Economy
Updates on the state of the economy, growth, inflation, and employment.
More signs of economic strength in the United States have emerged with jobless claims dropping to a seven-month low and sales of existing homes bouncing back strongly. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 213,000 for the week ended 16 November, which was lowest since April and slightly below expectations. This figure, showing the number people filing for unemployment insurance for the first time, is seen as an early indicator of job market trends and a sign of the health of the U.S. economy. However, continuing claims rose 36,000 to 1,908,000 in the week ended 9 November, somewhat above expectations, according to data from the Labor Department. Meanwhile, sales of existing homes sales rose to a seasonally adjusted 3.96 million units in October, 3.4% more than in September, the National Association of Realtors said in a statement. This was slightly above consensus expectations, according to Goldman Sachs. Sales rose 2.9% from one year ago, the first year-over-year increase in more than three years. The data measures sales and prices of existing single-family homes, including condominiums and co-operatives. "The worst of the downturn in home sales could
Swiss voters will decide on whether to approve the A$60.8 million budget to host the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest on Sunday. Eurovision is set to be held in the Basel-Stadt region in May. The Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland, a right-wing political party, collected signatures to trigger a referendum on the budget. "This is a totally disproportionate public expenditure, a true waste,” said Philippe Karoubi, a party board member. Karoubi also said Eurovision had become "a vector of ideological provocations, which are clearly contrary to Western Judeo-Christian values.” Eurovision is planned to last 10 days, including public events around the city of Basel as well as the main televised contest. If voters block the budget, Eurovision will be cut down to a single televised event. “Eurovision will need to be scaled way back,” according to Eurovision 2025 communications lead Edi Estermann. "And that would of course create far lower value for the city and for all of Switzerland." Swiss singer Nemo won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2024. The winning country is typically asked to host the contest the following year.
The Australian Government has directed the nation’s A$230 billion sovereign wealth fund to consider “national priorities” in its investment decisions. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the Future Fund’s priorities would be increasing the supply of residential housing, supporting the energy transition as part of the net zero transformation of the economy, and delivering improved infrastructure including economic resilience and security infrastructure “The Fund’s primary focus will remain on maximising its returns, and at the same time, our changes will help it maximise its role in delivering for Australians in the future,” Chalmers aid in a media statement. He said the Government would not start drawdowns from the Fund until at least 2032–33, by which time it was expected to grow to $380 billion. The fund’s primary objective would continue to be to maximise returns, the benchmark return rate would remain at 4-5% above inflation rate over the long term, and there would be no change to the expected risk profile. The decision was welcomed by the Future Fund but criticised by the Opposition. “The Government’s decision to defer withdrawals from the Future Fund until at least 2032-33 provides the Future Fund with the confi
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed 37 new trade and business agreements at a meeting on Wednesday. The deals will allow more than US$150 billion of bilateral trade, as well as cooperation on environmental protection, scientific research, and telecommunications. "China-Brazil relations are now at their best moment ever,” said Xi. “We are determined to build our cooperation over the next 50 years in areas such as sustainable infrastructure, energy transition, artificial intelligence, digital economy, health and aerospace,” Lula said. While Brazil declined to join China’s Belt and Road initiative last month, these new agreements would facilitate cooperation between Brazilian government programmes and the Belt and Road. This will include a link between Brazil and the China-funded Chancay port in Peru. Chinese satellite company SpaceSail, a competitor to Starlink, struck a deal to enter the Brazilian market during Xi and Lula’s meeting. Brazilian food processing company BRF will purchase a factory in Henan for $43 million. BNDES, Brazil’s state bank, will receive a $690 million loan from China Development Bank. Lula and Xi met in Brasilia, following the G20 summ
Businesses are reporting their highest levels of failure since the COVID pandemic. New data released by CreditorWatch showed that businesses across Australia were at a four-year high for closures in the month of October. The insolvency rate reached 5.04%, following just behind the previous peak of 5.08% in October 2020. Broadened to an annual basis, failure rates were found to be approximately 25% higher than they were pre-pandemic. CreditorWatch identified three main commonalities for these failed businesses: the rise in cost of living, higher costs of doing business, and the Australian Taxation Office's ongoing campaign to recover $35 billion owed in tax debts. Chief economist for the agency, Ivan Colhoun, expects business failure rates to remain higher as these price pressures continue to persist in the economy. “Together with some greater caution in discretionary spending and softness in interest-rate-sensitive sectors of the economy, this unsurprisingly has led to higher voluntary business closures and some rise in insolvencies." said Colhoun. Hospitality was the industry reporting the highest insolvencies, with construction coming in second, with both industries reporting the most businesses wi
