Category: News

After a hiatus of over two decades, the 2021 MotoGP is returning home to Indonesia for the third time in unprecedented style. In two years’ time, the coveted motorbike championships will take place on the freshly built turf in Lombok, a rapidly developing Indonesian hot spot dubbed “the new Bali”.

Fifty years ago, the average Chinese person consumed 4 kilograms of meat a year. In the present day, the average Chinese person now consumes 54 kilograms of meat over the same period. But that figure is half the average person in the US or Australia, who both on average will consume around 100 kilograms of meat a year. As their diet evolves however, the Chinese are showing signs of catching their Western compatriots at a rate of knots.

Over the last decade, technological improvements and algorithmic learning have made rapid improvements to many facets of people’s lives. Smartphones can track daily routines and present a morning alarm, weather schedule and traffic or transport report catered to specific daily plans.

Steam engines, mass production, and Internet technology each brought epic revolution to business. Today we are in the midst of what is often called the fourth industrial revolution – the convergence of physical things with the Internet: the Internet of Things (IoT).

Concerns about the ongoing strength of the international steel market, and consequently the iron ore market, appear unfounded on the basis of recent projections. Although the market is evolving, the commodity as a whole remains strong, with forecasts suggesting that this will remain the case.

Bali without a saturation of enthused Aussie tourists is like gin without tonic, a meat pie without sauce, or Canberra without a biannual leadership coup. Needless to say, Bali’s tourism industry is enormous. Where else are 18-25 year old Australians meant to go when their Instagram is looking a little bare and they’re in need of a fresh bintan singlet? 

As the Australian economy either lurches into a serious downturn or falls deeper into one, depending on your perspective, the Reserve Bank has cut rates in an attempt to stimulate flagging growth numbers. Interest rates have now been slashed to just 1 per cent, a record low and, it’s the second consecutive month that the RBA has been forced to take action.

Global pet care surpassed US$125 billion in 2018 (Euromonitor International). 73% of that was on pet food. What’s more, when recession hits, pet food is the last item on the shopping list to be traded down to a lesser perceived quality or brand. Pet food is marketed to owners not the pets. It’s growing at 6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) since 2013 with strong tailwinds for the decade ahead, well ahead of global nominal GDP growth.

The death of 72 people in the 2017 Grenfell fire sparked global outrage. A faulty refrigerator may have been to blame for the incident itself, however the rapid and fatal spread of the fire over the structure’s 24 floors was enabled by its exterior combustible cladding. 

The recent surge in iron ore prices has been largely attributed to the significant shortfalls created in global markets as a result of the Vale mining disaster in Brazil earlier this year. The result of this tragedy was increased demand pressure on reduced supply, naturally inflating prices.

The disrupter of Pay-Tv and TV, Netflix is itself now facing a serious disruptive threat. Its rise had been extraordinary, and what many may not know, early in its development Netflix approached Blockbuster Video (remember them?) to be bought out, only to be laughed off by Blockbusters arrogant executives.

We may not have flying cars (yet), but the rapid innovations in vehicle technologies are cultivating a driving experience more reminiscent of Jetsons episode than of the cars our parents drove us to school in.