World Growth

The IMF’s world economic outlook raised its global growth for 2010 to 4.8%, revised up from 4.6%, however 2011 forecasts have been downgraded to 4.2% from 4.3%. Advanced economies appear to be the hardest hit, with growth of just 2.7% and 2.2% respectively, and they mentioned that monetary authorities “may have to resort to further unconventional measures if private demand weakens”, which may leave the FED open to further Quantitative Easing. Notwithstanding this, Australian growth predictions remain strong at 3% in 2010 and 3.5% in 2011.

Employment:

Employment data is released today with the median market forecast predicting jobs to remain unchanged at 5.1%, however some economists are predicting a drop in 20k to 5%, which may place further pressure on the RBA to hike.