Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, June 20 (Xinhua) — A freight train loaded with 100 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) departed from Hefei in east China’s Anhui Province for Tashkent on Thursday morning, bringing the total number of China-Europe/Central Asia trains that have passed through the province in the past 11 years to 5,000, Dawan Xinwen Port News reported.
The aforementioned train will cross the Chinese state border at the Khorgos checkpoint, which is on the border with Kazakhstan, and will deliver consumer electronics, auto parts and tires worth a total of $2 million to Central Asia.
International railway transportation on China-Central Asia routes has been carried out in Hefei since 2014. Currently, China-Europe/Central Asia routes connect the administrative center of Anhui Province with 170 railway stations in 20 countries.
According to statistics, 5,190 standard containers of cargo have been shipped from Hefei to Central Asia by rail since the beginning of this year. The increase in the indicator compared to the same period last year was 24.88 percent.
The development of rail links between China and Europe/Central Asia is stimulating growth in exports of locally produced goods. To date, more than 1,500 freight trains have been sent from Hefei specifically to transport products from leading local companies, including automakers Chery, Jianghuai and consumer electronics maker Changhong Meiling. -0-
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
China’s surging technology innovation is rewriting the playbook for foreign investors, with the country’s booming tech sector having reshaped expectations regarding its long-term growth potential.
The latest example came as Goldman Sachs unveiled a list of what it has identified as China’s Prominent 10, a move reminiscent of the Magnificent Seven, a group of high-performing and influential stocks in the U.S. tech sector.
The top 10 Chinese stocks, most of which are affiliated with tech giants, are expected to significantly expand their share of China’s equity market over the coming two years.
Among these 10 are internet behemoth Tencent, e-commerce giant Alibaba, smartphone maker Xiaomi, electric car manufacturer BYD, digital shopping platform Meituan and pharmaceutical company Hengrui.
They “embody the theme of AI/Tech development, self-sufficiency, going global, services and new forms of consumption, and China’s improving shareholder returns,” according the investment bank’s research findings.
Behind the stock picks spreadsheets of Wall Street economists lies a deeper recalibration, with those observers who once declared “peak China” now overhauling their models, and transitioning to a view which sees tech innovation as driving a new wave of substantial expansion in China.
Last month, MSCI added five A-share stocks, including VeriSilicon, Baili-Pharm and APT Medical, to its China Index. These new constituents are mostly in tech and biotech sectors, reflecting global index compilers’ recognition of China’s economic transformation.
Top global investors, including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, have turned bullish on China’s market — driven by global investor interest in Chinese equities due to the country’s AI push, led by DeepSeek. This month, notably, major investment banks have raised their growth forecasts for the Chinese economy.
As of May 29, the Hang Seng Tech Index had surged over 40 percent year on year, outperforming major global tech indices. Of the top ten most actively traded Hong Kong stocks, seven are Hang Seng Tech constituents, with the three most active being Tencent, Alibaba and Xiaomi.
China’s AI breakthroughs highlight its supply chain and innovation strengths, supported by a robust ecosystem of infrastructure, data, talent and energy, said Xing Ziqiang, Morgan Stanley’s chief economist for China.
“China’s tech innovations are shifting from isolated breakthroughs to systematic integration, with many fields experiencing their ‘DeepSeek moment’ and some emerging tech firms achieving a global presence from the start,” said Wu Qing, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, at a forum in east China’s Shanghai on Wednesday.
Additionally, tech stars like DeepSeek and Huawei weren’t included in Goldman Sachs’ stock picks only because they’re not publicly traded. Beyond these giants, many Chinese startups are rising to prominence. China now has more than 400 unicorn companies, nearly one-third of the global total.
The country’s recent economic data also support such an outlook.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that China’s high-tech manufacturing added value grew by 8.6 percent in May, outpacing the overall growth of large-scale industrial added value by 2.8 percentage points.
Within this sector, production of 3D printing equipment, industrial robots and new energy vehicles increased by 40.0, 35.5 and 31.7 percent, respectively.
China is not only the largest market but arguably also the world’s innovation hub, propelling cost efficiencies and next-gen robotics development, said a Morgan Stanley research note recently.
“It is becoming apparent that national support for ’embodied AI’ may be far greater in China than in any other nation, driving continued innovation and capital formation,” said Zhong Sheng, Morgan Stanley’s head of industrials research.
“The continuing AI and technology breakthroughs have rewritten the narrative and brightened the growth prospects” for China’s privately-owned enterprises, who also lead the charge of “China’s ‘Going Global’ ambition,” according to the Goldman Sachs report.
This year, overseas demand for China’s AI-driven tech products has surged. Data from AliExpress reveals that during its March promotion, sales of AR/VR glasses, led by brands like XREAL and Rokid, had jumped 600 percent from the previous month.
“Last year, our AR glasses’ overseas business accounted for nearly 70 percent of total sales, with overseas sales growing by 30 percent year on year,” said Zhang Longjie, global sales head of consumer-grade AR glasses firm XREAL.
Despite global uncertainties, China’s high-tech product exports performed strongly in the first five months of 2025 — rising 6.1 percent year on year in U.S.-dollar terms, according to the General Administration of Customs data.
Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
The United States has always fancied itself as the founder of modern democracy (aka ‘Democracy’). And, although that country has been self-absorbed for most of its history, it has always sensed that Democracy was its greatest export.
‘America’ became involved in Africa and the ‘Middle East’ very early in its history. There was the American–Algerian War (1785–1795); and the Barbary Wars (1801-1805,1815), featuring the heroic re-seizure and scuttling by fire of the USS Philadelphia in Tripoli Harbor in 1804. Then there was the reverse colonisation (aka ‘liberation’, ‘democratization’) of a small corner of Africa from 1822, leading to Liberia’s independence in 1862.
In the 1846, there was the small matter of the United States’ invasion of Mexico, resulting in the 1848 annexation of half of Mexico’s territory. ‘America’ brought Democracy to California, through annexation. And, in 1898, the United States appropriated Spain’s remaining worldwide empire, including the Philippines. And some other territories, including Hawaii. Upon his inauguration as the 47th President, Donald Trump explicitly invoked the memory of President William McKinley, America’s most notorious annexor of foreign territory.
And in 1889: “Three American warships then entered the Apia harbor and prepared to engage the three German warships found there. Before any shots were fired, a typhoon wrecked both the American and German ships.” After ten years of military/political stalemate – known as the Second Samoan Civil War – the Samoan ‘assets’ were split between the United States, the German Second Reich, and the United Kingdom. (The UK traded its share with Germany. Britain gave up all claims to Samoa and in return accepted the termination of German rights in Tonga, certain areas in the Solomon Islands, and Zanzibar.)
America’s imperial ‘burden’ in the last 125 years
Rudyard Kipling’s poem The White Man’s Burden was written in 1899; “a poem about the Philippine–American War (1899–1902) that exhorts the United States to assume colonial control of the Filipino people and their country”.
America’s empire today is partly formal, though mostly informal, with various grades of informality. Indeed, the recent acknowledgement by the European Union that it has free-ridden on the United States for its defence indicates that the United States has had a significant degree of imperial control over Europe; hegemony manifesting as control over foreign policy.
The name ‘America’ itself is an imperial grab. America is the name for two continents, yet even the Canadians call the United States ‘America’, and its citizens ‘Americans’. American exceptionalism represents the weaponisation of democracy. Democracy is packaged as ‘Democracy’, a secular faith like ‘Communism’ or ‘Economic Liberalism’; a faith which must be proselytised, spread across the world as some kind of holy or secular crusade.
The remaining territories on the ‘autocratic’ ‘Dark Side’ – ie territories not subject to United States’ ‘protection’ – are mainly in continental Asia: especially West Asia (much of which is imperialistically called the ‘Middle East’, which extends to North Africa), North Asia, and East Asia. Though there is also very much a contest for South Asia; a contest, which if successful for the White Man’s force, will bring secular Hindi along with secular Judaism fully into the imperial fold of secular Christianity. (We note that the labels Hindu and Jew have long been name-tags which confuse and conflate religion with ethnicity. So it may soon be with Christianity; with top-tier Christians behaving very much as top-tier Jews behave today, as supremacist gift-givers and bomb-throwers.)
We should note that Catholic Christianity is now uneasy about this crusader culture, having been the main perpetrator of such culture nearly a millennium ago. And Orthodox Christianity is even more uneasy. In its North Asian (ie Russian) form, Orthodox Christianity – like Islam, and Chinese atheist capitalism – is a target of the present Christian Soldiers, not a collaborator. (The decline of the Christian East came with the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Ostensibly a western invasion force going to re-recover the ‘Holy Land’, instead that Crusade turned on Orthodox Christian Constantinople. The result was a weak Latin empire in the east; easy prey for the Ottoman forces which in 1453 created a Muslim empire in West Asia and Southeast Europe; an empire that lasted until 1918.)
The modern American-led crusading mentality represents a schism of Protestant Evangelism (which dates back in particular to the Calvinist side of the sixteenth century Reformation) and Secular Liberalism. Protestant Evangelism (increasingly known today as Christian Nationalism) is the imperial currency of today’s Republican Party, whereas Secular Liberalism is the imperial currency of today’s Democratic Party (although secular Neoliberalism is presently teaming up with the Evangelists). What both have in common is a will to impose themselves upon the rest of the world. And to produce and export lots of big guns, military hardware; making money, and making American jobs.
There are some strange bedfellows. As these two American socio-cultural Gods – Republican and Democrat; protagonist and antagonist, and vice versa – have battled out their Americanisms on a world stage, we have seen a significant posse of very rich devout Economic Liberals taking the side of the Christian Nationalists. So do a number of working-class and other disempowered former ballot-box ‘Leftists’, who wish to cast an anti-establishment vote but don’t know which way to turn. This dabbling with new right-radicalism (not unlike leftist dabbling in New Zealand in 1984 with the recently late Bob Jones’ New Zealand Party) follows the slow but comprehensive gutting of the Left-project that was so buoyant in the 1960s and 1970s.
The name Christian Nationalism is a misnomer; a better name is Christian Extranationalism. Rather than being an internationalist movement – internationalism is a liberal concept – this is a movement to perpetuate and extend the global domination of American culture, through imperial merchant capitalism. The United States was born out of British merchant capitalism (and New York out of Dutch merchant capitalism); its values and institutions reflect those of eighteenth-century western Europe. Just as the British exacted tribute from their American colonies; imperial America seeks to extract tribute through the ‘negotiation’ of asymmetric ‘deals’. Are we today witnessing an American Napoleon?
Money, Lies and God: by Katherine Stewart (2025)
Katherine Stewart this year has written about the new eclectic rightwing coalition in the United States that is coalescing under the name of Christian Nationalism. Though I’ve only read the introduction so far, the book has a real strength, in particular in identifying five components of this new new-right coalition: funders, thinkers, sergeants, infantry, power-players.
Of particular interest to me is the “out-sourced” relationship between the funders and the thinkers. While Stewart emphasises the ‘thinkers’ in the well-funded (and mostly conservative) ‘Think Tanks’, the real issue is that of ‘selective truth’, in the Darwinian sense of ‘selection’. Our ‘intellectual’ careerists compete to publish ‘truths’, and the truths which prevail will be the truths purchased by the ‘funders’, given that the funders have most of the funds.
This kind of relationship with truth is somewhat like a ‘court-of-law’, where commonly two ‘truths’ are subject to a contest in which one will be declared ‘the winner’. Not uncommonly, both rival ‘truths’ are at least partially false, and there may be other (possibly truer) truths that are not even ‘on the table’. Evidence represents a part of the court process, but by no means the whole of that process. The truth-relationship between the funders and thinkers is a corrupt form of the ‘law court’ model; the more corrupt the more wealth the conservative funders control. Academic careers – indeed scientists’ careers – are built on perpetuating narratives acceptable to their patrons.
While Money, Lies and God represents a prescient and useful analysis, ultimately it is part of the problem. It represents one side of the great American divide calling out the other side. The process of belligerent finger-pointing – between, in American language, ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives’ – is the bigger problem. Why bother talking about the world when you can talk about half of America instead? Indeed, too many American intellectuals talk and write about the United States as if America is the World; a kind of mental imperialism. (Another critique of American ‘Christian Nationalism’ can be found in a recent Upfront episode on Al Jazeera: The growing influence of Christian Nationalism and Christian Zionism in the United States.)
The problem of American imperialism belongs to both sides of the Divide; indeed, it is the Secular Liberalism of what has been exposed as the tone-deaf establishment – the Blinkens, Bidens and Nods – who represented the moral hypocrisy of America’s imperial democratic gift. (The sheer stupidity of the Biden re-election campaign is documented in Original Sin, 2025, by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson.) That is, the belief that America created modern Democracy, and that those parts of the world – especially the ‘western’ world – have special rights accruing to them because they have been awarded the ‘tick of Democracy’. These countries – and only these countries – have the “right to defend themselves”, the right to make war (as ‘defence through attack’), and the “right to possess nuclear weapons”.
