Global ETF News Older than One Year
Financial Perils in Check for Now, Eyes Turn to Risk of Market Correction
January 27, 2021--"The vaccines are here!"-the cry heard and welcomed the world over-has boosted hopes of a global economic recovery in 2021. Yet until vaccines are widely available, the market rally and the economic recovery rest on continued monetary and fiscal policy support.
Financial stability risks have been in check so far, but we cannot take this for granted.
Prices for stocks, corporate bonds, and other risk assets have risen higher on the news of vaccine rollouts. Financial markets have shrugged off rising COVID-19 cases, betting that continued policy support will offset any bad economic news in the short term and provide a bridge to the future. As the apparent disconnect between exuberant financial markets and the still-lagging economic recovery persists, it raises the specter of a possible market correction should investors reassess the economic outlook or the extent and duration of policy backstop.
Source: IMF
World Economic Outlook Update-January 2021-Policy Support and Vaccines Expected to Lift Activity
January 26, 2021--In just three months since we released our last forecast in October, recorded COVID-19 deaths have doubled to over 2 million, as new waves have lifted infections past previous peaks in many countries.
In these same three months, multiple vaccines have seen unexpectedly strong success and some countries have started ambitious vaccination drives. Much now depends on the outcome of this race between a mutating virus and vaccines to end the pandemic, and on the ability of policies to provide effective support until that happens. There remains tremendous uncertainty and prospects vary greatly across countries.
In our latest World Economic Outlook forecast we project global growth for 2021 at 5.5 percent, 0.3 percentage point higher than our October forecast, moderating to 4.2 percent in 2022. The upgrade for 2021 reflects the positive effects of the onset of vaccinations in some countries, additional policy support at the end of 2020 in economies such as the United States and Japan and an expected increase in contact-intensive activities as the health crisis wanes. However, the positive effects are partially offset by a somewhat worse outlook for the very near term as measures to contain the spread of the virus dampen activity.
Source: IMF
Measuring Stakeholder Capitalism: Towards Common Metrics and Consistent Reporting of Sustainable Value Creation
January 26, 2021--This report identifies a set of Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics, drawn from existing voluntary standards to offer comparable metrics and disclosures across 4 pillars that are considered most critical for business, society and the planet.
Our aim is to catalyze the convergence, simplification and standardization of the non-financial reporting ecosystem.
Source: World Economic Forum
BlackRock pushes companies to adopt 2050 net-zero emissions goal
January 26, 2021--World's largest asset manager considers dumping companies that fail to meet targets
BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, will push companies to commit to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and raised the prospect of dumping companies that fail to do so from its actively-managed funds.
In a pair of letters sent on Tuesday to chief executives and to BlackRock's clients, chief executive Larry Fink said that a "tectonic shift" in the investment landscape was happening faster than he expected.,
Source: irishtimes.com
Connecting Countries and Cities for Regional Value Chain Integration: Operationalizing the AfCFTA
January 25, 2021--On 1 January 2021, the African Union launched the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). This Regional Action Group for Africa report is part of a series investigating five priority pathways to drive economic recovery and build resilience in the context of the AfCFTA Agreement.
It explores two priorities: first, unlocking manufacturing to mitigate global supply-chain risks; and second, leveraging integration and regional value chains. It also reviews intra-African trade and current African efforts to liberalize trade in the continent, examining how to unlock production capacity to meet local and global demands in strategic sectors, focusing on the automotive industry.
Source: World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum-Chief Economists Outlook 2021
January 25, 2021--The approval of several COVID-19 vaccines in late 2020 has brightened public health and economic prospects for 2021. Yet, prior to the onset of the pandemic, the global economy already had a fragile growth outlook, with social tensions over the evident polarization of economic outcomes and high levels of uncertainty.
At this critical juncture, policymakers need to look beyond reviving the old economy and instead shift towards a thriving global economy-where growth is revived, social justice more fully realized, and the climate crisis averted.
Based on consultations and surveys with the World Economic Forum's Community of Chief Economists, this edition of the quarterly Chief Economists Outlook lays out the key drivers shaping the current context, the policy pathways that could shape the global economy this year, and the resulting expected outlook for 2021.
Source: World Economic Forum
ETFGI reports assets invested in ESG ETFs and ETPs listed globally reach a new milestone of 187 billion US dollars at end of 2020
January 22, 2021--ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm covering trends in the global ETFs and ETPs ecosystem, reported today that assets invested in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) ETFs and ETPs reached a new milestone of US$187 billion at the end of 2020. Assets invested in ESG ETFs and ETPs increased by 206% in 2020.
During December ESG ETFs and ETPs gathered net inflows of US$18.46 billion during, bringing 2020 net inflows to US$88.95 billion which significantly greater than the US$27.79 billion gathered in 2019, according to ETFGI’s December 2020 ETF and ETP ESG industry landscape insights report, the monthly report which is part of an annual paid-for research subscription service. (All dollar values in USD unless otherwise noted.)
Highlights
Assets invested in ESG ETFs and ETPs listed globally reached a new milestone of $187 billion.
Assets invested in ESG ETFs and ETPs increased 206% in 2020.
2020 net inflows are a record $88.95 billion which is significantly greater than the $27.79 billion gathered in 2019.
Source: ETFGI
Supply Chains Decarbonization Offers Game-Changing Opportunity for Companies to Fight Climate Change
January 21, 2021--Decarbonizing supply chains is an opportunity for corporate climate action-emissions created along the supply chains of most consumer-facing industries can far outweigh emissions created in their own operations
Eight supply chains account for more than 50% of global emissions and fully decarbonizing these would add just 1%-4% to end-consumer costs for many everyday items.
It is possible to reduce a large proportion of supply chain emissions with technologies that are readily available and can be deployed at low costs
There are nine major actions that every CEO can take to engage suppliers and decarbonize their end-to-end supply chain-many leading companies are already taking these steps
The commitment to tackling climate change is accelerating in all sectors of society, with net-zero pledges from companies, cities, states, and regions doubling in the past year. Decarbonizing supply chains is a major opportunity for companies to put these commitments into practice.
New research published today by the World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) shows how tackling supply chain emissions can be a game changer in the global fight against climate change. Net-Zero Challenge: The Supply Chain Opportunity analyzes the top eight global supply chains that account for more than 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions and finds that end-to-end decarbonization of these supply chains would add as little as 1% to 4% to end-consumer costs in the medium term.
view the report Net-Zero Challenge: The Supply Chain Opportunity
Source: World Economic Forum
Majority of EM bonds remain off limits to passive investors
January 19, 2020--Only 13% of emerging market bonds are included in flagship indices tracked by ETFs
Source: FT.com
These are the top risks for business in the post-COVID world
January 19, 2021--The business landscape will face greater uncertainty in the post-COVID period.
Businesses need to watch three drivers of risk: political, technological and societal.
The pandemic has shown the importance of public-private collaboration.
Over the past year, the business landscape has become much more precarious due to protracted uncertainty and confusion in pandemic response approaches, the challenges of vaccine rollouts and emerging virus variants- and spillover effects into other risks.
Businesses have had to manage dual economic and health crises, which have driven new employee and customer engagement protocols, remote working on an unprecedented scale, the re-engineering of supply chains, and numerous bankruptcies, consolidations and creative partnerships.
Source: World Economic Forum
