Development in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Statistics at the Australian Bureau of Statistics

This paper outlines the ICT statistical developments that the ABS has undertaken over recent years. These developments have been on both the supply side (ICT industry) and the demand side (use of IT by sector). The content of ABS ICT surveys has changed significantly over the last few years and are expected to develop further in line with industry changes and emerging policy needs.
Recent developments in household collections have been the inclusion of IT use questions in the 2001 Census of Population and Housing and in various ABS social surveys such as Children's Participation in Culture and Leisure Activities. Annual business IT use surveys are now conducted and include topics such as Internet commerce and IT security. Biennial ICT industry surveys are conducted to provide data on ICT production, imports and exports, ICT industry employment, performance and structure information. An Internet activity survey is run every six months and provides regional Internet access details and infrastructure details on Internet service providers.
A major development for 2002–03 will be the compilation of an ICT satellite account. ABS intends to produce an ICT Information Development Plan to guide its future statistical development work in the ICT field.     

商业银行对信贷紧缩的应对与思考

为抑制经济过热等问题,紧缩性货币政策成为目前及未来一段时期内货币政策的必然选择。央行通过对存款准备金率、利率等连续多次调整,明显加大了运用货币政策工具进行宏观调控的力度,同时对商业银行的经营战略和盈利能力也将产生一定的影响。商业银行应积极响应紧缩的货币政策,进一步转变经营理念,积极应对挑战。     

THE BENEFITS AND COSTS OF MONETARY UNION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA: A CRITICAL SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE

Abstract.  With the 14 members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) having set the objective of adopting a common currency for the year 2018, an expanding empirical literature has emerged evaluating the benefits and costs of a common-currency area in Southern Africa. This paper reviews that literature, focusing on two categories of studies: (1) those that assume that a country's characteristics are invariant to the adoption of a common currency and (2) those that assume that a monetary union alters an economy's structure, resulting in trade creation and credibility gains. The literature reviewed suggests that a relatively small group of countries, typically including South Africa, satisfies the criteria necessary for monetary unification. The literature also suggests that, in a monetary union comprising all SADC countries and a regional central bank that sets monetary policy to reflect the average economic conditions (e.g. fiscal balances) in the region, the potential losses (i.e. higher inflation) from giving up an existing credible national central bank, a relevant consideration for South Africa, could outweigh any potential benefits of trade creation resulting from a common currency.     

Same currency,different strategies? The (asymmetric) role of the exchange rate in shaping European agri-food exports

This article uses a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NADRL) model introduced by Shin, Yu, and Greenwood-Nimmo (2014) to assess the role that the exchange rate plays in shaping European agri-food exports after the introduction of the Euro. Although the 10 countries of this study share the same currency (and thus a single nominal exchange rate with the US), cross-country discrepancies of exports’ reactions to exchange rate changes are evident. Moreover, I find that exchange rate changes influence exports asymmetrically in the long run. Euro appreciations are harmful to a lesser extent than Euro depreciations are beneficial for European agri-food exports. The magnitude of this effect is country-specific and varies considerably between individual exporting countries. Exported quantities are less affected by exchange rate fluctuations than export values, which is in line with local currency price stabilization strategies of the exporters. This finding is interpreted as a sign of an incomplete exchange rate pass-through due to strategic (asymmetric) markup adjustments by firms with heterogeneous productivity. Besides that, the outcomes suggest that nonprice competition might be in play in some cases.     

人民币可能发展成为世界货币之一

本提出人民币可能发展成为世界货币之一的论点。为了说明这一论点,本分析了人民币发展成为世界货币必须具备的条件,如发展成世界货币可能带来的好处和问题。章与几种不同的看法商榷之后,指出对人民币可能发展成为世界货币的问题,应持支持的态度并在条件成熟后采取措施加以促进。     

高职《商品学》课程教学改革探索

在高职教学中,课程教学是教学活动的基础,改革传统的课程体系和教学方法,是体现高职教学特点和实现专业人才培养目标的关键。本文通过对连锁经营管理专业中《商品学》课程教学改革的研究与实践,构建了课程的培养目标和课程体系,提出了课程教学组织实施和考试模式改革的具体办法。     

Exchange market pressure and primary commodity – exporting emerging markets

This paper studies short-term sensitivity between exchange market pressure and various domestic and external factors in primary commodity-exporting emerging markets. The paper focuses on the top country-commodity groups in sugar, cereal, fuels, ores and coffee during the pre-peak and post-peak commodity price periods across floating and pegged exchange rate regimes, using the price of crude oil as a general benchmark. Employing a panel model and panel VAR analysis, the paper finds the heterogeneity of response patterns unique to country-commodity groups and exchange rate regimes. According to the results, in flexible regimes, volatility occurs via the foreign exchange market, interest rates, and domestic credit cycles, feeding into the social costs for structurally weaker economies. Hard exchange-rate pegs often result in a drain on international reserves as the terms of trade deteriorate following post-price peaks, leading to unpopular depreciation. These results accentuate concerns over uneven international trade patterns, an open economy’s short-term foreign exchange policy, and speculative capital flows. Such sensitivity has broad implications for macroeconomic balance and the sustainability of implied exchange rate targets in the presence of a foreign exchange constraint across emerging markets.     

金融窖藏与“中国货币之谜”

中国超额货币供给与低通胀共存的状态被国际经济学界称之为"中国货币之谜"。部分学者认为,这是由中国在经济转型过程中经济迅速货币化产生的巨大货币需求吸纳了超额货币供给,使之没有完全表现在产出增加和物价水平提高上。事实上,中国对货币的需求一直都在,只是近些年已经从实体经济转向了虚拟经济,成为金融资产被窖藏了起来,从而使货币独立于实体经济部门。研究发现,我国股票市场近几年在扩容过程中吸纳了大量的货币供给量,成为我国货币之谜的重要原因。     

从货币霸权史看人民币国际化

后金融危机时代,美联储持续施行量化宽松的货币政策,致使美元的公信力不断下降,也为世界其他货币的国际化提供了机遇.记述世界货币霸权的发展史,通过对历史的借鉴提出了人民币国际化面临的问题,并认为人民币国际化尚处于起步阶段,实现过程任重道远.