JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) - Good Morning! United States’ (US) Secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has landed in Indonesia and have an agenda to meet President Joko Widodo and other parties. One of the agenda is to discuss Indo-Pacific vision amid the increased US - China rivalry.
Before come to Indonesia, Pompeo has visited Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Vietnam with the same issues. Then he will fly to India to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several government officials.
In Europe, president of European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, has scheduled to give an update on the latest monetary policy for this month. In September, the central bank kept the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility remain unchanged at 0.00, 0.25, and -0.50 percent, respectively.
The central bank also continued the pandemic emergency purchase program with a total envelope of 1,350 billion Euros (US$1,753.25 billion). While, managing director of International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva and United Kingdom chancellor, Rishi Sunak will delivers a press briefing on the latest policy on the royal state’e economic condition assesment.
Still from Europe, President of France, Emmanuele Macron, announced the second national lockdown in starting tomorrow until next month. The lockdown was carried out because the spread of the coronavirus exceeds the estimated number of COVID-19 cases.
Yesterday, the country recorded 523 death. This figure is the highest daily toll in France since the peak of the first wave in April. More than 35,000 people have died since the pandemic began.
Many fear new lockdowns, which would follow new restrictions imposed in Europe in a fresh wave of the pandemic there. This week, new infections in the US also have reached all-time highs as public health officials struggle to ring-fence the virus. Hot spots have spread across the country and hospitalizations are rising.
In Asia, The Bank of Japan (BoJ) its expecting to maintain its massive stimulus program and vowed to take further action if the economic downturn from the pandemic shock threatens deflation. In its quarterly forecast review, the policymaker is seen cutting growth and inflation forecasts as the pandemic hits the domestic demand.
In the commodity market, oil prices have plunged this week on worries that demand is not coming back as the pandemic refuses to disappear. On Wednesday, US government’ data showed that the inventories rose more than expected, to 4.3 million barrels.
US$1: GBP0.77
Written by Linda Silaen, Please Read Our News to Get More information about Indonesia