Contemporary American imperialism is mainly a ‘West on East’ phenomenon; Asia is the target. Ukraine and Anatolia (Türkiye) are border territories between Europe and Asia. Palestine, perhaps too, given its location on the Mediterranean Sea; though the Mediterranean littoral, from Istanbul to Morocco, is better understood as West Asia, not Europe. Iran is unambiguously a part of Asia. What we are seeing at present is nothing less than a Euro-American invasion of Asia. Imperialism. Nuclear imperialism; geopolitical imperialism; cultural imperialism. The gift that keeps on taking.
Note on the boundary between Europe and Asia
We should note that the core geopolitical boundary between Europe and Asia was set by Charlemagne in around the year 800; representing the border between the predominancies of Catholic Christianity and Orthodox Christianity (harking back to the Western and Eastern Roman Empires). There are other important historic geopolitical boundaries in Eurasia, of course, such as the eastern and southern borders of Orthodox Christianity; and the eastern and northern borders of Islam-dominated territories. Indeed there is perpetual tension on the Pakistan-India border.
The principal medieval-era departure from that Charlemagne-set geopolitical boundary was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which peaked in territory in the fifteenth century. The first significant modern-era fudge of that geopolitical boundary was the West’s acquisition of Greece over the long 19th century (essentially 1820s to 1920s). The Great World War started in 1914 very much as an East-West border conflict in the Balkans of southeast Europe. After a week or two of fudging, the anglosphere took the Eastern side; siding with Russia over Austria and Germany.
Post World War Two, the next main geopolitical border fudges were the ‘settlements’ which placed a number of mainly Catholic East European countries into Russia’s orb; and which placed Türkiye (then Turkey) into NATO. The current twenty first century fudge is one of European expansion, placing a number of predominantly Orthodox territories – most notably Ukraine – firmly into the European political realm.
This longstanding geopolitical boundary contrasts with the widely-accepted geographic boundary; the latter – based more on physical geography and ethnicity than on faith-culture – passes along the Ural and Caucasus mountain chains, and through the lower Volga River, the Black Sea and the Bosporus/Dardanelle channels. Geopolitically, Russia, Belarus and Türkiye should be understood today to be Asian countries; indeed, the lower Dnieper River and line of the military trenches in Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Luhansk constitute the current geopolitical boundary between West and East; between Europe and Asia. And the lines within Eretz Israel – separating Israel from Palestine – also represent geopolitical borders; and American geopolitical encroachment on Asia.
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Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, June 19 — Hong Kong is becoming more attractive as an international financial center, and it is drawing more foreign companies and individuals to make investments and start new businesses, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.
Spokesperson Guo Jiakun made the remarks at a regular news briefing when asked to comment on Hong Kong’s rise in the rankings in the 2025 IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, released recently by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The yearbook said Hong Kong advances to the third position in the global competitiveness rankings. This is the first time Hong Kong has returned to top three in the rankings since 2019. The yearbook also puts Hong Kong at the first in the Tax Policy and Business Legislation rankings.
“The yearbook is a recognition of Hong Kong’s unique position and strength, and the prospect of ‘one country, two systems.’ Hong Kong has entered a stage where it is set to thrive,” Guo said, adding that Hong Kong remains one of the world’s freest economies and most competitive regions.
According to statistics, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) gained No.1 spot in global fundraising in the first half of this year, with a total amount of 14 billion U.S. dollars. The number of overseas visitors received by Hong Kong in the first five months of this year rose by 18 percent year on year, and a number of large international companies have redomiciled to Hong Kong, Guo said.
“Those are votes of confidence for Hong Kong from the international community,” he said.
Noting the Hong Kong national security law will soon enter its fifth year of implementation, Guo said China believes that with the institutional safeguards of “one country, two systems,” and given Hong Kong’s unique advantage of having the backing of the motherland and being connected to the world as well as a secure environment for high-quality development, Hong Kong is headed to an even brighter future.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
An observational study published in EMBO Molecular Medicine looks at blood biomarkers in ME/CFS patients.
Prof Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics, Open University, said:
“I think this is an important piece of research, but it’s also important to be careful not to claim too much from its findings. There’s a lot more to do.
“The press release and the research paper both make it clear that these findings could help in finding a set of blood biomarkers that can reasonably reliably distinguish people with ME/CFS from those who do not have that condition, but that, without a lot of further work, the findings do not in themselves provide such a set of biomarkers. For instance, the last sentence of the abstract of the paper says, “Nevertheless, their number [of traits that differed between people with ME/CFS and people without that condition], diversity and lack of sex bias keep alive the future ambition of a blood-based biomarker panel for accurate ME/CFS diagnosis.” I hope personally that that ambition can be achieved, but the researchers are careful not to say that their findings indicate that it will definitely be achieved.
“A strength of the study is that it uses data from the very large UK Biobank study, based on over 1,400 people who reported they had been diagnosed with ME/CFS and over 130,000 ‘controls’ who had not had that diagnosis, as well as data from a smaller (but still quite large) US study called All-of-Us.
“But, in the research paper, the researchers are very careful to say that they are reporting associations, that is, correlations, between blood measurements and whether or not people have ME/CFS, and that, to quote the paper, “no causal statements are made” about those associations. That’s essentially because data from the UK Biobank is observational. Any differences between the group with ME/CFS and the controls without ME/CFS could be caused by the different disease status, but it could also, in whole or in part, be caused by other differences (so-called potential confounders) between people with and without ME/CFS that are not a direct consequence of that condition.
“The researchers did use methods of what’s called causal inference to try to throw further light in what causes what, and in particular they found that the differences in blood measurements were unlikely to stem from the fact that people with ME/CFS typically exercise less than people without that condition. That’s a useful and important finding, I think. But other potential confounders couldn’t be dealt with in a similar way, so other aspects of cause and effect just can’t be sorted out. Indeed (as the researchers mention) the possible existence of other confounders means that the assumptions behind the analyses involving exercise may not entirely be valid. To get further with all this will need a lot more, and different, research, including work on what may actually be causing the observed differences within people’s bodies.
“There are also some issues stemming from the use of data from the UK Biobank. Again this is reported in the research paper. For instance, participants who volunteered for the Biobank are healthier than the average UK population, and the research paper mentions that people with severe ME/CFS may simply not have been able to go through the assessment and data collection process required, and so are unlikely to have contributed towards the findings on a large scale.
“Also, because the recording of ME/CFS diagnoses took place some time ago, people’s status on ME/CFS is not in accord with the definitions of the condition that are generally used now. Roughly half of the people who were treated as having ME/CFS did not state that they had post-exertional malaise (PEM for short, a major worsening of symptoms after even minor mental or physical exertion). Post-exertional malaise is now generally considered an essential part of ME/CFS, and people who do not have it would under most up-to-date conditions not be considered to have ME/CFS. But in the past, post-exertional malaise was not considered an essential part of the definition of the disease, so people in the UK Biobank who were diagnosed with ME/CFS in the past might not have had post-exertional malaise.
“Arguably, this does not really weaken the findings of this study. The strongest evidence on potential biomarkers was in people who did have post-exertional malaise. But the study did still find some differences in potential biomarkers between people who had had an ME/CFS diagnosis but did not report post-exertional malaise, and the control people who had never had an ME/CFS diagnosis. If these people who would once have been diagnosed with ME/CFS, and who may still have really disabling and long-lasting symptoms, are defined as not having ME/CFS and are not included in developing biomarkers, does that have consequences for the treatment they can receive? Obviously this new study isn’t intended to answer that kind of question, but it’s something that shouldn’t be forgotten as biomarker research for ME/CFS moves on.”
‘Replicated blood-based biomarkers for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis not explicable by inactivity’ bySjoerd Viktor Beentjeset al.was published inEMBO Molecular Medicineat 00:01 UK time on Friday 20th June.
Ambassador Antonio Da Conceicao of Timor-Leste stated to the Committee: “Joining the Government Procurement Agreement is part of a broader national strategy to strengthen good governance, align with international standards and support our successful integration into the global economy. “
Timor-Leste as part of its accession to the WTO committed to submitting an initial market access offer in its GPA accession negotiation in August of this year.
The Committee also discussed the well-advanced accession negotiations of Albania and Costa Rica. Both members submitted their “final” market access offers earlier this year and will continue to engage with GPA parties, with a view to finalizing their accession processes as soon as possible. China’s accession negotiation was also discussed.
The Committee also welcomed Guatemala as its 37th observer.
e-GPA Notification System launched
The Committee noted that the e-GPA Notification System, launched on 16 June, marks a milestone in the digital transformation of Committee work. It will facilitate GPA parties’ compliance with their transparency obligations under the Agreement.
The system enables the online submission of notifications required under the GPA 2012 (e.g. on government procurement statistics, procurement thresholds in national currencies, national implementing legislation, etc.) and related communications by GPA parties to the Committee.
Background
The GPA 2012 is a plurilateral agreement that aims to open government procurement markets among its parties on a reciprocal basis and to the extent agreed between GPA parties. It also aims to make government procurement more transparent and to promote good governance.
The Agreement currently has 22 parties, covering 49 WTO members, including the European Union and its 27 member states (counted as one party). While open to all WTO members, it is binding only for those members that have acceded to it. The list of current GPA parties can be found here.
Reciprocal market opening assists GPA parties in purchasing goods and services that offer the best value for money. The Agreement provides legal guarantees of non-discrimination for the goods, services and suppliers of GPA parties in covered procurement activities, which are worth an estimated USD 1.7 trillion annually. Government procurement typically accounts for about 15 per cent of developed and developing economies’ GDP.
In a Canadian first, the Province and BC Hydro have launched a pioneering pilot project in Vancouver that has the potential to set new standards for supporting growing housing priorities and densification in Canada.
Designed to support the transition from single-family homes to multi-unit residences, the initiative is exploring how full electrification – heating, cooling, EV charging and appliances – can be achieved without the need for more significant electrical service upgrades.
“The potential for this innovative system shows what’s possible when we partner with local technology providers to make clean energy more accessible,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions. “We’re proud to support made-in-B.C. solutions that reduce emissions, strengthen our grid and lower energy costs for residents.”
At the core of this project is a smart panel developed by Burnaby-based Evectrix, a key innovation supported through a $600,000 investment from the Province’s Innovative Clean Energy Fund and BC Hydro’s $700-million Energy Efficiency Plan. This device transforms a conventional breaker panel into a “smart hub” that manages real-time energy usage, in this case eliminating the need to upgrade from a 200-amp to a 400-amp service, even in an electrified six-unit development.
This pilot project is Canada’s first to demonstrate:
all-suite electrification in a multi-unit residential building without requiring a significant service upgrade;
a smart panel integration with advanced thermostats for greater suite-level energy control; and
management of multiple non-EV electrical loads, such as hot water, ranges and dryers, through a single smart panel.
Traditionally, densifying from single-family homes to duplexes, fourplexes and sixplexes has required significant electrical upgrades. This project explores a better path: the smart panel dynamically manages load at the suite level, helping avoid over-capacity while unlocking significant savings. The project is a scalable model for retrofitting and densification that could save thousands of dollars in infrastructure costs per project.
Special permission was given from the City of Vancouver in order for the project to be installed at the location. Through the Consortium for Power Efficient Design, BC Hydro continues working with partners to advocate for changes to the Canadian Electrical Code, expanding the use of energy management systems like the one being explored through this project.
“This technology pilot is a potential game-changer for accelerating clean-energy adoption in multi-unit housing,” said Chris O’Riley, president and CEO, BC Hydro. “It not only supports our broader goal of building a more sustainable and efficient electricity system, but it also helps customers avoid the high costs of major electrical upgrades – making densification more accessible, affordable and practical.”
Through its $700-million Energy Efficiency Plan, BC Hydro is significantly increasing investments in energy-saving tools, technologies, programs and rebates. These measures are expected to deliver 2,000 gigawatt hours in electricity savings – enough to power approximately 200,000 homes. The project, located on Vancouver’s Chestnut Street, is one of many innovative pilot programs now underway or in development, designed not only to reduce consumption today but to empower customers to manage their energy use more efficiently in the years ahead and save money.
If this approach proves successful, it could set the stage for more customer-focused energy solutions that help households and businesses lower their bills, reduce emissions and take advantage of smarter, more responsive grid technologies. These efforts are part of BC Hydro’s long-term commitment to delivering value, reliability and sustainability to customers as energy needs evolve.
Quotes:
Brenda Bailey, Minister of Finance and MLA for Vancouver-South Granville –
“Advanced technology projects like the smart panel will help to create electricity systems that are efficient, resilient and responsive to people’s needs. We will continue to partner with local technology companies to help strengthen our grid and cut energy costs for British Columbians.”
“We’re proud to bring B.C.-made innovation to life through this first-of-its-kind, electrified six-townhouse project, proving that homeowners can electrify and decarbonize without the burden of costly service upgrades. With meaningful support from the Province and in close collaboration with the BC Hydro team, our intelligent load management technology is unlocking a scalable, affordable and future-ready path to electrify homes and multi-unit buildings throughout the province.”
Saul Schwebs, chief building official, City of Vancouver –
“The City of Vancouver is proud to support this project, which showcases innovative made-in-British Columbia technology. The City approved the use of this load management technology through a special permission pathway, illustrating our commitment to energy-efficient solutions.”
