Covid vaccine distribution has begun in much of the developed world. Politicians, commentators and citizens criticize the slow start to immunizations. But like the Tour de France: What counts is not who wears the yellow jersey during the first stage, but who crosses the finish line first at the end. Three factors are crucial to that: vaccine supply, vaccine distribution and, most importantly, vaccination acceptance.
A turbulent year at the stock exchange has come to a conciliatory end. Those who were invested in funds in 2020 were able to achieve increases in value despite the pandemic and lockdown. Read more about the best funds of 2020 in today’s blog.
We are looking back on a turbulent investment year. After the slump in February and March, we saw a strong recovery on the markets almost across all asset classes. CEO Heinz Bednar and CIO Gerold Permoser give an outlook for the capital markets in 2021.
The eyes of the international business world are currently fixed on Vienna. At the OPEC headquarters in downtown Vienna, the oil cartel’s member states and its allies are currently haggling over production volumes, and thus the further development of oil prices, via video conference.
At a time when Covid-19 is ravaging the global economy, 15 Asia-Pacific countries signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) at a virtual Summit on November 15. The RCEP is a meaningful achievement for regional cooperation and a historic milestone in the globalization process.
After unexpected replacements of the head of the central bank and the finance minister, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently declared war on the inflation and currency depreciation in his country with a new economic programme. In doing so, Erdogan is radically turning away from his previous economic policy line by relying on foreign investment and monetary stability.
U.S. biotech company Moderna reported positive results from the first interim analysis of its Covid mRNA vaccine candidate. The IA found that of the 95 identified Covid cases in the study population 90 occurred in the placebo group, thus yielding a vaccine efficacy of 94,4%.
In a press release on November 9, Pfizer gave a first taste of the results of the Phase 3 study of the Covid vaccine, which was jointly developed with German biotech company BioNTech. With an estimated efficacy of 90% and the start of the vaccination campaign possibly as early as January 2021, there is light at the end of the tunnel. But some hurdles still remain.
Growing demand for energy and accelerating climate change pose immense challenges for the energy sector. The key lies in finding the balance between climate protection efforts, affordable energy, and reliable supply. In a guest commentary. Dr. Eric Schmiedchen explains OMV’s climate path.
According to current forecasts by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global economy should be able to handle the consequences of the corona pandemic somewhat better than has been feared. In its eagerly awaited global economic outlook for this year, the IMF now expects global economic output to decline by only 4.4 per cent. The IMF has thus adjusted its last forecast from June by 0.5 percentage points.
