China’s fall into deflation territory has accelerated, after consumer prices fell 0.5% per cent in November, the sharpest decline in three years.
The drop in prices highlighted weakness in China’s economy, and pushed China’s CSI 300 share index down to a near five-year low today. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also dropped, down around 1%.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, points out that signs of fragility are now starting to be felt in the service sector.
A senior International Monetary Fund official has warned that the world economy is on the brink of a second cold war that could “annihilate” progress made since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s first deputy managing director, said the accelerating fragmentation of the world economy into regional power blocs – centred around the US and China – risked wiping out trillions of dollars in global output.
IMF warns of risks of Cold War II
Newsflash: The global economy is on the brink of a second cold war, a senior International Monetary Fund official is warning.
Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s first deputy managing director, is concerned that the accelerating fragmentation of the world economy into regional power blocs risked destroying trillions of dollars in global output.
That would wipe out progress made since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Speaking to the 20th World Congress of the International Economic Association today, Gopinath points out that national security concerns are shaping economic policy worldwide.
Microsoft and labour unions form AI alliance
Microsoft is teaming up with US unions to create “an open dialogue” on how artificial intelligence will impact workers, amid concerns that AI could eliminate millions of jobs.
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and Microsoft say the new partnership will discuss how AI must anticipate the needs of workers and include their voices in its development and implementation.
They say the partnership is the first between a tech company and a union to focus on AI, and will look at three issues:
- sharing in-depth information with labor leaders and workers on AI technology trends;
- incorporating worker perspectives and expertise in the development of AI technology; and
- helping shape public policy that supports the technology skills and needs of frontline workers.