The author has been described by News Ltd as an "iconoclast", "Svengali", a pollie's "economist muse", and "pungently accurate". Fairfax says he is a "Renaissance man" and "one of Australia’s most respected analysts." Stephen Koukoulas concludes that he is "85% right", and "would make a great Opposition leader." Terry McCrann claims the author thinks "‘nuance’ is a trendy village in the south of France", but can be "scintillating" when he thinks "clearly". The ACTU reckons he’s "an enigma wrapped in a Bloomberg terminal, wrapped in some apparently well-honed abs."

Friday, July 9, 2010

Rory Robertson on China

Macquarie's Rory Robertson had this to say today:

"[T]he RBA’s latest seasonally adjusted estimates for Chinese industrial production continue to show a very steep uptrend (page 11).

The IMF has noticed the same thing, today upgrading its 2010 global growth forecast - to 4.6% from 4.2% - on the back of recent stronger-than-expected growth in Asia - including in China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam - as well as across the remaining BRICs - Brazil, India and Russia (page 12 and see table here).

Notwithstanding stronger growth in the first half, the IMF highlights an assessment that “downside risks have risen sharply amid renewed financial turbulence”. (Governor Stevens noted last month that despite all the global worries about “downside risks”, global outcomes over the past year have been “noticeably better than what was expected”, as it “was the ‘upside’ risks that, in fact, materialised”.)"
at 12:34 AM