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Asian Markets Higher On Fed Comments
CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Asian stock markets are higher on Thursday, after the Fed announced its widely expected decision to maintain ultra-easy policy. The Fed left interest rates and asset purchases unchanged even as the central bank upgraded its assessment of the U.S. economy. The cues overnight from Wall Street were weak. Asian markets closed mostly higher on Wednesday.
Investors are also awaiting U.S. President Joe Biden s address to a joint session of Congress for clues on further stimulus measures, which may aid in speeding up the global economic rebound from the pandemic.
Rate of inflation disappoints, silencing interest rate doomsayers
By Maja Garaca Djurdjevic
28 April 2021
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1 minute read
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Speculation that the likelihood of rising March quarter inflation data would signal the prospect of interest rate rises has predictably once again fallen well wide of the mark, an economist has said.
Inflation is significantly lower than economists expected, further justifying the Reserve Bank’s decision to keep interest rates at record lows.
According to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, headline inflation rose just 0.6 per cent over the March quarter to 1.1 per cent annually, which is well down on the 0.9 per cent rate recorded over the December quarter and the second consecutive fall in the series.
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at 2:00 pm on April 29, 2021 | 6 comments
The Grattan Institute has released a useful blog post explaining why we shouldn’t concern ourselves with the increase in federal government debt:
A report released this week by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) affirms that there is no need to be concerned about whether our debt levels are sustainable over the medium-term. The PBO does not project any realistic scenario where the overall level of debt fails to stabilise as a share of the economy, and the interest cost of debt – an important measure of debt sustainability – remains at a manageable level in every scenario…
Australian shares closed at their highest level in nearly 14 months on Thursday, extending gains from the previous session when mild inflation data pushed the benchmark index to snap its two-day losing streak.