New Zealand’s annual current account deficit narrows in Q1, in line with historical average

Jun 19, 2019 07:18 am UTC| Commentary Economy

New Zealands annual current account deficit narrowed $0.6 billion from an upwardly revised Q4 to $10.6 billion in Q1. This saw the current account deficit as a share of GDP narrow from 3.8 percent to 3.6 percent, which is...

Bank Indonesia likely to leave policy rate unchanged this week; prospects of rate cuts remain high

Jun 19, 2019 05:27 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks Economy

Bank Indonesia (BI) is expected to leave its policy rate unchanged at 6.00 percent at its monetary policy meeting on Thursday afternoon, but see rising odds of future monetary easing as Indonesias central bank chief and...

Australian bond yields slump despite bounce-back in U.S. peer after Trump agrees to meet China’s Xi

Jun 19, 2019 04:53 am UTC| Commentary Economy

Australian government bond yields slumped during early Asian session Wednesday despite a bounce-back in the United States counterpart after President Donald Trump agreed to meet his Chinese peer Xi Jinping at the G-20...

How many humans tomorrow? The United Nations revises its projections

Jun 19, 2019 02:32 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

In 2019 the planet has 7.7 billion inhabitants, which is likely to rise to 8.5 billion in 2030 and nearly 10 billion in 2050. These figures are taken from the world population projections just released by the United...

Below zero is "reverse". How the Reserve Bank would make quantitative easing work

Jun 19, 2019 02:29 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy Central Banks

With its official cash rate now expected to fall below 1% to a new extraordinarily low close to zero, all sorts of people are saying that the Reserve Bank is in danger of running out of ammunition. Ammunition might be...

South Africa should learn from Brazil about how to tackle 'hidden hunger'

Jun 19, 2019 02:23 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

South Africa faces a double burden of hunger and malnutrition, on the one hand, and obesity with associated non-communicable diseases (NCDs), on the other. In many countries, in both the global North and South,...

American giving lost some ground in 2018 amid tax changes and stock market losses

Jun 19, 2019 02:21 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy

The sweeping tax reforms that took effect in 2018 meant fewer Americans could itemize their taxes and benefit from the charitable deduction. Has that brought about any dramatic changes in charitable giving? We are...