Investment in Indonesia’s extractive sectors has languished for years, hurt by regulatory confusion, low commodity prices and endemic corruption. With hydrocarbon and mineral industries, constituting over 40 percent of Indonesia’s exports, and energy consumption rising at home, reform is important to secure the country’s future economic development.
1) South African President Jacob Zuma fired Finance Minister Nene and replaced him with little-known ANZ lawmaker David Van Rooyen; 2) S&P revised the outlook on South Africa’s BBB- rating from stable to negative; 3) People’s Bank of China announced the publication of a new CNY basket on its website; 4) Moody’s put Brazil’s Baa3 rating on review for possible downgrade; 5) Brazil’s Supreme Court suspended for a week the creation of the congressional impeachment committee; 6) Relations between Brazil Vice President Temer and President Dilma Rousseff have dete
After recent confidence on the labor market from the Federal Reserve and Department of Labor, new data shows unemployment may have started an upswing.
The Department of Labor reported that weekly initial unemployment claims rose to 282,000 in the week ending December 5, an increase of 4.4 percent from the previous week. That drove the four-week moving average for initial unemployment claims above 270,000, above expectations from most economists.
The US dollar is confined to narrow ranges against the euro and sterling after pushing higher yesterday. The greenback is staging stronger upticks against the yen but is struggling to resurface above previous support in the JPY122.25 area.
Weak commodity prices and the loss of upside momentum have seen profit-taking in the Australian and New Zealand dollars. The Canadian dollar remains heavy. The US dollar has extended its gains to new multi-year highs. It began the week near CAD1.3360 and is currently trading near CAD1.3660.
With the Turnbull government’s innovation package now out of the way, we will soon get the official update on the government’s budget position, the so-called Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO).
And it is unlikely to be pretty.
The budget numbers that then-Treasurer Joe Hockey laid down in May were, at that time, rather ugly. The estimated budget deficit for 2015-16 was to be $35.1 billion, or 2.0% of GDP.
It is a common refrain of political strategists that, you should not let a good crisis go to waste. Seven years on from the beginnings of the global financial crisis, we can make an assessment whether one followed that maxim.
Total mortgage debt owned by Americans rose for the first time this year after falling every year since 2009.
A new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that real household mortgage debt outstanding rose from $8.66 trillion to $8.67 trillion from 2014 to 2015. Since this data ends in the second quarter of 2015, some analysts believe that outstanding mortgage debt will continuing to rise, and may see a strong increase in 2016 as more home-buying activity spurs the broader market.
The major big business lobby groups have largely welcomed this week’s innovation statement, getting behind its support for entrepreneurs. One wonder why they care since it primarily focuses on research institutes and startups, with which they hardly interact.
“Australia’s innovation challenge means we need to move from fat and happy, to lean and keen,” said Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Kate Carnell.
A civil war has raged in the Democratic Republic of Congo for more than 15 years, resulting in the deaths of millions and displacing millions more.
Discussions of sex in Japan typically spotlight the extremes of the social landscape: from the hypersexualised (2D girlfriends, hug cafes, erotic manga) to the sexless. Gender is skimmed with reference to ‘herbivore men’ and ‘parasite singles’. However, beyond the salacious and the superficial, sex and gender are topics that demand careful consideration from Japanese policymakers as well as scholars.