Learn More:
To learn more about the Province’s plans to power B.C.’s potential, visit: https://www.bchydro.com/poweringpotential
Bonn, Germany, 19 June 2025 – A vast majority of people believe governments must tax oil, gas and coal corporations for climate-related loss and damage, and that their government is not doing enough to counter the political influence of super rich individuals and polluting industries. These are the key findings of a global survey – including responses from South Africa and Kenya – which reflect a broad consensus across political affiliations, income levels and age groups.[1]
The study, jointly commissioned by Greenpeace International and Oxfam International, was launched today at the UN Climate Meetings in Bonn (SB62), where government representatives are discussing climate policies, including ways to raise at least US$ 1.3 trillion annually in climate finance for Global South countries by 2035. The survey was conducted across 13 countries, including most G7 countries.
Sherelee Odayar, Oil and Gas Campaigner for Greenpeace Africa said:
“In Africa, people are feeling the heat—literally—and they’re done footing the bill for disasters driven by record fossil-fuel profits. This survey sends an unmistakable message: our governments have a popular mandate to make oil, gas and coal corporations pay their fair share for the floods, droughts and hunger they’ve helped unleash. A polluter-pays tax would turn dirty profits into clean investments for frontline communities, and that’s the climate justice Africa has been calling for.”
Ali Mohamed, Special Envoy for Climate Change, Kenya, said:
“African Leaders adopted the Nairobi Declaration during the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, which among others, calls for a global carbon taxation regime, including levies on fossil fuel trade. Kenya co-chairs the Global Solidarity Levies Taskforce, which brings together a coalition of willing countries to design and implement progressive levies that reflect the true cost of pollution. The principle is simple, sectors profiting from the increasing greenhouse gas emissions that cause the destructive climate change, must be taxed to support climate impacted vulnerable communities in Africa and other developing world, adapt and recover from the devastating losses and damages being suffered so frequently.”
Mads Christensen, Executive Director of Greenpeace International said:
“These survey results send a clear message: people are no longer buying the lies. They see the fingerprints of fossil fuel giants all over the storms, floods, droughts, and wildfires devastating their lives, and they want accountability. By taxing the obscene profits of dirty energy companies, governments can unlock billions to protect communities and invest in real climate solutions. It’s only fair that those who caused the crisis should pay for the damage, not those suffering from it.”
The study, run by Dynata, was unveiled alongside the Polluters Pay Pact, a global alliance of communities on the frontlines of climate disasters. The Pact demands that – instead of piling the costs on ordinary people – governments make oil, gas and coal corporations pay their fair share for the damages they cause, through the introduction of new taxes and fines.
The Pact is backed by firefighters and other first responders, trade unions and worker groups, and mayors from countries including Australia, Brazil, Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and South Africa, the US, and plaintiffs in landmark climate cases from Pacific island states to Switzerland.
The Pact is also supported by over 60 NGOs, including Oxfam International, 350.org, Avaaz, Islamic Relief UK, Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente (AIDA), Indian Hawkers Alliance, Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change, Jubilee Australia and the Greenpeace network.
The survey’s findings published today reveal broad public support for the core demands of the Polluters Pay Pact, as climate impacts worsen worldwide and global inequality grows.
Key findings of the survey include:
81% of people surveyed would support taxes on the oil, gas, and coal industry to pay for damages caused by fossil-fuel driven climate disasters like storms, floods, droughts and wildfires.
86% of people in surveyed countries support channeling revenues from higher taxes on oil and gas corporations towards communities most impacted by the climate crisis. Climate change is disproportionately hitting people in Global South countries, who are historically least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.
When asked who should be taxed to pay for helping survivors of fossil-fuel driven climate disasters, 66% of people across countries surveyed think it should be oil and gas companies, while just 5% support taxes on working people, 9% on goods people buy, and 20% favour business taxes.
68% felt that the fossil fuel industry and the super-rich had a negative influence on politics in their country. 77% say they would be more willing to support a political candidate who prioritises taxing the super-rich and the fossil fuel industry.
Amitabh Behar, Executive Director of Oxfam International, said:
“Fossil fuel companies have known for decades about the damage their polluting products wreak on humanity. Corporations continue to cash in on climate devastation, and their profiteering destroys the lives and livelihoods of millions of women, men and children, predominantly those in the Global South who have done the least to cause the climate crisis. Governments must listen to their people and hold polluters responsible for their damages. A new tax on polluting industries could provide immediate and significant support to climate-vulnerable countries, and finally incentivise investment in renewables and a just transition.”
The Polluters Pay Pact demonstrates popular support for the campaign to make polluters pay. The campaign is being waged throughout 2025 in countries worldwide and in critical international forums, including the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), and negotiations for a UN tax convention that could include new rules to make multinational oil and gas companies pay their fair share for their pollution.
ENDS
Notes:
[1] The research was conducted by first-party data company Dynata in May-June, 2025, in Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Kenya, Italy, India, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, the UK and the US, with approximately 1200 respondents in each country and a theoretical margin of error of approximately 2.83%. Together, these countries represent close to half the world’s population. Statistics available here.
[3] Additional quotes here from people around the world who are backing the Polluters Pay Pact, including first responders, local administration, youth, union representatives and people bringing climate cases to courts.
Contacts:
For Greenpeace Africa:
Ferdinand Omondi, Communication and Story Manager, Email: [email protected], Cell: +254 722 505 233
Tal Harris, Greenpeace International, Global Media Lead – Stop Drilling Start Paying campaign, [email protected], +41-782530550Greenpeace International Press Desk: [email protected], +31 (0) 20 718 2470 (available 24 hours). Follow on X and Bluesky for our latest international press releases.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
CANBERRA, June 19 (Xinhua) — Australia’s unemployment rate remained stable at 4.1 percent in May, official data showed.
Monthly labour force data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Thursday showed the unemployment rate was unchanged in May, both seasonally adjusted and year-on-year, at 4.1 per cent.
The ABS said employment fell by 2,500 people between April and May but rose by 329,100, or 2.3 per cent, over the past 12 months, compared with the pre-pandemic 10-year average annual growth of 1.7 per cent.
The fall in employment in May came after the number of Australians in work increased by 89,000 between March and April.
The labour force participation rate in May was 67 percent, down slightly from 67.1 percent in April, according to the ABS.
It is noted that the total number of hours worked by Australians increased by 1.3 percent from April to May and by 3.1 percent over 12 months, amounting to 1.99 billion. –0–
Today, the Reserve Bank released data on the performance of the private corporate sector during the fourth quarter of 2024-25, drawn from abridged quarterly financial results of 2,936 listed non-government non-financial companies. This summary position also includes comparable data for Q4:2023-24 and Q3:2024-25 to enable study of sequential (q-o-q) and annual (y-o-y) change (web-link https://data.rbi.org.in/DBIE/#/dbie/reports/Statistics/Corporate%20Sector/Listed%20Non-Government%20Non-Financial%20Companies).
Highlights
Sales
Sales of listed private non-financial companies registered 7.1 per cent growth (y-o-y) during Q4:2024-25 as compared to 8.0 per cent growth in the previous quarter (6.9 per cent in Q4:2023-24) (Table 1A).
Aggregate sales growth (y-o-y) of 1,659 listed private manufacturing companies moderated to 6.6 per cent during Q4:2024-25 from 7.7 per cent during the previous quarter; even as major industries such as electrical machinery, chemicals, food products and pharmaceuticals industries recorded double digit sales growth; weak performance of petroleum industry pulled down the sector’s sales growth (Table 2A and 5A, Chart 1).
On annual basis, sales growth (y-o-y) of IT companies improved further to 8.6 per cent in Q4 from 6.8 per cent in the previous quarter and 3.1 per cent a year ago.
Sales of non-IT services companies continued to grow in double digits at 10.9 per cent in Q4, on the back of good performance of telecommunication and transport & storage companies.
Expenditure
Manufacturing companies’ expenses on raw material rose by 8.3 per cent (y-o-y) in tandem with their sales growth, however, raw material to sales ratio broadly remained stable during Q4 from the previous quarter (Table 2A and 2B).
Staff cost of manufacturing, IT and non-IT services companies rose by 10.0 per cent, 6.4 per cent and 9.5 per cent, respectively, during Q4:2024-25. Staff cost to sales ratio for manufacturing, IT and non-IT services companies broadly remained stable at 5.5 per cent, 48.0 per cent, and 10.1 per cent, respectively, during Q4:2024-25.
Pricing power
Operating profit of manufacturing and non-IT services companies rose by 8.1 per cent and 18.4 per cent, respectively, during Q4, while it increased modestly by 2.4 per cent for IT companies (Table 2A).
Operating profit margin improved for manufacturing and non-IT services companies sequentially to 14.7 per cent and 23.0 per cent, respectively, during Q4, while it moderated for IT companies by 190 bps to 21.3 per cent in Q4 from the previous quarter (Table 2B and Chart 2).
Interest expenses
With sequential rise in profits, manufacturing companies’ interest coverage ratio (ICR)1 improved to 8.7 in Q4:2024-25 from 7.6 in the previous quarter. ICR for non-IT services companies remained steady and continued to stay above unity, while it improved for IT service companies during Q4 (Table 2B).
List of Tables
Table No.
Title
1
A
Performance of Listed Non-Government Non-Financial Companies
Growth Rates
B
Select Ratios
2
A
Performance of Listed Non-Government Non-Financial Companies – Sector-wise
Growth Rates
B
Select Ratios
3
A
Performance of Listed Non-Government Non-Financial Companies according to Size of Paid-up-Capital
Growth Rates
B
Select Ratios
4
A
Performance of Listed Non-Government Non-Financial Companies according to Size of Sales
Growth Rates
B
Select Ratios
5
A
Performance of Listed Non-Government Non-Financial Companies according to Industry
Growth Rates
B
Select Ratios
Explanatory Notes
Glossary
Notes:
The coverage of companies in different quarters varies, depending on the date of declaration of results; this is, however, not expected to significantly alter the aggregate position.
Explanatory notes detailing the compilation methodology, and the glossary (including revised definitions and calculations that differ from previous releases) are appended.
Grassroots examples of how Dundee City Council and partners are tackling fairness and child poverty issues are to be showcased to councillors.
The frontline actions are contained in a new report which highlights the scale of the task faced by local agencies during the continuing cost of living crisis.
While Dundee is setting itself the ambitious goal of matching the Scottish Government’s overall national target of reducing child poverty to less than 10% of children living in relative poverty, latest figures show a rate of 26.1 % for the city.
A combined Fairness and Local Child Poverty Action Plan Report for 2024/25 is to go before the City Governance committee at its next meeting on Monday June 23. The document sets out how the council and partners will continue to work together to improve the situation for families and communities across Dundee.
It also takes on board the latest recommendations of the Dundee Fairness Leadership Panel, which is looking to prioritise efforts around mental health and isolation, fair housing and support to third sector projects offering crisis assistance to tackle poverty.
In the report, areas of improvement over the last year are highlighted.
These include:
The number of council and registered social landlord housing completions (increased by 29.2%).
percentage point gap in literacy in p1-p7 between pupils living in SIMD 1 areas and SIMD 5 areas (decreased by 16.6%)
number of children living in temporary accommodation (decreased by 13.4%)
Within the report, a number of case studies are used to illustrate the efforts that are ongoing throughout the city. These are grouped under themes and some of the projects listed include:
Social Inclusion and Stigma
Strengthening family support through volunteering – DVVA Programme
Promoting community-led suicide prevention – Dundee Creating Hope Awards Pilot
Work and Wages
Supporting young people into employment – Employability Pathfinder (LFI Linlathen)
Safe Housing Enabling Employment – Housing & Communities Team
Benefits and Advice
Preventing housing insecurity through school-based advice
Securing backdated benefits for an older resident
Attainment and Child Poverty
Tackling poverty and increasing attainment in Longhaugh and St Francis’ Primary Schools
Closing the attainment gap through the Strategic Equity Fund
Health Inequalities
Promoting wellbeing and resilience in schools – S2 Health & Wellbeing Group
Supporting mental health through community-led events – Hilltown Community
Housing and Communities
Adapting homes for children with disabilities
Providing coordinated housing and community support
Committee depute convener Councillor Willie Sawers said: “The voices of communities with experience continue to be listened to as they are a vital help to us to develop responses to inequalities and poverty.
“Statistics concerning child poverty in Dundee are stark, that is why we committed to doing as much as we can to turn this around.
“I am heartened by the strong partnerships that exist between Dundee organisations and agencies across the public, private and third sectors and the ongoing desire to work together to transform life for people in the city.”
Question for written answer E-002324/2025 to the Commission Rule 144 Bert-Jan Ruissen (ECR)
On 2 June, the banner headline on the Foodlog news platform was: ‘European vegetable production is collapsing’ (‘Europese groenteproductie zakt weg’)[1]. Reference was made to figures from the European Statistics Handbook[2]. Over four years, EU vegetable production has fallen by 7%. The article states that there is an undeniable structural decline in production.
According to insiders, the decline stems from a combination of factors, including extreme weather events, an increase in red tape, rising labour costs, labour shortages and restrictions on the use of plant protection products.
1.How does the Commission account for the decline in EU vegetable production and what, in its view, are the key causes?
