Germany’s business sentiment worsened more than expected in June as the war in Ukraine, high inflation and supply chain disruptions triggered fears of recession, survey results from the ifo Institute showed on Friday. After rising for two months, the business confidence index dropped to 92.3 in June from 93.0 in the previous month. The index was forecast to fall marginally […]

Self-managed super funds – once the domain of mainly high-income, older investors – are becoming increasingly popular with the young, who want to take more control of their retirement savings. The move comes on the back of droves of millennials becoming newbie sharemarket investors during the pandemic, when many were locked down for long periods with the time to research […]

The consensus among economists and business leaders is that a recession will start late this year or early next. The Biden administration has rejected this point of view, but not with much support. Recessions do not blanket the United States all at once. Presumably, some cities in the southwest that already have very high unemployment will be harmed early. Most […]

The home market has changed radically over the last two years. Home prices rise by over 20% most months, year over year, according to the carefully followed S&P Case Shiller home price analysis. In some cities, the pace is closer to 30%. Low mortgage rates have driven a large portion of the buying. Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages dropped below […]

The chaos and dysfunction in the national electricity market this week flows from the collision of a number of unexpected events with long-term vulnerabilities. It was, however, eminently foreseeable and therefore an indictment on policymakers over a very long period. There was a series of largely unrelated issues that led to this week’s unprecedented decision by the Australian Energy Market […]

Even after central banks recognised they got their inflation calls wrong last year, they’ve continued to flub their policy guidance, threatening greater damage to their credibility, roiling markets and undermining the pandemic recovery. The Federal Reserve now hiked interest rates by 75 basis points overnight, just weeks after Chair Jerome Powell and his team repeatedly advertised a half percentage point […]

The rental crisis is growing, with the cost of renting a capital city house soaring about 15 per cent over the past 12 months, with the cost of renting a unit jumping about 13 per cent. Data from SQM Research also show the rental vacancy rate in Sydney remained at 1.6 per cent in April, unchanged from March. It exceeded […]

Vladimir Putin’s annual economic forum in St. Petersburg was always a hot ticket for Russian and foreign business tycoons eager to curry favour with the Kremlin by hosting glitzy parties or announcing major investments. His invasion of Ukraine has made it a radioactive one. Many business leaders are concerned about even being seen at this year’s St. Petersburg International Economic […]

When Hui Ka Yan headlined a high-profile philanthropic event in 2018, he spoke at length about how he subsisted on sweet potatoes as a child in his home village. The China Evergrande Group chairman was in his prime — with $US40 billion ($55.6 billion) in wealth, he rivalled Jack Ma as the nation’s richest person. He made a point to […]

The UK construction sector expanded at the weakest pace in four months in May, due to a significant fall in residential activity, survey results from S&P Global and the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply showed on Wednesday. The CIPS construction Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 56.4 in May from 58.2 in April. A score above 50.0 indicates expansion in […]