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Putting Public Investment to Work
August 11, 2021--For countries on the path to recovery, reviving economic activity is a major priority. And what better way to support a come-back than by creating jobs. Our new IMF staff research shows that when governments spend on infrastructure, they create many new jobs.
Drawing on a 19-year dataset of over 5,600 construction companies from 27 advanced economies and 14 emerging market economies, we use an innovative approach to measure the direct employment effect of $1 million of infrastructure spending by country income group and sector-electricity, roads, schools, hospitals, and water and sanitation. Because there is no data available for low-income developing countries, we estimate the employment impact by extrapolating from advanced economies and emerging market economies.
Climate change widespread, rapid, and intensifying-IPCC
August 9, 2021--Scientists are observing changes in the Earth's climate in every region and across the whole climate system, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, released today.
Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion-such as continued sea level rise-are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years.
However, strong and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases would limit climate change. While benefits for air quality would come quickly, it could take 20-30 years to see global temperatures stabilize, according to the IPCC Working Group I report, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis, approved on Friday by 195 member governments of the IPCC, through a virtual approval session that was held over two weeks starting on July 26.
view the AR6 Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis
ETFs set to overtake mutual funds as passive vehicle of choice
August 9, 2021-The mutual fund industry is ready to lose its position as the dominant passive investment vehicle.
Global assets under the control of passive index-tracking ETFs reached a record $ 8.66 trillion at the end of June, just $ 132 billion below the assets of passive mutual funds, according to Morningstar data.
Retail investors on the hunt for bargains in China-focused funds
August 6, 2021--Retail investors on the hunt for bargains in China-focused funds. ETFs tracking Chinese stocks lure inflows even as institutional investors
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Investing in Nature Unlocks Development Benefits
August 5, 2021-STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Loss of nature and biodiversity worldwide has become a crisis. The World Bank Group's approach paper on biodiversity and ecosystem services,Unlocking Nature-Smart Development,argues that the global nature crisis is both a systemic risk for development and a development opportunity.
The report proposes six global response areas to guide governments and inform broader discussions on how to integrate nature into development planning.
Solutions to the global nature crisis lie in the economic sectors that put the greatest pressure on biodiversity and ecosystem services: land and ocean use,infrastructure,and energy and extractives.
Gold ETFs continue growth with slight inflows in July
August 5, 2021--July highlights
Flows into global gold ETFs were marginally positive in July, with inflows of 11.1 tonnes (t) (US$669mn, +0.3%AUM). Inflows into European and Asian funds were mostly offset by outflows from large North American funds.
Overall, the positive flows came alongside a recovery in gold prices, particularly in the latter half of the month amid concerns of uncertain global growth outlook and a reaffirmed commitment by central banks to continue easy money policies despite elevated inflation.
These countries are the most optimistic about economic recovery from the pandemic
August 5, 2021--China is the most optimistic country when people are asked when they think there will be an economic recovery from the pandemic.
By comparison, people in Russia are the most pessimistic.
One thing most people seem to agree on is that they expect their governments to take responsibility for leading the return to growth.
More than half of people in China think the economy there has already recovered from the pandemic.
That's one of the headline findings of a survey carried out by Ipsos and the World Economic Forum,between 25 June and 9 July. Altogether,more than 21,500 people in 29 countries were quizzed on their views of post-pandemic economic life.
Some 56% of Chinese respondents said things were already back to where they should be. That number shoots up to 83% when those who think the recovery will have happened within a year are factored in.
In Saudi Arabia too,a majority of people (63%) think the recovery will have happened in a year's time. There, 25% say the economy has already recovered.
BetaShares Market Trends: August 2021 Global markets-low yields supporting equities
August 4, 2021--Global equities pushed higher in July, and the outlook remains encouraging.
Despite a renewed wave of global COVID cases, rising vaccination rates have meant even fewer are ending up in hospital or dying-allowing major economies such as the United States and Europe to avoid a return to lockdowns.
At the same time, inflation fears appear to have peaked with central banks still willing to look through short-run supply related prices increases. This has resulted in a further decline in long-term bonds yields, which is supportive of above average equity valuations.
Financial regulators urgently need to get a grip on 'Big Tech'-BIS
August 2, 2021--Central banks and financial regulators urgently need to get to grips with the growing influence of 'Big Tech', according to top officials from central bank umbrella group the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
Global watchdogs are increasingly wary that the huge amounts of data controlled by groups such as Facebook (FB.O), Google (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and Alibaba (9988.HK) could allow them to reshape finance so rapidly that it destabilises entire banking systems.
WTO report: Full trade recovery at risk without equitable vaccine roll-out
July 29, 2021--WTO economies from mid-October 2020 to mid-May 2021 exercised trade policy restraint and refrained from an acceleration of protectionism that would have further harmed a world economy reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Director-General's mid-year report on trade-related developments presented to members on 29 July.
The report calls on WTO members to ensure that markets remain open and predictable, and warns that failing to ensure wider access to COVID-19 vaccines could undermine the global economic and trade recovery.
"This report clearly suggests that trade policy restraint by WTO members has helped limit harm to the world economy. However, some pandemic-related trade restrictions do remain in place and the challenge is to ensure that they are indeed transparent and temporary." said Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who presented the report to WTO members.
