Share This

Friday, November 13, 2020

China extends congratulations to Biden, Harris






Biden Photo: AFP 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday extended the country's congratulations to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and said China respects the choice of the Americans.

Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said that we have been watching the domestic and international reaction to the US presidential election, and we respect the choices of the Americans.

"We extend congratulations to Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris, and we also understand that the US election result will be decided in accordance with US laws and procedures," Wang said at Friday's media briefing.

Wang's remarks came after several world leaders and representatives of international organizations have congratulated Biden, who was declared the winner of the recent election.

Source link

 Related post:

US President-elect Joe Biden has announced he will form a task force of scientists and experts to bring COVID-19 under control in ...
 

America’s third Covid-19 surges 

 

US President-elect Joe Biden to form pandemic task force as the superspreader of Coronavirus worsen

 

 Related news:

 

Biden drives a wedge between China and Japan in first call with Suga

The improvement in China-Japan ties does not come easily, and needs to be cherished more. It is hoped that the two countries can meet each other halfway and properly handle their divergences so as to open up new vistas of their bilateral relationship.

Biden will closely follow US road of traditional defense policy

Yet there is little possibility that the Biden administration will accidentally ignite a conflict in the South China Sea. However, the chances that Trump will do so in the final days of presidency are rising sharply as he needs to leave a wealthy legacy for the military industries before he officially leaves office. But for Biden, dealing with the messy relations with other countries will be his priority after dealing with the COVID-19 virus and troubled US economy.

 

Pompeo's dirty smears will never obliterate faith in CPC

Chinese people's living situation justifies the CPC's leadership, and Pompeo's malicious rhetoric fools no one. Haunted by the “Marxist-Leninismonster” in his brain, Pompeo and his like are dragging the American people into a capitalist black hole. It's very likely that Pompeo will eventually retreat from his position in months. By then, Pompeo's claims against China will sound like his political will. Yet China's booming development will attest that Pompeo is the “worst Secretary of State in history.”

 

Pompeo's last-ditch provocation on Taiwan question leaves Biden a mess to fix: experts

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at the last moment of his term, has once again provoked China by saying that "Taiwan has not been a part of China," which is against the US' official stance and the foundation for China and the US in establishing their formal diplomatic ties, but Chinese experts said such a trick is unlikely to affect the policymaking of the new administration. 

Pompeo's inglorious days as state secretary nearly over…get ready to go…

Pompeo is tampering with the DNA of human diplomacy and has insulted and offended the world's diplomats by showing a bad example of his own.

 

West's politicization of vaccine hurts its anti-virus efforts

The West's slander of China's vaccine also mirrors their fear about China's rapid rise in science and technology. They do not believe China is able to develop effective vaccine as they have been viewing China with pride and prejudice

America’s third Covid-19 surges

America is in the middle of its third nationwide surge in Covid-19 cases — what some are calling a “third wave” — with reported cases hitting a record high of more than 100,000 in one day.

With that, the much-feared fall and winter surge of coronavirus cases that experts warned of for months is here. Despite the US already suffering at least 235,000 Covid-19 deaths — the highest death toll in the world — it looks like things are getting worse.

As of November 8, the seven-day average of daily new coronavirus cases was more than 111,000, a record high. That’s up from a recent low in the seven-day average of fewer than 35,000 cases on September 12. The increase doesn’t appear to be driven by a single state or region — although the Dakotas, Iowa, and Wisconsin appear to be in particularly bad shape — but rather spikes across much of the country at once, with more cases reported in the Northeast, Midwest, South, and West.

The spike is partly due to more testing exposing more cases. But that can’t be the full explanation, because hospitalizations and the overall rate of positive tests are trending up. Over the most recent week of data, the seven-day average for daily tests increased by only 9 percent while daily new coronavirus cases increased by 34 percent.

Unlike the summer’s surge of coronavirus, the US isn’t alone in its latest wave — cases have risen in much of Europe, too. Still, that doesn’t mean this was inevitable: With aggressive measures, developed nations like Canada, Germany, and especially Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea have kept their Covid-19 caseloads much lower than America’s or Europe’s as a whole. And many European countries, unlike the US, have started to tame their outbreaks with new measures, from lockdowns to mask mandates.

Experts have long warned that a surge was coming in the US in the colder seasons. Even though the country never fully suppressed its summer surge in Covid-19 cases, most states have moved to reopen more businesses, including risky indoor spaces like restaurants and bars, as well as schools, with colleges and universities proving particularly problematic so far.

President Donald Trump, for his part, has encouraged the rapid reopenings — even after his own illness. As he left the hospital, Trump tweeted, “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.” He’s kept pushing a false sense of normalcy in the weeks since, even going as far as mocking masks and claiming, falsely, that they’re ineffective. (In reality, the evidence for masks keeps getting stronger.)

Source link

 

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Budget 2021 – Great expectations

 

LAST Friday, the Finance Minister tabled what is now known as Malaysia’s largest-ever budget.

The excellently-crafted and well-written budget was presented in a couple of hours and after it was presented, the social media, mainstream media, economists, consulting firms and investment banking strategists gave their views on the measures, especially those related to taxes, incentives or grants.

