Suchergebnisse

As the digital economy continues to evolve, we are seeing a rising call for both balance and fairness. The concerns for an appropriate balance between economic benefits and the preservation of privacy are prompted by the nature of data and its flows. Concerns over fairness arise from taxation disparity between traditional and digital firms. Such concerns have led countries to initiate talks for setting up new rules for digital trade and digital tax. As of today, no digital trade rules are present at the WTO-level ‒ while there is the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) for goods trade and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) for services trade ‒ despite how the current tax system is the subject of wide criticism by countries that are engaged in international trade.

Plans, priorities and public finances must be revised to ensure the Covid-19 virus is contained and the negative impacts of the virus are minimized. The government is responding but the impacts of the pandemic and containment measures are far reaching. New risks have emerged, and many plans, approved by the hluttaw in September 2019, are no longer feasible and may even be dangerous. Government revenues have been impacted by the changed business environment and by government regulation. Essential government entities that rely on own source revenues will require Union government support to continue. Funding for response efforts may be found in cancelled government activities and additional borrowing. Government officials will need to use the full flexibility allowed by the financial management framework to respond quickly. The scale of changes to the budget will likely require an additional supplementary budget. How the government delivers support to people will determine the success or failure of containment measures. The government's commitment to ensuring access to food and medicine should be applauded- though cash may be more efficient.

This article examines how competition authorities and international organizations respond to the unprecedented crisis during COVID-19. This article, then, sketches what challenges we will face for competition policy environments post this current pandemic. Among others, the currently ongoing digitalization would be anticipated to accelerate and demand towards big governments strengthened while globalization more retreated to localization post pandemic. Responding to each of these challenges, this article demonstrates what competition authorities have to prepare and change in the new normal

New Zealand has managed the COVID-19 outbreak with relative success, in terms of containing infection rates and deaths. This has seen New Zealand move down alert levels over the past few weeks as we achieved zero active cases, with restrictions relaxed but the border closed. However, the impact of the outbreak on the economy is undeniable. The effects have also been uneven across the industries, and this will affect the recovery ahead. We assess the policy implications and key considerations for Government spending as we gear up for this recovery.

There remains a wide range of views amongst the Shadow Board on whether more monetary policy stimulus is required, and in what form. Overall, the consensus amongst the Shadow Board is that more stimulus would be required over the next twelve months, with the majority favouring an expansion of the Reserve Bank's quantitative easing programme. There was little support amongst the Shadow Board for the OCR going into negative territory at the upcoming meeting, although some members thought such a move would be required over the coming year. Members noted a negative OCR was unlikely to be effective in stimulating the economy, while highlighting the risks which include encouraging people to save more in order to achieve their savings goals (thus reducing spending) and reducing business confidence. When it comes to the quantitative easing programme, most Shadow Board members felt an expansion of the programme was appropriate. Some members also advocated the Reserve Bank expand bond purchases to include council and Housing NZ debt. Increasing its asset purchase programme was generally seen as a more effective way for the Reserve Bank to support the Government in stimulating the economy.

The role of banking sector in post COVID-19 revival of business and economic recovery will be very critical which, in turn, depends on financial soundness of the sector. This study not only evaluates the financial soundness of the banking sector of Pakistan but also assesses the ability of banking sector to respond to financial pressures in the times of crisis, i.e. COVID-19 pandemic in this case. For this, IMF's Bankometer S-score model has been employed. Data for the financial assessment of all the banks in industry and top 10 banks with largest share in market for a period of six years (2014-2019) has been used for the stress testing. The findings suggest that banking sector in general and major banks of the country in particular are in exceptionally sound financial position. In other words, banking sector of Pakistan has the ability to fully finance post COVID-19 revival of businesses for economic recovery.

This ADBI newsletter is published periodically throughout the year to provide information on current events, seminars and summits, Job opportunities, blogs and news and current publications concerning growth and development in Asia and the Pacific.