2.What is the Commission doing to gain an insight into European vegetable production and into the precise combination of factors responsible for the decline in production?
3.What specific actions is the Commission considering in order at least to maintain European vegetable production and, if possible, to boost it?
[2] European Statistics Handbook, Fruit Logistica 2025, https://www.fruitlogistica.com/fruit-logistica/downloads-alle-sprachen/european_statistics_handbook_2025.pdf
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Press release
Tax gap estimated at 5.3%
The estimated tax gap for the 2023 to 2024 tax year is £46.8 billion.
The government has announced plans to raise a further £7.5 billion through its measures to close the tax gap.
The largest share of the gap is from small business non-compliance.
The tax gap estimate – the difference between what tax is expected to be paid and actually paid – was 5.3% for the 2023 to 2024 tax year, figures published today (19 June 2025) show.
While £46.8 billion was unpaid in the 2023 to 2024 tax year, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) collected £829.2 billion, representing 94.7% of all tax due.
Every year, HMRC estimates the tax gap using the most up to date information available, though figures may be revised as more data becomes available. In line with standard practice, previous years’ tax gap estimates have been amended as part of today’s announcement, including the tax gap for the 2022 to 2023 tax year, which has been revised upwards from 4.8% (£39.8 billion) to 5.6% (£46.4 billion). This is due to improvements in data quality, the availability of more up-to-date information and methodology changes.
Some of the key findings from this year’s calculations show:
small businesses represent the largest proportion of the tax gap (60%)
Corporation Tax accounts for 40% of the total tax gap
failure to take reasonable care (31%), error (15%) and evasion (14%) are among the main behavioural reasons for the overall tax gap
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray MP, has set out his three priorities for HMRC: closing the tax gap, improving customer services, and modernising and reforming the tax and customs system.
Mr Murray said:
Every pound of tax uncollected puts a greater burden on honest taxpayers and deprives our public services of vital funding.
In our first year in office, we have set out plans to raise an extra £7.5 billion through the most ambitious ever package to close the tax gap. We are determined to go further and faster to make sure everyone pays their fair share, and help to deliver our Government’s Plan for Change.
HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) programme is helping to reduce the element of the tax gap caused by error and failure to take reasonable care. Up to the end of the 2029 to 2030 tax year, MTD for VAT is predicted to deliver more than £4 billion in tax revenue by reducing errors. MTD for Income Tax will be introduced from April 2026 and is expected to generate £1.95 billion in additional tax revenue by the end of the 2029 to 2030 tax year.
As announced at Spending Review 2025, £1.7 billion will be provided to HMRC over four years to fund an additional 5,500 compliance and 2,400 debt management staff – to ensure more of the tax due is paid, to fund public services. Measures to close the tax gap announced by the Chancellor at Autumn Budget 2024 and Spring Statement 2025 will raise an extra £7.5 billion in revenue.
HMRC’s tax gap estimates are official statistics produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics, which assures objectivity and integrity. Tax gap estimates are reviewed each year to reflect updated data and methodologies.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments 3
Press release
Overcrowded jails fuel prisoner violence
Violence is rife in overcrowded, unsafe prisons, with offenders nearly twenty per cent more likely to be involved in assaults in too full jails, new research published today (19 June) reveals.
Direct link drawn between overcrowded conditions and increased violence for first time
Landmark sentencing reforms mean offenders who behave badly can be held in prison for longer, part of the Government’s Plan for Change
New £40 million investment this year to tackle violence, contraband and drones
The rate of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults in men’s prisons increased by 11 per cent in 2024 compared to the previous year as they operated at over 99% capacity. The rate of assaults on hard-working prison staff rose by 13 per cent during the same period.
This is the first time a direct link has been drawn between increased violence behind bars and the capacity crisis inherited by the Government that put the public at risk.
It reinforces the need for the 14,000 more prison places and landmark sentencing reforms set out by Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood last month which will ensure prisons never run out of space again. The changes will help to cut reoffending and keep our streets safe, part of the Government’s Plan for Change.
Under these reforms, release from prison will be earned. Offenders who behave badly will be held in prison for longer – helping to reduce violence and drug use. It will mean staff can focus more time on rehabilitating prisoners to reduce the chance of them reoffending on release.
The Government has also announced today a £40 million investment in new security measures this year to clamp down on the contraband that fuels violence behind bars. This includes £10 million on anti-drone measures such as exterior netting and reinforced windows.
Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending, James Timpson, said:
These stark findings confirm what we’ve already seen – dangerously full prisons lead to more crime and more violence. This not only risks the safety of our hardworking staff but means our prisons are failing one of their most important functions – cutting crime.
We must end this chaos. That is why as part of our Plan for Change we are reforming sentencing and building 14,000 extra prison places by 2031. Our £40 million new investment will also help combat the flow of contraband which creates unsafe environments in our jails.
The research found that over a one-year period, crowded environments increase the likelihood of an offender being involved in a violent incident by 19 per cent.
The £40 million will fund a range of security enhancements this financial year including window replacements, CCTV and control room upgrades, vehicle gates, biometrics and floodlighting. These improved measures will boost safety, combat the influx of drone activity and clamp down on suspected wrongdoing behind bars.
It comes as the National Crime Agency – in conjunction with HM Prisons and Probation Service, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and Regional Organised Crime Units – has launched a new initiative stepping up efforts to thwart criminals attempting to smuggle contraband into jails via drones.
Two senior police leads will also be embedded into the Corruption and Crime Unit within the Prison and Probation Service to enhance cooperation in tackling key areas like corruption and organised crime in prisons.
The investment builds on action the Government has already taken to protect staff from violence, including the rollout of protective body armour for prison officers working within high-security settings and a trial of tasers beginning later this summer.
The Government has set aside £7 billion to fund 14,000 extra places by 2031 to deliver the prison capacity needed to keep the public safe.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) released today (June 19) the preliminary figures of chain volume measures of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by economic activity for the first quarter of 2025.
GDP figures by economic activity show the value of production in respect of individual economic activities. The value of production is measured by value added or net output, which is calculated by deducting intermediate input consumed in the process of production from the gross value of output. Volume measures of GDP by economic activity, expressed in terms of chain volume measures net of the effect of price changes, enable analysis of the output growth profiles of individual economic sectors in real terms.
According to the preliminary figures, overall GDP increased by 3.1% in real terms in the first quarter of 2025 over a year earlier, compared with the 2.5% increase in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Analysed by constituent services sector and on a year-on-year comparison, value added in respect of all the services activities taken together increased by 2.6% in real terms in the first quarter of 2025 over a year earlier, compared with the growth of 1.7% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Value added in the import and export, wholesale and retail trades sector increased by 4.2% in real terms in the first quarter of 2025 over a year earlier, as against the decrease of 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Value added in the accommodation and food services sector decreased by 1.8% in real terms in the first quarter of 2025 from a year earlier, as against the growth of 2.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Value added in the transportation, storage, postal and courier services sector increased by 2.9% in real terms in the first quarter of 2025 over a year earlier, compared with the increase of 6.8% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Value added in the information and communications sector increased by 1.3% in real terms in the first quarter of 2025 over a year earlier, compared with the rise of 1.5% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Value added in the financing and insurance sector increased by 4.4% in real terms in the first quarter of 2025 over a year earlier, compared with the increase of 1.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Value added in the real estate, professional and business services sector registered a decrease of 0.3% in real terms in the first quarter of 2025 from a year earlier, as against the rise of 1.7% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Value added in the public administration, social and personal services sector rose by 1.7% in real terms in the first quarter of 2025 over a year earlier, compared with the increase of 3.0% the fourth quarter of 2024.
As for sectors other than the services sectors, value added in the local manufacturing sector increased by 0.7% in real terms in the first quarter of 2025 over a year earlier, compared with the increase of 1.0% in the fourth quarter 2024.
Value added in the electricity, gas and water supply, and waste management sector decreased by 1.4% in real terms in the first quarter of 2025 from a year earlier, as against the increase of 3.0% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Value added in the construction sector decreased by 1.9% in real terms in the first quarter of 2025 from a year earlier, after the decrease of 4.7% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Further information
The year-on-year percentage changes of GDP by economic activity in real terms from the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025 are shown in Table 1. More detailed statistics are given in the report “Gross Domestic Product by Economic Activity”. Users can browse and download this publication at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=B1030004&scode=250). For enquiries about statistics on GDP by economic activity, please call the National Income Branch (2) of the C&SD at 3903 7005.
Figures of chain volume measures of GDP by economic activity for the first quarter of 2025 are only preliminary at this stage. When more data become available, the preliminary figures will be revised accordingly and can be found at the C&SD website (www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/scode250.html).
Millions more families to get £150 off energy bills this winter
The Warm Home Discount will be expanded meaning 6 million households will receive £150 off their energy bills this winter.
2.7 million extra households will receive £150 off their energy bills next winter as the Warm Home Discount is expanded – putting money directly into people’s pockets
this increases the number of households who are eligible to over 6 million in total – including 900,000 families with children and a total of 1.8 million households in fuel poverty
latest intervention follows a raft of cost of living support for those who need it most – from expanding free school meals to childcare support – which is only possible after government stabilised the economy and fixed the foundations through the Plan for Change
Millions of households will see their energy bills cut by £150 this winter, as the government delivers another major package of support to ease the cost of living for working families through the Plan for Change.
Over 6 million households will benefit this year – an increase of 2.7 million households, including 900,000 more families with children and a total of 1.8 million households in fuel poverty. Every billpayer on means-tested benefits will now qualify, removing restrictions that previously excluded many who needed help and providing peace of mind to millions more families.
This major expansion of support for working families is the latest in a raft of cost of living support made possible because the government has stabilised the economy, fixed the foundations and repaired the public finances – deliberate choices which are helping provide security and more money in the pockets of working families through the Plan for Change.
Since last summer, interest rates have been cut 4 times, lowering mortgage costs, free school meals have been rolled out for over half a million more children so that kids can focus on learning rather than hungry bellies, free breakfast clubs are being expanded to every child in the country, school uniform costs have been cut, the 30 hours of free childcare scheme has been extended to more working parents.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:
I know families are still struggling with the cost of living, and I know the fear that comes with not being able to afford your next bill.
Providing security and peace of mind for working people is deeply personal to me as Prime Minister and foundational for the Plan for Change. I have no doubt that, like rolling out free school meals, breakfast clubs and childcare support, extending this £150 energy bills support to millions more families will make a real difference.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said:
Millions of families will get vital support with the cost of living this coming winter, demonstrating this government’s commitment to put money in people’s pockets through our Plan for Change.
The energy price cap is also falling in July and today’s announcement adds a further £150 in direct support for millions.
This expansion of the Warm Homes Discount means families can plan for winter in the knowledge that they will receive support, giving them certainty and peace of mind before summer.
The government has also protected working people’s payslips from higher taxes, frozen fuel duty and are increasing the minimum wage to give pay rises of up to £1,400 a year to millions of low-income workers. Everyone over the State Pension age in England and Wales with an income of, or below, £35,000 a year will benefit from a Winter Fuel Payment this winter, bringing the total to 9 million pensioners.
Today’s announcement goes even further than cutting energy bills by helping those who racked up debts during the energy crisis of 2022-2024. Backing Ofgem’s proposed debt strategy will cut consumers’ energy bills by reducing the cost of paying for energy debt, alongside other reforms.
The expansion of the Warm Home Discount will be offset by new efficiency savings across the energy system. For example, Ofgem have confirmed a decrease in the operating cost allowance of the price cap for the average billpayer which will take money off bills.
Ofgem’s plans to reduce the overall stock of consumer debt, which is currently recouped via a levy on all bills, will also produce savings that help to fund the Warm Homes Discount.
These reforms complement the government’s drive to bring down bills in the long term by replacing the UK’s dependence on fossil fuel markets controlled by petrostates and dictators with clean homegrown power.
This is the Plan for Change in action – combining short-term help with a proper long-term strategy for change that lowers people’s energy bills and puts more money in their pockets.
Notes to editors
Today we have confirmed that following consultation, the Warm Home Discount scheme will be expanded to remove the high-cost-to-heat threshold in the current Warm Home Discount (England & Wales) Regulations 2022 (for winter 2025/2026) and increasing the level of spend available in Scotland for suppliers to allocate through the Broader Group.
The change will mean that all households where the means-tested benefit recipient (or their partner or legal appointee) is named on the energy bill will now be eligible to receive the £150 electricity bill rebate.
The number of families who will receive the discount for the first time, broken down by region, include:
North East England: 100,000
North West England: 280,000
Yorkshire and the Humber: 210,000
East Midlands: 160,000
West Midlands: 270,000
East of England: 250,000
London: 570,000
South East England: 350,000
South West England: 220,000
Wales: 110,000
Scotland: 240,000
The number of additional households supported under the expanded scheme in each region is calculated by applying the regional proportion of qualifying benefit recipients from DWP’s statxplore tool to the total additional 6.1 million households estimated in the Warm Home Discount Expansion consultation document.
For the North West, for example, the proportion of qualifying benefit recipients is 13%, thereby 13% x 6.1m = 780,000 recipient households. Of these, 500,000 are already in receipt according to the most recent Warm Home Discount statistics (2023/2024), so around 280,000 are estimated to be additional.
