external environment and fiscal and inflationary pressures. Its evolution remains a key consideration for policymakers and investors, since local markets are the main source of funding for emerging markets. This note draws from the methodology developed in earlier Global Financial Stability Reports on fundamentals-based asset valuation models for funding costs and forecasting models for capital flows (using the at-risk framework). The results are consistent across models, indicating that local currency assets are significantly more sensitive to domestic fundamentals while hard currency assets are dependent on the external risk sentiment to a greater extent. This suggests that the post-pandemic, stressed domestic fundamentals have weighed on local currency bonds, partially offsetting the boost from supportive global risk sentiment. The analysis also highlights the risks emerging markets face from an asynchronous recovery and weak domestic fundamentals.