Hi I am Rachael and you are watching Kalkine TV live from Sydney. This is the Economic Corner
show– where we update you on all the biggest global economic announcements. First up on
the Economic Corner today is a news update from Iran - Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s hardline judiciary
chief, won a landslide victory in the country’s presidential election. Raisi won 61.95 percent of
the vote in Friday’s election on a voter turnout of 48.8 percent. Raisi will take office in August,
replacing moderate President Hassan Rouhani who was not allowed by the constitution to run for a
third consecutive term. He is taking charge at a critical time, as Iran seeks to salvage its
tattered nuclear deal with major powers and free itself from punishing US sanctions that
have driven a sharp economic downturn. There were mixed reactions from the World on Raisi’s victory
- The United States said it regretted that Iranians were not able to participate
in a “free and fair electoral process” in the country’s presidential election. A
spokesperson for the US Department of State said Washington will nonetheless continue indirect
talks with Tehran on rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir
Putin congratulated Raisi and expressed hopes for “further development of a constructive bilateral
cooperation.” Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed his reaction in a tweet and said
he looked forward to working with Raisi towards “further strengthening of our fraternal ties”
between Pakistan and Iran for “regional peace, progress and prosperity.” Moving
on to an important comment from the Australian Trade Minister on China
- China's anti-dumping duties on Australian wine have seen local industry exports plummet
from about $1.1 billion to just $20 million. Trade Minister Dan Tehan said that the actions taken by
the Chinese government have caused serious harm to the Australian wine industry. The duties slapped
on wines produced in Australia range between 116 per cent and 220 per cent, with China confirming
in March that the tariffs would remain for five years. Because of this, Australia will now take
China to the World Trade Organization over China's imposition of tariffs on the country's
wine. Mr Tehan acknowledged a WTO dispute could take between two and four years to resolve. He
added that the Australian government would like to be able to sit down and resolve this dispute
directly with China - but if they can't, Australia is prepared to go through the process. The
decision comes amid worsening relations with Australia's biggest trading partner. It's the
ninth dispute that Australia has taken to the WTO. Australia has already complained
to the WTO over China's blocking of barley, one of several commodities that have become entangled in
the growing rift between the countries. Moving on to some market-moving comments from the
Fed - Federal Reserve official James Bullard that the U.S. central bank might raise interest rates
sooner than previously expected. President of the St. Louis Federal Reserve, Bullard is among
the seven officials who saw rate increases beginning next year to contain inflation.
Inflation, and how the U.S. central bank will tackle it as the country comes out of the
pandemic, had been front-and-center of investors' minds in the run-up to the policy meeting,
which ended on Wednesday.Well, now its time for a short break. Stay tuned I’ll be back in a moment.
Hi, Welcome back, I am Rachael and you are watching Kalkine TV live from Sydney. This
is the Economic Corner show. Lets look at some News update from the pandemic recovery phase While
COVID-19 initially started as a local outbreak in East-Asia, it quickly developed into a pandemic.
COVID-19 has far from run its course as numerous new cases are still confirmed each
day. Especially in India and Brazil, the spread of the virus is still far from under control. As per
the Rabobank’s Covid-19 Economic dashboard, India currently tops the list of most new cases per day
while the virus is also far from under control in Brazil. Data on growth rates show a mixed picture
with some economies shrinking and other economies experiencing some quarter-on-quarter growth. On
the other hand, Vaccination programs are in full swing in the developed economies.