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
Moscow presented a unique digital installation — the multimedia media cube “City of Deeds” at the XXVIII St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The project demonstrates key achievements in the field of urban development, infrastructure and the social sphere, said the Minister of the Moscow Government, Head of the Department of Urban Development Policy of the capital Vladislav Ovchinsky.
The installation in the format of a three-sided media cube consistently reveals the main directions of the capital’s development: the growth of residential and commercial real estate, the creation of social and sports infrastructure, the modernization of the healthcare system, the creation of new jobs, as well as the implementation of a housing renovation program.
“The media cube has become not just an exhibit, but a vivid testimony of Moscow’s development as a modern metropolis, where innovative technologies, a comfortable urban environment and concern for the quality of people’s lives are harmoniously combined. “City of Deeds” clearly demonstrates how a systematic approach to urban development policy allows for the implementation of large-scale projects, turning strategic plans into specific results. A special feature of the installation was the combination of dynamic visualization with specific indicators: the number of social facilities built, the volume of housing put into operation within the framework of the renovation program and other data,” said Vladislav Ovchinsky.
The visualization of the digital installation is structured as follows: at first, the viewer sees an abstract scene in which lines, particles and light are collected into a complex architectural form, and at the end, a recognizable object and specific statistics appear – from the area of housing to the number of jobs.
Such initiatives contribute to the formation of a new image of the capital as a city of opportunities, where comfortable conditions for living, working and creative expression are created.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please Note; This Information is Raw Content Directly from the Information Source. It is access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect
Yesterday’s announcement that the five-yearly national census would be scrapped has raised difficult questions about the effectiveness, ethics and resourcing of the new “administrative” system that will replace it.
An administrative census will use information collected in day-to-day government activities, such as emergency-room admission forms, overseas travel declarations and marriage licences.
The move is not necessarily bad in principle, especially given the rising cost of the census and declining participation rates. But to make it effective and robust it must be properly resourced. And it must give effect to the principles of te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi), as set out in the Data and Statistics Act.
The transformation process so far leaves considerable room for doubt that these things will happen. In particular, there are major ethical and Māori data sovereignty issues at stake.
As Te Mana Raraunga (the Māori Data Sovereignty Network) advocates, data is a living taonga (treasure), is of strategic value to Māori, and should be subject to Māori governance. Changes to census methods risk compromising these values – and undermining public trust in the official statistics system in general.
Because the new system takes census data gathering out of the hands of individual citizens and households, it also raises questions about state surveillance and social licence.
Surveillance and social licence
Surveillance means more than police stakeouts or phone-tapping. The state constantly collects and uses many kinds of data about us and our movements.
For more than a decade, the Integrated Data Infrastructure has been the government’s tool to patch gaps in its own data ecosystems.
This administrative data is collected without our direct and informed consent, and there is no real way to opt out. The safeguard is that information about individuals is “de-identified” once it enters the Integrated Data Infrastructure – no names, just data points.
Stats NZ, which administers the system, says it has the social licence to collect, cross-reference and use this administrative data. But genuine social licence requires that people understand and accept how their data is being used.
Stats NZ’s own research shows only around one in four people surveyed have enough knowledge about its activities to make an informed judgement.
The risks associated with this form of surveillance are amplified for Māori because of their particular historical experience with data and surveillance. The Crown used data collection and monitoring systems to dispossess land and suppress cultural practices, which continue to disproportionately affect Māori communities today.
Meaningful work to address this has taken place under the Mana Ōrite agreement, a partnership between Stats NZ and the Data Iwi Leaders Group (part of the National Iwi Chairs Forum). The agreement aims to solidify iwi authority over their own data and ensure Māori perspectives are heard in decision-making around data and statistics.
Data and a distorted picture of Māori
On the face of it, repurposing administrative data seems like a realistic solution to the census budget blowout. But there are questions about whether the data and methods used in an administrative census will be robust and of high quality. This has implications for policy and for communities.
Administrative data in its current form is limited in many ways. In particular, it misses what is actually important to Māori communities, and what makes life meaningful to them.
Administrative data often only measures problems. It is collected on Māori at their most vulnerable – when they’re in crisis, sick or struggling – which creates a distorted picture. In contrast, Te Kupenga (a survey by Stats NZ last run in 2018) included information by Māori and from a Māori cultural perspective that reflected lived realities.
Before increasing reliance on administrative data, greater engagement with Māori will be needed to ensure a data system that gathers and provides reliable, quality data. It is especially important for smaller hapori Māori (Māori communities), which need the data to make decisions for their members.
Stats NZ plans to partly fill the data void left by removing the traditional census with regular surveys. But the small sample size of surveys often makes it impossible to obtain reliable information on smaller groups, such as takatāpui (Māori of diverse gender and sexualities) or specific hapū or iwi groups.
It is not clear the implications of this have been fully been worked through in the census change process. Nor is it clear whether the recommendations from Stats NZ’s Future Census Independent External Review Panel – from Māori and a range of experts – have been fully considered.
This included crucial recommendations around commissioning an independent analysis informed by te Tiriti principles, meaningful engagement with iwi-Māori, and the continuing implementation of a Māori data governance model developed by Māori data experts.
We are not opposed to updating the way in which census data is collected. But for the new approach to be just, ethical and legal will require it to adhere to te Tiriti o Waitangi and the relationship established in the Mana Ōrite agreement.
Lara Greaves receives funding from the Royal Society of NZ, MBIE, and Horizon Europe. Lara is affiliated with Te Mana Raraunga-Māori Data Sovereignty Network.
Ella Pēpi Tarapa-Dewes is affiliated with Te Mana Raraunga-Māori Data Sovereignty Network.
Kiri West receives funding from Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. She is affiliated with Te Mana Raraunga-Māori Data Sovereignty Network.
Larissa Renfrew is affiliated with Te Mana Raraunga-Māori Data Sovereignty Network.
Earlier today, Iranian officials urged the country’s citizens to remove the messaging platform WhatsApp from their smartphones. Without providing any supporting evidence, they alleged the app gathers user information to send to Israel.
WhatsApp has rejected the allegations. In a statement to Associated Press, the Meta-owned messaging platform said it was concerned “these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them most”. It added that it does not track users’ location nor the personal messages people are sending one another.
It is impossible to independently assess the allegations, given Iran provided no publicly accessible supporting evidence.
But we do know that even though WhatsApp has strong privacy and security features, it isn’t impenetrable. And there is at least one country that has previously been able to penetrate it: Israel.
3 billion users
WhatsApp is a free messaging app owned by Meta. With around 3 billion users worldwide and growing fast, it can send text messages, calls and media over the internet.
It uses strong end-to-end encryption meaning only the sender and recipient can read messages; not even WhatsApp can access their content. This ensures strong privacy and security.
Advanced cyber capability
The United States is the world leader in cyber capability. This term describes the skills, technologies and resources that enable nations to defend, attack, or exploit digital systems and networks as a powerful instrument of national power.
But Israel also has advanced cyber capability, ranking alongside the United Kingdom, China, Russia, France and Canada.
Israel has a documented history of conducting sophisticated cyber operations. This includes the widely cited Stuxnet attack that targeted Iran’s nuclear program more than 15 years ago. Israeli cyber units, such as Unit 8200, are renowned for their technical expertise and innovation in both offensive and defensive operations.
Seven of the top 10 global cybersecurity firms maintain R&D centers in Israel, and Israeli startups frequently lead in developing novel offensive and defensive cyber tools.
A historical precedent
Israeli firms have repeatedly been linked to hacking WhatsApp accounts, most notably through the Pegasus spyware developed by Israeli-based cyber intelligence company NSO Group. In 2019, it exploited WhatsApp vulnerabilities to compromise 1,400 users, including journalists, activists and politicians.
Another Israeli company, Paragon Solutions, also recently targeted nearly 100 WhatsApp accounts. The company used advanced spyware to access private communications after they had been de-encrypted.
These kinds of attacks often use “spearphishing”. This is distinct from regular phishing attacks, which generally involve an attacker sending malicious links to thousands of people.
Instead, spearphishing involves sending targeted, deceptive messages or files to trick specific individuals into installing spyware. This grants attackers full access to their devices – including de-encrypted WhatsApp messages.
A spearphishing email might appear to come from a trusted colleague or organisation. It might ask the recipient to urgently review a document or reset a password, leading them to a fake login page or triggering a malware download.
Protecting yourself from ‘spearphishing’
To avoid spearphishing, people should scrutinise unexpected emails or messages, especially those conveying a sense of urgency, and never click suspicious links or download unknown attachments.
Hovering the mouse cursor over a link will reveal the name of the destination. Suspicious links are those with strange domain names and garbled text that has nothing to do with the purported sender. Simply hovering without clicking is not dangerous.
Enable two-factor authentication, keep your software updated, and verify requests coming through trusted channels. Regular cybersecurity training also helps users spot and resist these targeted attacks.
David Tuffley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Police are reminding road users that there will be zero tolerance for unsafe driving this Matariki Weekend.
“There was an unacceptable number of road deaths over King’s Birthday weekend, and we don’t want a repeat of that this weekend. If you are driving in a way that puts your own, or someone else’s, safety at risk, expect there to be consequences,” says Director Road Policing, Superintendent Steve Greally.
“We have zero tolerance for selfish drivers gambling with other people’s lives.”
Emergency services see first-hand the devastation that dangerous road behaviours cause, and the harm doesn’t end at the scene.
“One of the hardest parts of our job is knocking on a door in the middle of the night to tell a family that their loved one isn’t coming home,” Superintendent Greally says.
“Matariki is a time for families to come together and be with each other – please don’t do anything which would prevent that from happening.”
Police will be out on the country’s roads in increased numbers this weekend, with the clear intention to stop and prevent unsafe driving behaviour, day and night.
Our officers and road safety partners are undertaking a large amount of work to ensure the safety of everyone on our roads.
Many of us make long journeys over long weekends. We know that tired drivers make mistakes, so take regular breaks and split the driving with someone if you can.
Having your seatbelt on, driving to the conditions and not being distracted while driving can be the difference in walking away from a crash or being seriously injured or worse.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
From durian plantations to iron ore mines, producers around the world are placing their bets on China’s consumption boom.
As the world’s second-largest importer, China boasts a vast market of 1.4 billion increasingly prosperous individuals. This market is offering much-needed stability amid subdued global growth and rising protectionism and unilateralism.
Vendors transport packaged durians at Haijixing Market, a large wholesale fruit market, in Nanning, south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, April 25, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]
As China strives to stimulate domestic demand across the board while expanding voluntary and unilateral opening up in an orderly manner, its vast market will create more opportunities and choices for the world.
A market too big to ingnore
A freshly harvested durian in Malaysia can now land on a Chinese plate within a day — a logistic sprint to satisfy China’s growing appetite for the “king of fruits.”
Eyeing a bigger slice of the multi-billion-U.S. dollar market in China, the Southeast Asian country began exporting fresh durian to China last August, adding to its existing trade in frozen pulp and processed products.
“Over 70 percent of Malaysia’s durian exports went to China between 2017 and 2023,” said Edwyn Chiang, secretary general of the Malaysia International Durian Industry Development Association.
The durian frenzy in China, the world’s top consumer of the spiky fruit, epitomizes the nation’s broad import appetite. From Brazilian soybeans to German machinery, the breadth of China’s consumption continues to buoy global trade even as other engines sputter.
Boosting imports is critical to China’s high-quality development. By bringing in high-quality foreign goods and services, they not only directly meet domestic production and consumption needs, but also stimulate market competition, elevate overall supply standards, and ultimately fulfill people’s aspirations for better lives, said Yu Chunhai, a professor at Renmin University of China.
An anchor of stability
Nearly half a world away, in Nyagatare, a district in Rwanda’s eastern province, the sun beats down on the vibrant chili fields of Gashora Farm PLC, where a story of cooperation and prosperity is unfolding.
The farm’s link to the Chinese market began in 2018 when Managing Director Dieudonne Twahirwa attended the China International Import Expo in Shanghai. “The Chinese market is enormous. We saw strong demand for Rwandan dried chili,” Twahirwa said.
In 2024, the Gashora Farm partnered China’s Hunan Modern Agriculture International Development Co., Ltd. to launch the Rwanda-Hunan Chili Pepper Industry Demonstration Project. Under a contract farming model, the project covers 100 hectares and spans the entire value chain — from seedling cultivation to export. In the first season following the signing of the deal, 200 tonnes of dried chili were shipped to China.
“The Chinese market offers more than orders. It brings stability and investment,” said Twahirwa.
Chili is among the growing number of African products entering the Chinese market. In the first five months of 2025, China’s imports of African coffee, cocoa beans and frozen strawberries surged 145.7 percent, 88.6 percent, and 82 percent, respectively, according to Chinese customs data.
“China’s expanding imports directly benefit other countries by creating more trade opportunities. For instance, more African products are entering the Chinese market thanks to China’s favorable trade policy for the region,” said Bai Ming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
China has recently announced that it is ready to negotiate and sign the agreement of China-Africa Economic Partnership for Shared Development to implement the zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines for 53 African countries that have diplomatic relations with China.
