The United States’ (US) second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth was disappointing, coming in at 6.5% instead of the expected 8.5%. However, the US has in fact now recovered from its largest peak-to-trough fall in output on record.
In a recent newsletter, I briefly mentioned our concern around regulatory uncertainty in China. In July, however, this became one of our main themes after the MSCI China, a broad index that tracks the Chinese equity market, fell by 18.8%.
In the United States (US), inflation, once again, surprised to the upside. Compared to June 2020, headline inflation increased to 5.4% in June 2021, up from May’s 5.0%.
How you interpret the world around you and, subsequently, forecast what may be, is based on your worldview.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), together with their new ally, Russia, have, once again, been unable to reach an agreement about global oil supply.
Last week officials from 130 countries, representing 90% of the global gross domestic product (GDP), met virtually to agree on the broad outlines of what would be the most sweeping change in international taxation in a century.
During June, the bipartisan infrastructure negotiations in the United States (US) continued. A $1.2 trillion plan initially emerged from the two parties, which set out additional infrastructure spending close to $600 billion.
Last week United States (US) markets closed the week in negative territory: the Dow Jones fell 1.6%, the S&P 500 lost 1.3%, and the Nasdaq fell 0.9%.
Press reports seem to suggest that United States (US) senators have reached some kind of a bipartisan agreement about President Jo Biden’s infrastructure proposal.
Last week, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) released South Africa’s (SA’s) unemployment statistics for the first quarter of 2021. We are now finally able to start understanding the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic but, even more so, the cost of an ineffective government.