Israel, the UK and the US are well on their way, whilst the vaccination pace is picking up in
Europe. Measures are gradually eased and sentiment indicators have improved markedly. Central banks
have taken a slew of measures to alleviate liquidity and funding issues in markets,
to prevent interest rate spreads from rising sharply and to support government bond
issuance. Most central banks have cut interest rates and have announced liquidity support
measures and re-established or introduced large scale asset purchase programs.Some
examples of this global impact are: the initial decline in commodity prices, the drop in tourism
and the drop in external demand. Moreover, changes in global risk aversion could cause
capital outflows from the Emerging Markets, causing their currencies to depreciate,
and in some cases making servicing foreign currency denominated debt more difficult. Moving
on from the pandemic news update to other major news story - An ambitious plan for 15 West African
countries to adopt a common currency has been pushed back to 2027. the Economic Community
of West African States said in a statement on Saturday that ‘The eco’ – which was meant to
have been launched in 2020, was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and its aftershocks. The
Eco West African States Commission President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou said that they now have
a new road map and the new convergence path that will cover the period of 2022 to 2026 and they
will be launching the eco in 2027. The West African bloc has been pursuing a common currency
project for more than two decades to help remove trade barriers, ease the cost of doing business,
and boost economic growth in a region of more than 380 million people. Within the bloc,
eight countries that already share the CFA franc have started reforms of their own ahead of the
wider currency project. Well, now its time for a short break. Stay tuned I’ll be back in a moment.
Hi, Welcome back, I am Rachael and you are watching Kalkine TV live from Sydney. This
is the Economic Corner show. Lets look at some Important Economic Data Announcements
Asking prices for British homes between mid-May and early June rose by 0.8%
compared with a month before. Property website Rightmove said that it is the biggest rise for
the time of year since 2015, as available housing remains in short supply. The increase is less than
the 1.8% recorded a month earlier but still takes asking prices 7.5% above their level
in early March 2020, before Britain went into its first COVID lockdown. Meanwhile, Australian retail
turnover rose 0.1 per cent in May 2021according to preliminary retail trade figures released today
by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Ben James, Director of Quarterly Economy Wide Surveys,
said: "There were mixed results across the industries and states and territories,
with COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria impacting the May result. Victoria fell 1.5 per cent as the
state entered its fourth lockdown on May 28 with trade restricted for physical stores." Victoria
saw falls across all industries except for food retailing, where spending increased in
the lead up to the lockdown in the last week of May. The falls in Victoria were offset by rises
in Queensland (1.5 per cent) and Western Australia (1.5 per cent). Nationally, at an industry level,
food retailing led the rises, offset by falls in household goods retailing,
and clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing. Moving on to the important economic
events that are lined up for the week - The Bank of England gives us a fresh monetary
policy update this week as inflation pressure starts to build. Elsewhere, Purchase managers
index data comes from the US, UK and EU. OPEC and allies have a busy week with another range of
policy-deciding meetings kicking off. The UK’s central bank will deliver its latest monetary
policy decision against a backdrop of fast economic growth and rising inflation. Governor
Bailey has repeatedly stated in the past that if prices consistently outstrip the Bank of England’s
2% inflation target, he’ll have no problems tightening up policy. The BoE’s base rate
has remained at 0.1% for the past year as part of the range of emergency pandemic economic measures
enacted by the bank. Consumer price inflation rose 2.1% on an annualised basis in May,
according to Office of National Statistics figures released last week. Month-to-month
inflation clocked in at 0.6%. Turning to data, purchasing manager index readings from the US,
UK and EU are released this week. All these major economies will be looking to build on
May’s impressive momentum. May was also a good month for Eurozone business activity. IHS Markit’s
composite EU PMI reached a three-year high, with a score of 57.1, comfortably above April’s
53.8. Sticking with data, the final reading of US first quater growth is also due this week.
Away from raw economic data, OPEC and allies are set to gather on Thursday
for another series of meetings. Any unexpected spikes in production output,
as opposed to OPEC+’s current steady tapering programme, could result in oversupply, despite
confident global demand recovery forecasts. OPEC+ decided in April to return 2.1 million barrels
per day (bpd) of supply to the market between May and July. The cartel is sticking with its
optimistic oil demand outlook. Its June monthly report states demand would rise by 6.6% to
hit 5.95 million bpd in 2021. The forecast was unchanged for a second consecutive month. Well,
that’s all for now. Keep watching kalkine tv as we bring you latest news
and trending market updates live from Sydney.