Challenges remain
Despite China’s huge potential to expand imports, challenges and difficulties remain due to the uncertainty of international trade policies and slowing global economic growth, experts cautioned. This trend is evident in the recent decline of imports into China.
Commenting on the decline of imports in May, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) spokesperson Fu Linghui said at a press conference early this week that slowing global trade growth inevitably affected China’s import growth and the restrictive trade measures by some countries also had adverse effects on imports. The drop in international commodity prices, meanwhile, also impacted import data. In the first five months of 2025, the average prices of China’s imported iron ore, crude oil, coal and soybeans all decreased.
As China makes efforts to promote economic restructuring and consumption-led growth, Bai noted that it would be an exaggeration to say that the decline in imports in recent months indicates weak progress in China’s transition toward consumption-driven growth.
The latest NBS data showed that China’s consumer spending in May posted its strongest growth in nearly 18 months, with retail sales of consumer goods expanding 6.4 percent year on year in May, a 1.3-percentage-point increase from April.
Bai said China’s import expansion would also hinge on the availability of high-quality and price-friendly foreign products, and whether foreign supplies can match the country’s consumption needs. He added that some countries’ restrictive measures on exports to China further complicated the matter.
GDP increases 0.8 percent in the March 2025 quarter – media release
19 June 2025
New Zealand’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.8 percent in the March 2025 quarter, following a 0.5 percent increase in the December 2024 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today.
Activity increased in the March 2025 quarter across all three high-level industry groups: primary industries, goods-producing industries, and services industries.
“At a more detailed industry level, nine of the 16 industries increased, with the largest rises in business services and manufacturing,” economic growth spokesperson Katrina Dewbery said.
The rise in manufacturing was led by an increase in the production of machinery and equipment. This was reflected in increases for components of both investment and exports associated with this type of manufacturing output.
Visit our website to read this news story and information release and to download CSV files:
The Mauritian economy continues to exhibit resilience with growth at 4.7 percent in 2024 and contained inflation. The growth outlook remains favorable, though risks are to the downside.
Mauritius needs to recalibrate the macroeconomic policy mix to rebuild fiscal space. The monetary policy framework needs to be strengthened while continued monitoring of macro-financial risks is essential to maintain financial stability.
Advancing key reforms to foster external competitiveness and private sector-led growth while enhancing climate resilience will reduce external imbalances.
Washington, DC: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the Article IV Consultation for Mauritius.[1]
Mauritius’ economy remains resilient. Real GDP grew by 4.7 percent in 2024, from 5.0 percent in 2023, driven by services, construction, and tourism. Headline inflation (12-month average) declined to 2.5 percent in March 2025 from 7.0 percent in 2023, helped by easing international food and energy prices and lower fuel excise duties. The external current account deficit widened in 2024 to 6.5 percent of GDP, mostly reflecting higher imports and freight costs. Gross foreign reserves increased to US$8.5 billion by end-2024, covering almost 12 months of imports. Looking ahead, the country needs to address fiscal and structural challenges, notably the high public debt, significant public investment needs, low productivity, and an ageing society.
The outlook for growth is favorable. Real GDP growth is projected to soften to 3.0 percent in 2025 due to weakening external demand, easing tourism activity, and the drought. Over the medium term, growth is expected at around 3.4 percent, reflecting demographic headwinds and labor shortages. Inflation is projected to average 3.6 percent in 2025 and remain within BOM’s target range over the medium term. The external current account deficit is projected to reduce to 4.7 percent of GDP in 2025—reflecting lower oil prices, as exports grow modestly amid the slowdown in global demand—and to increase in 2026 due to subdued exports, but gradually decline thereafter. The primary fiscal deficit (excluding grants) for FY24/25 is projected to worsen by 3.4 ppt of GDP relative to FY23/24, to 6.5 percent of GDP, mostly driven by higher compensation of employees, social benefits, and grants and transfers. The stock of public sector debt is projected at around 88 percent of GDP at end-June 2025, and to gradually decline in the medium term.
Risks to the outlook are on the downside, including from global uncertainty, tariff wars, higher-than-anticipated fuel and food prices, and extreme climate shocks.
The economy has recovered solidly from the pandemic and the outlook is favorable, but fiscal and structural challenges remain. The recovery has been driven by services, construction, and tourism. The medium-term outlook is favorable but held back by demographic headwinds and labor shortages. Mauritius is facing fiscal and structural challenges from high public debt, significant public investment needs for climate, low productivity, and an ageing society. Risks to the outlook are on the downside including from high global uncertainty, highlighting the importance of addressing fiscal and external imbalances to increase the resilience of the economy.
Fiscal policy should pursue frontloaded growth-friendly consolidation to shore up fiscal credibility, helping rebuild fiscal space while protecting the most vulnerable. Tax revenue should be increased and current and ESFs’ spending contained while safeguarding critical social spending and growth-enhancing capital spending. Pension system reform remains key to support fiscal sustainability, especially given the ageing of Mauritius’ population. Strengthening public financial management, including by streamlining ESFs, will support fiscal consolidation, transparency, and good governance.
BOM should start to gradually phase out its ownership of MIC and strengthen the implementation of the monetary policy framework by resuming uncapped issuance of 7-Day BOM bills (at the key policy rate). BOM should stand ready to tighten the monetary policy stance should inflationary pressures reemerge. BOM should adopt amendments to the BOM Act, including to ensure fiscal backing, to protect central bank independence. Ministry of Finance and BOM are encouraged to strengthen the commitment on their mutual agreement for BOM independence. Mauritius should continue to rely on exchange rate flexibility and FX purchases when opportunities arise, and in line with the monetary policy framework, to help further build foreign reserves buffers to ensure ability to respond to large external shocks.
Mauritius’ external position at end-2024 is assessed as weaker than the level implied by fundamentals and desirable policies, and structural reforms to foster external competitiveness are needed to reduce external imbalances. Steady progress in strengthening the AML/CFT framework is welcome and should be sustained, including provisions related to non-resident and cross-border activity. Financial sector risks should continue to be closely monitored including of the real estate sector. Ongoing efforts to improve external sector statistics, including measurement of the GBCs sector, should be sustained. Statistical gaps and discrepancies should be addressed to improve the quality and credibility of macroeconomic statistics.
Mauritius should advance structural reforms that boost investment and innovation to secure longer-term private sector-led growth. Priorities include strengthening workers’ skills through better education and narrowing gender gaps as well as advancing climate adaptation efforts to support economic resilience.
Gross international reserves (millions of U.S. dollars)
7,242
7,805
7,740
7,254
8,510
8,675
9,163
9,475
9,781
10,083
10,420
Months of imports of goods and services, f.o.b.
14.3
11.6
11.6
10.2
11.8
11.6
11.6
11.4
11.3
11.2
11.1
Memorandum items:
GDP at current market prices (billions of Mauritian rupees)
448.9
478.8
570.3
638.3
694.0
742.3
796.0
853.3
914.0
979.0
1,048.7
GDP at current market prices (millions of U.S. dollars)
11,408
11,484
12,908
14,101
14,953
15,641
16,662
17,748
18,890
20,082
21,326
Public sector debt, fiscal year (percent of GDP)4
91.9
86.1
81.8
81.5
88.3
89.1
88.1
86.9
85.3
83.9
82.7
Foreign and local currency long-term debt rating (Moody’s)
Baa1
Baa2
Baa3
Baa3
Baa3
Baa3
…
…
…
…
…
Sources: Country authorities; and IMF staff estimates and projections.
1GFSM 2001 concept of net lending/net borrowing, includes special and other extrabudgetary funds. Fiscal data reported for fiscal years (e.g, 2019=2019/20).
2 Following the GFSM 2014, Sections 5.111.5.116, the transfers from the BOM to the
Central Government are considered as financing.
3 Excludes changes in inventories in 2022 and outer years.
4 The public debt series has been reclassified starting in the 2024 AIV Mission to allow
consolidation of central government securities held by non-financial public corporations
[1] Under Article IV of the IMF’s Articles of Agreement, the IMF holds bilateral discussions with members, usually every year. A staff team visits the country, collects economic and financial information, and discusses with officials the country’s economic developments and policies. On return to headquarters, the staff prepares a report, which forms the basis for discussion by the Executive Board.
[2] The Executive Board takes decisions under its lapse-of-time procedure when the Board agrees that a proposal can be considered without convening formal discussions.
Australia’s productivity is flatlining, posting the worst vitals we’ve seen in 60 years.
Politicians and chief executives are prescribing artificial intelligence (AI) like it’s the new penicillin – a wonder drug with almost magical healing powers. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and the Productivity Commission all see AI as a key part of the plan to cure Australia’s productivity ills, with estimates that automation and AI could add A$600 billion to Australia’s annual economy.
Unfortunately, AI is no panacea. It’s more like physiotherapy after major surgery: it only delivers if you put in the effort, follow the program and work with experts who know which muscles to strengthen and when.
AI projects have high fail rates
AI is a broad suite of tools and techniques, of which generative AI such as ChatGPT is just the latest iteration. When implemented well, AI can undoubtedly lift productivity across a wide variety of applications. Unilever’s legal team reports generative AI tools save its lawyers 30 minutes daily on document review and contract analysis.
Other AI applications can deliver life-saving results at even greater efficiency. In a German study, AI-supported mammography screening reduced radiologists’ reading time by 43% for examinations tagged as normal, while improving cancer detection rates.
The federal government is focused on improving productivity. In this five-part series, we’ve asked leading experts what that means for the economy, what’s holding us back and their best ideas for reform.
But the hard truth is that AI-driven productivity gains like these depend on both smart implementation and trusted adoption. Organisations that skip the tough part – such as staff engagement, training and good governance – often find the promised benefits never materialise.
The numbers back this up: some 80% of AI projects end up failing, twice the rate of traditional IT projects. Only one in four executives in a global survey report meaningful returns on their AI investments.
We shouldn’t really be surprised. Other general-purpose technologies, such as electricity and earlier digital technologies followed a similar path. US economist Robert Solow famously said: “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”
Workers don’t trust the technology
Like the early days of the internet in the 1990s, the success of AI relies on adoption and trust. Without trust, uptake stalls and the benefits evaporate.
That’s a big challenge in Australia, where public trust and optimism in AI remains comparatively low. Why? Australians also report lower levels of AI use, training and confidence. And people are less likely to trust what they don’t understand.
Closing that trust gap means involving workers from the start. By listening to worker concerns and identifying existing pain points in processes, companies can deploy AI systems that help, rather than sideline employees.
Conversely, when workers aren’t meaningfully involved, things don’t go well.
Take Klarna. The Swedish fintech volunteered to be the generative AI platform OpenAI’s “favourite guinea pig”. It slashed jobs and claimed to have automated the equivalent of 700 employees. But
CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski now admits the shift to AI hurt customer service, forcing the company to rehire humans.
Similarly, Duolingo recently faced a user backlash when it replaced 10% of contractors with AI.
These aren’t isolated cases. Some 55% of UK executives who replaced workers with AI later regretted it. In the rush to automate, workers are often seen as expendable.
This attitude to AI leads to what US economists Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepro call “so-so automation”, where technology displaces workers without delivering meaningful productivity gains.
Rather than trying to replace staff with AI, organisations should be deeply engaging with them. Engaging workers can dramatically boost the AI’s return on investment.
Like other general-purpose technologies, getting the most out of AI means transforming the way we work. And the data show companies that engage workers in organisational transformations are nine times more likely to succeed.
The companies that are unlocking the benefit of AI understand it works best when it amplifies human capability, rather than replacing it. Workers still know things that algorithms don’t. They deeply understand the practical realities of their jobs, which is crucial for designing AI systems that actually get things done.
Designing better solutions
Our own research confirms this. Australian workers feel AI is being imposed on them without adequate consultation or training. This not only creates resistance to adoption but also means organisations are missing the experience of the people who actually do the work.
Our most recent report shows worker engagement strengthens competitive advantage and profitability, and leads to better AI solutions rooted in workers’ problems and needs. When workers are involved in deciding how AI is used, the solutions are better designed, more effective and more widely adopted.
Australia’s new Industry and Innovation Minister, Tim Ayres, recognises this. In a recent speech he emphasised the need to work “cooperatively with workers and their unions” on tech adoption.
It’s a promising place to start. If AI is going to be an effective treatment for Australia’s productivity challenge, then workers must be an essential part of the recovery team.
Llewellyn Spink receives funding from the Minderoo Foundation as part of the Human Technology Institute’s AI Corporate Governance Program. HTI is funded by a wide variety of academic, corporate and philanthropic partners.
Nicholas Davis receives funding from the Minderoo Foundation as part of the Human Technology Institute’s AI Corporate Governance Program. HTI is funded by a wide variety of academic, corporate and philanthropic partners.
Australia’s productivity is flatlining, posting the worst vitals we’ve seen in 60 years.
Politicians and chief executives are prescribing artificial intelligence (AI) like it’s the new penicillin – a wonder drug with almost magical healing powers. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and the Productivity Commission all see AI as a key part of the plan to cure Australia’s productivity ills, with estimates that automation and AI could add A$600 billion to Australia’s annual economy.
