Dollar stays firm as traders look to U.S. data for policy cues
The dollar clung to a recent bounce on Monday as investors made a cautious start to a week crammed with central bank meetings and big-ticket U.S. economic data, waiting for clues on the outlook for global inflation and for policymakers’ responses. Trade was thinned by holidays in Japan and China, which kept a lid on […]
DUKHAN BANK WINS TWO AWARDS FROM THE WORLD ECONOMIC MAGAZINE FOR ITS INNOVATIVE AND OUTSTANDING BANKING SERVICES
Doha, Qatar – May 01 2021 – Dukhan Bank have been recognised by the World Economic Magazine under two categories, the Best Corporate Digital Services in Qatar 2021 and the Best New Contactless Payment Platform for (D-Pay). The World Economic Magazine aims to acknowledge the spirit of industry disruptors across the global financial marketplace by […]
New Zealand’s Ardern says differences with China becoming harder to reconcile
Differences between New Zealand and its top trading partner China are becoming harder to reconcile as Beijing’s role in the world grows and changes, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. The comments come as New Zealand faces pressure from some elements among Western allies over its reluctance to use the Five Eyes intelligence and […]
Germany to start returning Benin Bronzes from 2022
Germany aims to start returning Benin Bronzes to Nigeria next year, its foreign and culture ministries said, part of a growing trend to return cultural artefacts seized during the colonial era to their places of origin. Britain’s soldiers seized thousands of metal castings and sculptures in 1897 during a raid on the Kingdom of Benin, […]
Factbox: Some of the world’s worst stampedes
At least 44 people were crushed to death at an overcrowded religious bonfire festival in Israel on Friday, medics said, in what they called a stampede. read more Here is a list of some of the worst stampedes over the last three decades: April 1989: Ninety-six people were killed and at least 200 injured in Britain’s […]
Vaccination centres close in Mumbai as India posts another record rise in COVID-19
All vaccination centres in India’s financial capital of Mumbai were shut for three days starting Friday due to a shortage of vaccines, said authorities, as the country posted another record daily rise in coronavirus cases. India reported 386,452 news cases on Friday, while deaths from COVID-19 jumped by 3,498 over the last 24 hours, according […]
Lockdown accounting
Many countries have implemented social distancing and lockdown policies to tame the spread of Covid-19. This column discusses the potential GDP and employment effects of lockdown policies for a broad cross-section of countries ranging in income per capita from Niger to Luxembourg. It shows that the employment and GDP effects of lockdown policies are U-shaped in income per capita. While workers in rich countries have a substantially higher ability to work from home, which mitigates declines in employment and GDP, poor countries concentrate employment and value-added in essential sectors that are not shut down. Middle-income countries see the largest declines as they feature relatively large employment shares in non-essential sectors and relatively low work from home ability.
U.S. economy accelerates in first quarter; jobless claims edge lower
U.S. economic growth accelerated in the first quarter, fueled by massive government aid to households and businesses, charting the course for what is expected will be the strongest performance this year in nearly four decades. Gross domestic product increased at a 6.4% annualized rate last quarter, the Commerce Department said on Thursday in its advance […]
Pitfalls of average inflation targeting when agents have imperfect knowledge
Recent challenges have generated interest in new monetary policy frameworks, including average inflation targeting. The Federal Reserve adopted this policy in 2020, but they have not communicated many details about the policy itself. This column argues that an opaque average inflation targeting policy can de-anchor inflation expectations from the target equilibrium – even if expectations are initially well-anchored. Policymakers should be cautious when implementing average inflation targeting.
Moderna boosting COVID-19 vaccine capacity, targets up to 3 billion shots in 2022
Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) said on Thursday it is boosting manufacturing capacity for its COVID-19 vaccine and expects to make up to 3 billion doses in 2022, more than twice its previous forecast. It also said it is increasing its expectations for 2021 vaccine production to between 800 million and 1 billion shots, raising the bottom of its range from […]
