Global ETF News Older than One Year
BIS-Macroeconomic effects of Covid-19: a mid-term review
August 11, 2021--Summary
Focus
The global economy has rebounded strongly from the trough last year, as vaccination paved the way for lifting restrictions. Yet the recovery is uneven and global outlook remains uncertain. Many countries face vaccine shortages, and new virus strains threaten to derail progress made. To prepare for challenges lying ahead, it will be important to draw on experiences to date.
Contribution
This paper evaluates output losses resulting from the pandemic from historical and cross-country perspectives. It discusses challenges in managing the pandemic, notably in balancing health and economic goals. It draws some key lessons, as informed by the literature and model estimates. Findings
Estimates suggest a median output loss of about 6.5% in 2020. This should narrow to around 4% of the pre-pandemic trend by the end of 2021.
Source: bis.org
Refinitiv Launches USD IBOR Cash Fallbacks Prototype
August 11, 201--The Alternative Reference Rates Committee today welcomed the prototype publication launch of its recommended spread adjustments and spread adjusted rates for cash products by Refinitiv-which it selected in March to publish Libor cash fallback spreads and rates.
Refinitiv is publishing one version for consumer cash products and another for international cash products. Both will be published to five decimal places.
Source: bankingjournal.aba.com
We need to talk about Net Zero bullsh*t
-Pablo Berrutti questions the credibility of disclosures, CCS and scenario analysis in the race to Net Zero
August 11, 2021--After being accused of lying in the 1980 comedy classic the Blues Brothers, Elwood Blues tells his brother Jake that it "Wasn't lies, it was just...bullsh*t".
Fast forward 25 years and what was a funny, slightly crass (and somewhat dubious) distinction, took on an altogether more profound meaning when Princeton University Philosopher Harry Frankfurt released his 2005 book On Bullsh*t.
Frankfurt argued that “bullsh*t is speech intended to persuade without regard for truth”.
"While a liar cares about the truth and attempts to hide it; the bullsh*tter doesn’t care if what they say is true or false, but rather only cares whether their listener is persuaded."
Elwood Blues was more right than he knew.
In matters of sustainability, greenwash is a form of bullsh*t. At its most sinister, it is trying to persuade with green tokenism from a fundamentally unsustainable core, but mostly it is less conscious with elements of truth intertwined. As the greenwasher is less interested in truth than persuasion, it is bullsh*t either way.
In the same way that Elwood Blues discerned the difference between lies and bullsh*t, Duncan Austin divided 'greenwish' from greenwash in his 2019 paper, Greenwish: The Wishful Thinking Undermining the Ambition of Sustainable Business.
Source: responsible-investor.com
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.
Source: IMF
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
Source: ipcc.ch
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.
Source: FT.com
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
Source: ft.com
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.
Source: World Bank
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.
Source: World Gold Council
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.
Source: weforum.org