Unfortunately, AI is no panacea. It’s more like physiotherapy after major surgery: it only delivers if you put in the effort, follow the program and work with experts who know which muscles to strengthen and when.
AI projects have high fail rates
AI is a broad suite of tools and techniques, of which generative AI such as ChatGPT is just the latest iteration. When implemented well, AI can undoubtedly lift productivity across a wide variety of applications. Unilever’s legal team reports generative AI tools save its lawyers 30 minutes daily on document review and contract analysis.
Other AI applications can deliver life-saving results at even greater efficiency. In a German study, AI-supported mammography screening reduced radiologists’ reading time by 43% for examinations tagged as normal, while improving cancer detection rates.
The federal government is focused on improving productivity. In this five-part series, we’ve asked leading experts what that means for the economy, what’s holding us back and their best ideas for reform.
But the hard truth is that AI-driven productivity gains like these depend on both smart implementation and trusted adoption. Organisations that skip the tough part – such as staff engagement, training and good governance – often find the promised benefits never materialise.
The numbers back this up: some 80% of AI projects end up failing, twice the rate of traditional IT projects. Only one in four executives in a global survey report meaningful returns on their AI investments.
We shouldn’t really be surprised. Other general-purpose technologies, such as electricity and earlier digital technologies followed a similar path. US economist Robert Solow famously said: “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”
Workers don’t trust the technology
Like the early days of the internet in the 1990s, the success of AI relies on adoption and trust. Without trust, uptake stalls and the benefits evaporate.
That’s a big challenge in Australia, where public trust and optimism in AI remains comparatively low. Why? Australians also report lower levels of AI use, training and confidence. And people are less likely to trust what they don’t understand.
Closing that trust gap means involving workers from the start. By listening to worker concerns and identifying existing pain points in processes, companies can deploy AI systems that help, rather than sideline employees.
Conversely, when workers aren’t meaningfully involved, things don’t go well.
Take Klarna. The Swedish fintech volunteered to be the generative AI platform OpenAI’s “favourite guinea pig”. It slashed jobs and claimed to have automated the equivalent of 700 employees. But
CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski now admits the shift to AI hurt customer service, forcing the company to rehire humans.
Similarly, Duolingo recently faced a user backlash when it replaced 10% of contractors with AI.
These aren’t isolated cases. Some 55% of UK executives who replaced workers with AI later regretted it. In the rush to automate, workers are often seen as expendable.
This attitude to AI leads to what US economists Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepro call “so-so automation”, where technology displaces workers without delivering meaningful productivity gains.
Rather than trying to replace staff with AI, organisations should be deeply engaging with them. Engaging workers can dramatically boost the AI’s return on investment.
Like other general-purpose technologies, getting the most out of AI means transforming the way we work. And the data show companies that engage workers in organisational transformations are nine times more likely to succeed.
The companies that are unlocking the benefit of AI understand it works best when it amplifies human capability, rather than replacing it. Workers still know things that algorithms don’t. They deeply understand the practical realities of their jobs, which is crucial for designing AI systems that actually get things done.
Designing better solutions
Our own research confirms this. Australian workers feel AI is being imposed on them without adequate consultation or training. This not only creates resistance to adoption but also means organisations are missing the experience of the people who actually do the work.
Our most recent report shows worker engagement strengthens competitive advantage and profitability, and leads to better AI solutions rooted in workers’ problems and needs. When workers are involved in deciding how AI is used, the solutions are better designed, more effective and more widely adopted.
Australia’s new Industry and Innovation Minister, Tim Ayres, recognises this. In a recent speech he emphasised the need to work “cooperatively with workers and their unions” on tech adoption.
It’s a promising place to start. If AI is going to be an effective treatment for Australia’s productivity challenge, then workers must be an essential part of the recovery team.
Llewellyn Spink receives funding from the Minderoo Foundation as part of the Human Technology Institute’s AI Corporate Governance Program. HTI is funded by a wide variety of academic, corporate and philanthropic partners.
Nicholas Davis receives funding from the Minderoo Foundation as part of the Human Technology Institute’s AI Corporate Governance Program. HTI is funded by a wide variety of academic, corporate and philanthropic partners.
Soon, more than 15 million Australians should be lodging a tax return with the Australian Taxation Office in the hope of receiving at least a small refund.
About 60% of taxpayers use an accountant to prepare their tax return while the other 40% lodge their returns via their MyGov account. This links them to the tax office, Medicare and other government services.
The tax office receives about 1000 tip-offs a week from people who know or suspect evasion. Of these, the office deems about 90% warrant further investigation.
What to remember when preparing your tax return
These days, the tax office prefills much of your income information. The ATO will let you know through your MyGov account when your income statements from your employer are “tax ready”.
But other income including bank interest, dividends and managed investment funds distributions may take longer to appear, so don’t rush to complete and lodge your tax return on July 1 if these aren’t there. When these items prefill, check them for accuracy and correct any errors.
The tax office does not know about all your income so remember to provide details of other sources including capital gains on investments and income from other jobs for which you have an Australian Business Number.
Some items, such as private health insurance information, are only partially pre-filled so be sure to check that all questions have been answered and all necessary information provided.
How to claim deductions
To claim a deduction you must have spent the money yourself and were not reimbursed from another source.
The expense must be directly related to earning your income from either employment or services provided, from investments such as shares or a rental property, or from a business you operate.
And you must have a record to prove your expense. This usually needs to be in the form of a receipt or a diary.
If you don’t know how to record your deductions, an easy option is to use the tax office myDeductions app. You can scan receipts and allocate them to the correct section of your return.
What the tax office will be looking for in 2025
Each year the tax office targets particular areas. For 2025, these are:
Working from home expenses: you can choose between two methods: the fixed rate method or the actual cost method.
The fixed rate method allows you to claim 70 cents for each hour worked from home during the year. You do not need to keep receipts, but you must keep a record of the hours worked at home.
The actual cost method allows you to claim the costs of working from home, but taxpayers must have a dedicated room set aside for the office and remove all private use.
You cannot claim personal items like interest on a home loan or rent expenses unless you are operating a business from home.
Personal items, such as coffee machines, are not claimable even if you use them while working from home. Mobile phone and internet costs are included in the 70 cents per hour fixed rate. The ATO will be looking for taxpayers who claim these twice – for example, on their return and from their employer.
The 70 cents per hour rate does not include depreciation of work-related technology and office furniture, cleaning of the home office and repairs to these items. So these amounts can be claimed separately.
Motor vehicle expenses: there are also two methods to work out this claim. The log book method requires you to have kept a record for 12 weeks. You then need to work out the percentage you used your car for work or business which is applied to your expenses.
The cents per kilometre method allows you to claim 88 cents for each kilometre up to 5,000 km of work or business travel. No receipts need to be kept for this method, but you must be able to justify the total kilometres that you have claimed.
If you use the cents per kilometre method, do not double dip by claiming additional motor vehicle expenses.
Rental properties: make sure the expenses you claim do not include your personal costs. For example, the interest expenses must only be for the rental property and not interest from your personal home.
Also, if you own 50% of the rental you can only claim 50% of the expenses, even if your taxable income is higher than the other owner. If you have a holiday home you can only claim expenses for when that home was rented out, not the whole year.
Cryptocurrency: many taxpayers are buying and selling cryptocurrency. These transactions need to be reported in your tax return when they are sold as a capital gain or capital loss.
Other forms of income: if you earn money through the sharing or gig economies, you must include all income from these activities in your return. If you sell goods online, the tax office may consider it to be a business, and it will expect the income to be declared.
Don’t be tempted to cheat
The ATO already knows a lot about your tax situation, which makes it harder than ever to cheat.
The tax office uses data matching to check information you include in your return against data provided by other parties including share registries and your health insurer. It also gathers information from the internet.
If the data doesn’t match your return, or your claim is considered excessive, the ATO may contact you. You may be asked to explain why and, if your explanation is unsatisfactory, you might be audited.
Penalties of 25% to 75% of the tax owed may apply for falsely claiming deductions. The more dishonest the claim, the higher the penalty).
The link between what you claim and what you earn has to be real. So do not claim the cost of your Armani suit as a work uniform or your pet as a mascot for your business. Even the cost of a massage chair to relieve work stress cannot be claimed.
Dubious claims received by the tax office in recent years are many and varied. They have included Lego, school uniforms and sporting equipment purchased for kids, $9000 worth of wine bought by a wine expert while on a European holiday, for personal consumption, and a claim using receipts lodged by a doctor for an overseas conference he didn’t attend.
What if I make a mistake or the ATO finds an error?
If you make a mistake in your tax return, you can always amend it via MyTax.
The tax office will not fine you unless you did not take reasonable care, but you will have to pay back the shortfall in tax.
The due date to lodge your own return is October 31. If you are having trouble meeting this date, contact the tax office and ask for an extension.
Disclaimer: this is general information only and not to be taken as financial or tax advice.
Robert B Whait receives funding from the Federal Government as part of the National Tax Clinic Program, Financial Literacy Australia (now Ecstra Foundation), ANZ Bank, and the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC). He is affiliated with the Tax Institute of Australia and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
Connie Vitale receives funding from the Federal Government as part of the National Tax Clinic Program. She is affiliated with the Institute of Public Accountants and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
Soon, more than 15 million Australians should be lodging a tax return with the Australian Taxation Office in the hope of receiving at least a small refund.
About 60% of taxpayers use an accountant to prepare their tax return while the other 40% lodge their returns via their MyGov account. This links them to the tax office, Medicare and other government services.
The tax office receives about 1000 tip-offs a week from people who know or suspect evasion. Of these, the office deems about 90% warrant further investigation.
What to remember when preparing your tax return
These days, the tax office prefills much of your income information. The ATO will let you know through your MyGov account when your income statements from your employer are “tax ready”.
But other income including bank interest, dividends and managed investment funds distributions may take longer to appear, so don’t rush to complete and lodge your tax return on July 1 if these aren’t there. When these items prefill, check them for accuracy and correct any errors.
The tax office does not know about all your income so remember to provide details of other sources including capital gains on investments and income from other jobs for which you have an Australian Business Number.
Some items, such as private health insurance information, are only partially pre-filled so be sure to check that all questions have been answered and all necessary information provided.
How to claim deductions
To claim a deduction you must have spent the money yourself and were not reimbursed from another source.
The expense must be directly related to earning your income from either employment or services provided, from investments such as shares or a rental property, or from a business you operate.
And you must have a record to prove your expense. This usually needs to be in the form of a receipt or a diary.
If you don’t know how to record your deductions, an easy option is to use the tax office myDeductions app. You can scan receipts and allocate them to the correct section of your return.
What the tax office will be looking for in 2025
Each year the tax office targets particular areas. For 2025, these are:
Working from home expenses: you can choose between two methods: the fixed rate method or the actual cost method.
The fixed rate method allows you to claim 70 cents for each hour worked from home during the year. You do not need to keep receipts, but you must keep a record of the hours worked at home.
The actual cost method allows you to claim the costs of working from home, but taxpayers must have a dedicated room set aside for the office and remove all private use.
You cannot claim personal items like interest on a home loan or rent expenses unless you are operating a business from home.
Personal items, such as coffee machines, are not claimable even if you use them while working from home. Mobile phone and internet costs are included in the 70 cents per hour fixed rate. The ATO will be looking for taxpayers who claim these twice – for example, on their return and from their employer.
The 70 cents per hour rate does not include depreciation of work-related technology and office furniture, cleaning of the home office and repairs to these items. So these amounts can be claimed separately.
Motor vehicle expenses: there are also two methods to work out this claim. The log book method requires you to have kept a record for 12 weeks. You then need to work out the percentage you used your car for work or business which is applied to your expenses.
The cents per kilometre method allows you to claim 88 cents for each kilometre up to 5,000 km of work or business travel. No receipts need to be kept for this method, but you must be able to justify the total kilometres that you have claimed.
If you use the cents per kilometre method, do not double dip by claiming additional motor vehicle expenses.
Rental properties: make sure the expenses you claim do not include your personal costs. For example, the interest expenses must only be for the rental property and not interest from your personal home.
Also, if you own 50% of the rental you can only claim 50% of the expenses, even if your taxable income is higher than the other owner. If you have a holiday home you can only claim expenses for when that home was rented out, not the whole year.
Cryptocurrency: many taxpayers are buying and selling cryptocurrency. These transactions need to be reported in your tax return when they are sold as a capital gain or capital loss.
Other forms of income: if you earn money through the sharing or gig economies, you must include all income from these activities in your return. If you sell goods online, the tax office may consider it to be a business, and it will expect the income to be declared.
Don’t be tempted to cheat
The ATO already knows a lot about your tax situation, which makes it harder than ever to cheat.
The tax office uses data matching to check information you include in your return against data provided by other parties including share registries and your health insurer. It also gathers information from the internet.
If the data doesn’t match your return, or your claim is considered excessive, the ATO may contact you. You may be asked to explain why and, if your explanation is unsatisfactory, you might be audited.
Penalties of 25% to 75% of the tax owed may apply for falsely claiming deductions. The more dishonest the claim, the higher the penalty).