Now that Budget 2021 has been tabled, lawmakers will debate on the merits and vote on it. Having covered budgets for more than two decades, the devil is in the details and this year is not an exception.

Let’s look at the gross domestic product (GDP) estimate first. The government expects GDP growth for 2020 to contract by 4.5% and for next year, it is estimated to grow by between 6.5% and 7.5% in real terms. For the economy to close the year with the projected contraction, the second half of 2020 has a very small room to contract by only 0.7% as the economy shrank 8.3% in the first half.

This is a tall order as economic data remains largely weak as seen in several indicators, which include the industrial production index as well as the poor reading in the retail sub-segment.

With almost the entire nation under the conditional movement control order, economic growth, if any, will be challenging.

Meanwhile, in nominal terms, the government expects GDP growth to be -4.7% this year and to rise significantly by almost 9% in 2021, as inflation is expected to return with a reading of 2.5%, mainly due to the low base effect from 2020.

Perhaps when the Bank Negara releases the third quarter GDP data on Friday, we can then assess if the full year GDP assumption still holds water or otherwise.

For 2021, the government expects GDP growth to be driven by domestic demand, in particular growth from private consumption while the external sector may post some drag as imports are forecast to grow even faster than exports.

On the supply side, the government expects the services and manufacturing sectors, which account for 80% of the economy, to grow by 7% each while construction is expected to bounce back with a near 14% leap in 2021 after the forecast drop of 18.7% this year. From here, we can observe that one of the key drivers of the economy next year is public investment, as the government has bumped up development expenditure to the tune of RM69bil for 2021 from the adjusted figure of RM50bil this year (which was previously forecast to be at RM56bil).

The government’s total expenditure is now broken into three main buckets – other than operating expenditure and development expenditure, we now have a new line item called the Covid-19 Fund with an allocation of RM38bil this year and RM17bil next year.

In essence, since the pandemic outbreak, the government has introduced various economic stimulus packages under its Prihatin package series and the Penjana package, which in total amounted to RM305bil, while the actual direct fiscal injection totaled RM55bil.

However, under the Temporary Measures for Government Financing (Coronavirus Disease 2019) Act, the Parliament had only approved a ceiling of RM45bil for the fund and hence the Minister has proposed, taking into consideration the nation’s need up to 2022, an amendment that will be tabled to raise the fund to RM65bil, an increase of RM20bil.

This increase that was mentioned in the budget speech is meant for the RM10bil Kita Prihatin package, additional assistance for people’s well-being, as well as to secure the supply of the much-needed vaccine. The table above summarises the government’s revenue projection for this year and the next.

The expected revenue for the second half of the year and into 2021 will be challenging for the government, given the level it had achieved in the first half. As it is, the second half forecast is 23.3% higher than the first half.

In addition, for 2021, revenue and expenditure are expected to increase by 4.2% and 4.3% respectively, which will likely be tough given the tax breaks that the government is proposing, in particular, company income tax (CITA) and personal direct taxes.

Based on government’s estimate, taxes from the two sources are expected to fall by 6.8% and 7.2% this year but will bounce back strongly in 2021 with a growth of 8.8% and 18.2% respectively.Interestingly, the 2021 forecast for CITA and personal direct taxes at RM64.6bil and RM42.4bil is higher than 2019’s figure by 1.3% and 9.7% respectively.

As for expenditure, as total federal government debt stood at RM874.3bil mark or 60.7% of GDP as at end of September 2020, the government’s Debt Service Charges (DSC) too have deteriorated.

From an estimated level of 15.4% of GDP this year, DSC is expected to drop further to 16.5% in 2021, mainly driven by 11.6% increase in absolute DSC to RM39bil.

Although both the DSC ratio in 2020 and 2021 will be higher than the self-imposed fiscal limit ratio of 15%, it is hoped that by beyond 2021, this ratio will be brought under control when the economy is expected to expand further.

All in, Budget 2021 measures are holistic and inclusive for all levels of society and have been cleverly crafted to address the challenges faced by Malaysians, especially those severely impacted by Covid-19.The government has largely listened to the voices of hope in addressing the pandemic world.

Having said that, the expected government’s revenue and GDP projections are rather optimistic, resulting in a much lower budget deficit figure while the forecast government tax revenues too are on the high side. While the DSC has now surpassed the self-imposed ceiling, the government’s debt to GDP ratio is expected to remain elevated for at least this year and in 2021.It is important for the lawmakers to approve this budget as the government has taken steps in keeping the economy going.

While there are some shortcomings in the terms of budget allocations, it is hoped that this can be ironed out during the parliamentary debate stage and all lawmakers come to an consensus to approve the gigantic budget.

Pankaj C. Kumar is a long-time investment analyst. Views expressed here are his own. 

Source link





The FM really got SHOCKED when LGE asked him whether the budget was approved by the cabinet. Watch the video.


Related post:


https://www.malaymail.com/ news/malaysia/2020/11/07/ budget-2021-highlights-heres- what-malaysians-can-expect- get-directly-tax-br/1920199 ...
 
Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob said only Perlis, Pahang and Kelantan are exempted from the CMCO New Covid-19 cases at.


European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde (pic) said the economic recovery is “losing momentum more rapidly than expected” after