The Bangladesh economy, from the very beginning of the ongoing fiscal year, has been grappling with formidable challenges which have been exacerbated by the outbreak of COVID-19. The budget had to be designed and delivered on a relatively weak foundation.

A key assumption of the analysis is that gambling households' income deciles reflect the deprivation decile (NZDep) of the area they live in. This assumption was necessary due to a lack of evidence that would allow gambling households' expenditure patterns to be identified. Making this assumption allowed for a higher weighting to be attached to the spending patterns of poorer households, rather than using an average household expenditure pattern. This provided an approach that would be more realistic given the high density of Class 4 gambling venues and machines in high deprivation areas, the higher prevalence of gambling amongst Māori and Pacific people (Thimasarn-Anwar et al., 2018), the high representation of Māori in the Ministry of Health's gambling services user data (Ministry of Health, 2019), and the significantly higher spend on Class 4 gambling by people living in high deprivation areas (Ward et al., 2020).

A power point presentation of the provisional estimates of GPD growth in FY2020. The estimates of GDP has been under scrutiny for past several years due to its apparent disjuncture with several other key macroeconomic and development correlates including private sector credit, revenue mobilisation, import payments for capital machineries, energy consumption, export receipts, employment generation etc.

The surge in online shopping during the pandemic has been accompanied by an equivalent growth in digital payments, including the use of new digital currencies that lie beyond the purview of central banks. This has raised concerns about the control of money supply and execution of monetary policy. Central banks responded with pilot studies of their own digital currencies (CBDCs). Among those at the forefront of these efforts is the People's Bank of China, with the stated objective of internationalisation of the yuan. What will a digital yuan entail domestically for China, and what concerns and opportunities could it create for ASEAN?

Major objectives of the press briefing are: To release WEF's Global Competitiveness Report 2020 in Bangladesh; To report the state of competitiveness of Bangladesh in 2019 particularly in the backdrop of the covid-19 pandemic; To give voice to concerns as regards business environment in Bangladesh.

The key objectives of the present analysis: Capture the dynamics of the macroeconomic performance during the 7th FYP period with a view to understanding the benchmark macroeconomic scenario for the 8th FYP period; Review the impact of COVID 19 on macroeconomic performance during FY20 and FY21 and its possible implications for achieving the targets set forth for 8th FYP; Review possible impact and implications of Bangladesh's graduation from the LDC group in 2024; Recommend policy priorities in view of 8th FYP to enable Bangladesh have robust COVID recovery and prepare for sustainable LDC graduation, with a view to achieving key goals and targets of the SDGs.

We are continuing to seek our Shadow Board members' views on whether the Official Cash Rate (OCR) should be negative and if the Reserve Bank should expand its quantitative easing (QE). Board members once again saw a reduced need for a negative OCR and further QE over the coming year. The expected implementation of a Funding for Lending programme (FLP) by the Reserve Bank was highlighted by some Board members as an influence on their view about the need for further stimulus. The Reserve Bank has indicated it was likely to implement the programme to offer secure long-term funding at low interest rates to banks by the end of this year. The aim of the FLP was to reduce borrowing costs for households and businesses in order to encourage them to borrow and invest. Shadow Board members continue to highlight the challenges facing New Zealand as it navigates the post-COVID recovery. However, members generally remain sceptical about the effectiveness of a negative OCR to stimulate the economy.

Annual reports generally look outwards. They are usually meant to showcase an organisation's yearly performance mostly for outsiders: general public, supporters, partners, donors etc. Consequently, most of them fall in the category of promotional literature. The Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) has taken a different route this year: Our annual report for 2019 speaks as much to others as it does to the organisation itself. Not as a monologue but as a conversation. Not as a reverie but as an exchange of ideas. Questionnaires were circulated, templates were moved around and discussions were held to achieve that objective. The outcome is this document that aims simultaneously at introspection and prognosis.