The link between what you claim and what you earn has to be real. So do not claim the cost of your Armani suit as a work uniform or your pet as a mascot for your business. Even the cost of a massage chair to relieve work stress cannot be claimed.
Dubious claims received by the tax office in recent years are many and varied. They have included Lego, school uniforms and sporting equipment purchased for kids, $9000 worth of wine bought by a wine expert while on a European holiday, for personal consumption, and a claim using receipts lodged by a doctor for an overseas conference he didn’t attend.
What if I make a mistake or the ATO finds an error?
If you make a mistake in your tax return, you can always amend it via MyTax.
The tax office will not fine you unless you did not take reasonable care, but you will have to pay back the shortfall in tax.
The due date to lodge your own return is October 31. If you are having trouble meeting this date, contact the tax office and ask for an extension.
Disclaimer: this is general information only and not to be taken as financial or tax advice.
Robert B Whait receives funding from the Federal Government as part of the National Tax Clinic Program, Financial Literacy Australia (now Ecstra Foundation), ANZ Bank, and the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC). He is affiliated with the Tax Institute of Australia and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
Connie Vitale receives funding from the Federal Government as part of the National Tax Clinic Program. She is affiliated with the Institute of Public Accountants and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tu Nguyen, PhD Candidate, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Winter is here, along with cold days and the inevitable seasonal surge in respiratory viruses.
But it’s not only the sniffles we need to worry about. Heart attacks and strokes also tend to rise during the winter months.
In new research out this week we show one reason why.
Our study shows catching common respiratory viruses raises your short-term risk of a heart attack or stroke. In other words, common viruses, such as those that cause flu and COVID, can trigger them.
Wait, viruses can trigger heart attacks?
Traditional risk factors such as smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and lack of exercise are the main reasons for heart attacks and strokes.
And rates of heart attacks and strokes can rise in winter for a number of reasons. Factors such as low temperature, less physical activity, more time spent indoors – perhaps with indoor air pollutants – can affect blood clotting and worsen the effects of traditional risk factors.
But our new findings build on those from other researchers to show how respiratory viruses can also be a trigger.
The theory is respiratory virus infections set off a heart attack or stroke, rather than directly cause them. If traditional risk factors are like dousing a house in petrol, the viral infection is like the matchstick that ignites the flame.
Think of a viral infection as the matchstick that ignites the flame, leading to a heart attack or stroke. anokato/Shutterstock
For healthy, young people, a newer, well-kept house is unlikely to spontaneously combust. But an older or even abandoned house with faulty electric wiring needs just a spark to lead to a blaze.
People who are particularly vulnerable to a heart attack or stroke triggered by a respiratory virus are those with more than one of those traditional risk factors, especially older people.
What we did and what we found
Our team conducted a meta-analysis (a study of existing studies) to see which respiratory viruses play a role in triggering heart attacks and strokes, and the strength of the link. This meant studying more than 11,000 scientific papers, spanning 40 years of research.
Overall, the influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) were the main triggers.
If you catch the flu, we found the risk of a heart attack goes up almost 5.4 times and a stroke by 4.7 times compared with not being infected. The danger zone is short – within the first few days or weeks – and tapers off with time after being infected.
Catching COVID can also trigger heart attacks and strokes, but there haven’t been enough studies to say exactly what the increased risk is.
We also found an increased risk of heart attacks or strokes with other viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), enterovirus and cytomegalovirus. But the links are not as strong, probably because these viruses are less commonly detected or tested for.
What’s going on?
Over a person’s lifetime, our bodies wear and tear and the inside wall of our blood vessels becomes rough. Fatty build-ups (plaques) stick easily to these rough areas, inevitably accumulating and causing tight spaces.
Generally, blood can still pass through, and these build-ups don’t cause issues. Think of this as dousing the house in petrol, but it’s not yet alight.
So how does a viral infection act like a matchstick to ignite the flame? Through a cascading process of inflammation.
High levels of inflammation that follow a viral infection can crack open a plaque. The body activates blood clotting to fix the crack but this clot could inadvertently block a blood vessel completely, causing a heart attack or stroke.
Some studies have found fragments of the COVID virus inside the blood clots that cause heart attacks – further evidence to back our findings.
We don’t know whether younger, healthier people are also at increased risk of a heart attack or stroke after infection with a respiratory virus.
That’s because people in the studies we analysed were almost always older adults with at least one of those traditional risk factors, so were already vulnerable.
The bad news is we will all be vulnerable eventually, just by getting older.
What can we do about it?
The triggers we identified are mostly preventable by vaccination.
There is good evidence from clinical trials the flu vaccine can reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke, especially if someone already has heart problems.
We aren’t clear exactly how this works. But the theory is that avoiding common infections, or having less severe symptoms, reduces the chances of setting off the inflammatory chain reaction.
COVID vaccination could also indirectly protect against heart attacks and strokes. But the evidence is still emerging.
Heart attacks and strokes are among Australia’s biggest killers. If vaccinations could help reduce even a small fraction of people having a heart attack or stroke, this could bring substantial benefit to their lives, the community, our stressed health system and the economy.
What should I do?
At-risk groups should get vaccinated against flu and COVID. Pregnant women, and people over 60 with medical problems, should receive RSV vaccination to reduce their risk of severe disease.
So if you are older or have predisposing medical conditions, check Australia’s National Immunisation Program to see if you are eligible for a free vaccine.
For younger people, a healthy lifestyle with regular exercise and balanced diet will set you up for life. Consider checking your heart age (a measure of your risk of heart disease), getting an annual flu vaccine and discuss COVID boosters with your GP.
Tu Nguyen is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program PhD Scholarship and a Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Top-Up Scholarship.
Christopher Reid receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Future Fund.
Jim Buttery receives funding from the Medical Research Future Fund, the US Centres for Disease Control, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Victorian State Government.
Diana Vlasenko and Hazel Clothier do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tu Nguyen, PhD Candidate, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
Winter is here, along with cold days and the inevitable seasonal surge in respiratory viruses.
But it’s not only the sniffles we need to worry about. Heart attacks and strokes also tend to rise during the winter months.
In new research out this week we show one reason why.
Our study shows catching common respiratory viruses raises your short-term risk of a heart attack or stroke. In other words, common viruses, such as those that cause flu and COVID, can trigger them.
Wait, viruses can trigger heart attacks?
Traditional risk factors such as smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and lack of exercise are the main reasons for heart attacks and strokes.
And rates of heart attacks and strokes can rise in winter for a number of reasons. Factors such as low temperature, less physical activity, more time spent indoors – perhaps with indoor air pollutants – can affect blood clotting and worsen the effects of traditional risk factors.
But our new findings build on those from other researchers to show how respiratory viruses can also be a trigger.
The theory is respiratory virus infections set off a heart attack or stroke, rather than directly cause them. If traditional risk factors are like dousing a house in petrol, the viral infection is like the matchstick that ignites the flame.
Think of a viral infection as the matchstick that ignites the flame, leading to a heart attack or stroke. anokato/Shutterstock
For healthy, young people, a newer, well-kept house is unlikely to spontaneously combust. But an older or even abandoned house with faulty electric wiring needs just a spark to lead to a blaze.
People who are particularly vulnerable to a heart attack or stroke triggered by a respiratory virus are those with more than one of those traditional risk factors, especially older people.
What we did and what we found
Our team conducted a meta-analysis (a study of existing studies) to see which respiratory viruses play a role in triggering heart attacks and strokes, and the strength of the link. This meant studying more than 11,000 scientific papers, spanning 40 years of research.
Overall, the influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) were the main triggers.
If you catch the flu, we found the risk of a heart attack goes up almost 5.4 times and a stroke by 4.7 times compared with not being infected. The danger zone is short – within the first few days or weeks – and tapers off with time after being infected.
Catching COVID can also trigger heart attacks and strokes, but there haven’t been enough studies to say exactly what the increased risk is.
We also found an increased risk of heart attacks or strokes with other viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), enterovirus and cytomegalovirus. But the links are not as strong, probably because these viruses are less commonly detected or tested for.
What’s going on?
Over a person’s lifetime, our bodies wear and tear and the inside wall of our blood vessels becomes rough. Fatty build-ups (plaques) stick easily to these rough areas, inevitably accumulating and causing tight spaces.
Generally, blood can still pass through, and these build-ups don’t cause issues. Think of this as dousing the house in petrol, but it’s not yet alight.
So how does a viral infection act like a matchstick to ignite the flame? Through a cascading process of inflammation.
High levels of inflammation that follow a viral infection can crack open a plaque. The body activates blood clotting to fix the crack but this clot could inadvertently block a blood vessel completely, causing a heart attack or stroke.
Some studies have found fragments of the COVID virus inside the blood clots that cause heart attacks – further evidence to back our findings.
We don’t know whether younger, healthier people are also at increased risk of a heart attack or stroke after infection with a respiratory virus.
That’s because people in the studies we analysed were almost always older adults with at least one of those traditional risk factors, so were already vulnerable.
The bad news is we will all be vulnerable eventually, just by getting older.
What can we do about it?
The triggers we identified are mostly preventable by vaccination.
There is good evidence from clinical trials the flu vaccine can reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke, especially if someone already has heart problems.
We aren’t clear exactly how this works. But the theory is that avoiding common infections, or having less severe symptoms, reduces the chances of setting off the inflammatory chain reaction.
COVID vaccination could also indirectly protect against heart attacks and strokes. But the evidence is still emerging.
Heart attacks and strokes are among Australia’s biggest killers. If vaccinations could help reduce even a small fraction of people having a heart attack or stroke, this could bring substantial benefit to their lives, the community, our stressed health system and the economy.
What should I do?
At-risk groups should get vaccinated against flu and COVID. Pregnant women, and people over 60 with medical problems, should receive RSV vaccination to reduce their risk of severe disease.
So if you are older or have predisposing medical conditions, check Australia’s National Immunisation Program to see if you are eligible for a free vaccine.
For younger people, a healthy lifestyle with regular exercise and balanced diet will set you up for life. Consider checking your heart age (a measure of your risk of heart disease), getting an annual flu vaccine and discuss COVID boosters with your GP.
Tu Nguyen is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program PhD Scholarship and a Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Top-Up Scholarship.
Christopher Reid receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Future Fund.
Jim Buttery receives funding from the Medical Research Future Fund, the US Centres for Disease Control, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Victorian State Government.
Diana Vlasenko and Hazel Clothier do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
In 2024, Alberta’s government launched Higher Ground: A Tourism Sector Strategy. The strategy will unleash Alberta’s visitor economy potential by charting the path towards a bold and ambitious goal of growing Alberta’s visitor economy from $10 billion a year to $25 billion annually by 2035 while creating jobs and economic opportunity for all regions of the province.
This push by the province to prioritize the visitor economy is already seeing results, with tourism continuing to be Alberta’s number one service export sector, bringing jobs, dollars and prosperity into the province’s economy. Last year alone, the tourism industry supported more than 85,000 jobs in Alberta.
“There’s no better time than now to experience Alberta. I’m proud of the work our government has done to showcase our province as a must-see world-class tourism destination. Visitors spent a record-breaking $14.4 billion in our province and I think these latest numbers prove that the world wants more Alberta.”
According to the latest Statistics Canada data released on May 30, visitors in Alberta surpassed the province’s previous record of $12.8 billion in 2023 by 12 per cent. The growth is driven by significant international and steady domestic travel by Canadians even in the face of economic uncertainties.
“Alberta’s visitor economy is thriving, thanks to the bold investments in developing and promoting world-class destinations, hard work and commitment from partners across the province, and an unwavering belief in the power of the visitor economy to drive long-term prosperity. We look forward to continuing this great momentum, with tourism growth that’s outpacing other provinces across the country.”
These indicators clearly show that the work of Travel Alberta and the province’s continued investment in Alberta’s visitor economy is paying off – strengthening the economy and creating more jobs for Albertans. By prioritizing the visitor economy, Alberta’s government is continuing to fulfill its commitment to making the province the best place to live, work, visit and play.
Quick facts
Statistics Canada determines spending from people travelling from international countries through their Visitor Travel Survey.
According to the latest Statistics Canada data released on May 30, visitors in Alberta spent $14.4 billion in 2024, surpassing the province’s previous record of $12.8 billion in 2023 by 12 per cent.
Tourism expenditures in Alberta grew at four times the national average
B.C. (2.5 per cent)
Ontario (-2.3 per cent),
Québec (seven per cent).
Top expenditure growth catagories were (year over year):
Expenditures in Accommodation (34 per cent)
Recreation & Entertainment (19 per cent)
Food & Beverage (16 per cent)
Expenditures in Retail & Other sector remained unchanged while Transportation declined marginally by one per cent compared to 2023.
International visitor spending increased by 16 per cent
Travel Alberta is the province’s destination management organization, which supports the growth of Alberta’s visitor economy by developing new experiences and destinations, promoting these destinations to the world, and attracting investment in the sector.
Related information
Travel Alberta visitor spend data
Higher Ground: A Tourism Sector Strategy
Travel Alberta Annual Report 2023-24
Related news
En route to Alberta (April 15, 2024)
Alberta tops Canada in tourism growth (April 8, 2025)
Supporting new adventures in Alberta (January 23, 2024)
