Malaysia

We have just added the weekly petroleum price report from the Malaysian Ministry of Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs.

Petrol prices in Malaysia are among the lowest in the world thanks to a massive fuel subsidy scheme applied on RON95 and Diesel. RON97 remains unsubsidised. 

With rising global energy prices, the price gap between RON95 and RON97 has massively widened, as the chart below shows: RON95 remains capped at MYR2.05/litre, with RON97 now close to MYR4/litre.    

A barrel of crude oil well above USD100, as it is now, will severely impact the government budget and raise questions around the sustainability of the current subsidy scheme (article for reference: https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Malaysia-oil-subsidies-could-more-than-double-in-2022-finance-chief) 

Switzerland

For Switzerland, we have added the Swiss real estate offer index, which covers regions as well as housing types. While the overall index has not progressed much since January 2015, the chart below highlights regional discrepancies. At one extreme, Ticino rental prices have fallen by almost 10%, while at the other, Zurich prices have risen by 5%.  

Paraguay

In recent weeks, we have also expanded our data coverage from Paraguay’s national sources, with additions on foreign trade, international reserves, monetary aggregates, domestic banking, and the central bank balance sheet.

The chart below displays the composition of Paraguay’s international reserves, now primarily made up of US dollars and gold.  

Sweden

For Sweden, we have added new indicators from the Swedish public employment service (Arbetsförmedlingen) that measure the ‘number of persons available to work, but not seeking a job.’ 

The Great Resignation describes what’s been happening in the United States labour market since the pandemic. But this phenomenon is also unfolding in other developed countries, though to a lesser degree.

The chart below compares the percentage of the labour force that doesn’t have a job and is not seeking one with the number of redundancy notices. The comparison with the global financial crisis in 2008-2010 is interesting: more redundancy notices were given during the Great Recession than during the pandemic, but the percentage of workers not seeking a job soared only after the pandemic started. The ease of restrictions earlier in 2022 should help bring down the percentage, but this remains a worrying indicator for the labour market.