Reserve Bank of Australia Deputy Governor Guy Debelle expressed optimism on Tuesday that the Australian economy grew in the third quarter of 2020 despite complications from COVID-19. He added that an unemployment rate below 6 percent is a reasonable goal, commenting that the effect of the economic downturn in the state of Victoria is less than previously feared.
Debelle refused to comment regarding the possibility of the Bank expanding its asset purchase program.
"At the moment it looks like the September quarter for the country probably recorded positive growth rather than slightly negative," he said, "The growth elsewhere in the country was more than the drag from Victoria and the drag from Victoria was possibly a little less than what we guessed back in August," he added.
He also said that it's become extremely difficult to forecast now as compared to the past.
So far, 27,541 Covid-19 cases have been reported in Australia, as well as a death toll of 905. Melbourne is now set to exit lockdown, after recording no new cases since June.
By 6:53 GMT the Australian dollar went up by 0.13 percent against the US dollar, hitting the 0.7131 level.
UN: Global Foreign Investment Went Down in The First Half of 2020
The United Nations reported that global foreign investment decreased by 49 percent in the first half of the year and is set to decline by a total of 40 percent this year.
“Global FDI flows for the first half of this year went down by close to half... It was more drastic than we expected for the whole year,” commented the director of UNCTAD’s investment and enterprise division, adding that in 2021 it will fall between 5 and 10 percent.
Investments in US-based businesses fell by 61 percent, while cash infusions to Europe turned negative, from $202 billion to -7 billion. Industrialized countries investments declined the most since 1994, dropping to 98 billion. Investments in China grew by 2.5 percent.