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Showing posts from November, 2008

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Russia Holds Key Rate at 21% Amid Surging Inflation

The Bank of Russia unexpectedly maintained its key interest rate at a record-high  21% , defying analysts’ expectations of another significant hike as inflation remains stubbornly elevated. The decision marks a shift toward a more measured approach in balancing economic growth and price stability. Key Details Inflation Concerns: Annual inflation climbed to  8.9%  in November, well above the central bank’s  4% target , with inflation expectations reaching  13.9%  in December. Policy Rationale: The central bank cited the significant tightening of monetary conditions after October’s  200-basis point hike  as sufficient to resume disinflationary processes. Governor Elvira Nabiullina emphasized avoiding both economic overheating and severe slowdowns. Economic Overheating: Elevated government spending on the war in Ukraine and social programs, coupled with labor shortages and rising wages, have fueled strong domestic demand, exacerbating price pressures...

The internet is the market of tomorrow

I was blogging about Adsense and all in this blog... Idle Page It was at this point that I realize the internet is the market of tomorrow. At the moment, most people look at internet business in the form of freelance writing and other etc. But in the near future, I believe with almost everyone having the access to internet themselves, the market will be big enough to attract people into channelling their business strategies into the cyber world. At the moment, only big company like Amazon and E-bay that is gaining popularity. However even in Malaysia we have Mudah and some other lelong online market. Although we must take into consideration the fact that some of these companies are not reliable but with strengthening markets in the internet, big companies will start to consider the internet as their main play ground. Some of the rough ideas that I could give you is this: The tuition place has been crowded with students and hence more and more parents are concern about the reliability ...

Petrol Tax for Net Oil Exporter

When I was reading the news on theStar online (www.thestar.com.my), I got a bit shocked. The Malaysian government not only not giving petrol subsidy for Malaysian, but now starting to earn revenue from the current petrol price at RM2.00 ( source ). While shocked, I was not surprised. Well, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that we are actually paying the government when the crude oil price was below USD60 per barrel. As mention by my previous post that we did actually pay the petrol tax ..... source , it seems that now it's OFFICIAL that we, Malaysian, born in a nation producing oil will have to pay petrol tax. Well, previously they do not want to admit it, but at least this time they admit they are actually getting return by reducing the petrol price 15 cents to RM2.00 and they can still earn some money out of it. I will need to search for more details to confirm that we will be the 1st net oil producer to impose tax on petrol. Until now, I can see that majority ne...

Recession.....now Japan into recession as well

It seems that more and more countries are slipping into recession. Euro zone, Singapore and now Japan. Here's what I have from theStar online:- Japan's economy slid into a recession for the first time since 2001, the government said Monday, as companies sharply cut back on spending in the third quarter amid the unfolding global financial crisis. The world's second-largest economy contracted at an annual pace of 0.4 percent in the July-September period after a declining an annualized 3.7 percent in the second quarter. That means Japan, along with the 15-nation euro-zone, is now technically in a recession, defined as two straight quarters of contraction. The result was worse than expected. Economists surveyed by Kyodo News agency had predicted an annualized 0.1 percent rise in the third quarter. Japan's Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano said following the data's release that "the economy is in a recessionary phase,'' according to Kyodo. But the worst may be y...

Buy Stocks or Hold Cash!!

I just read an article regarding the strategy to buy stocks or hold cash and I thought it might be suitable to post it over here. OVER the past few weeks, as a result of the sharp plummet on the stock market, some investors regret not selling their stocks early as almost all of their stocks have been incurring huge losses. However, the market recovery over the past few days caused some investors to again regret — not buying stocks when the stock market hit the bottom. The decision to hold more cash or stocks is one of the most difficult decisions to make. According to a study by Gary P. Brinson, L. Randolph Hood and Gilbert L. Beebower in 1986, 95% of the variance of fund returns was the result of the asset allocation decision. Hence, the right asset allocation between cash and stocks plays a very important role in determining the returns of a portfolio. In this article, we will look into two key strategies in asset allocation, namely the constant mix (CM) and the constant proportion ...