WHAT'S NEXT?: Trust in politicians and experts is falling fast. Privacy is under threat and may lead to a collapse of confidence in technology as the world is increasingly networked. Unless reliability, integrity, and surety can keep pace with accelerating change trust in anything but oneself may disappear.

• [New] Spending of at least £16.7 billion was required to get the UK's public charging network ready for mass EV market, with 507 new charge points needed every day to 2035 to drive buyer confidence.
• China's ability to garner support for the Global Initiative on Data Security will be limited by the global reliance on services from US Big Tech companies.
• CBO's most recent projections showed the US HTF depleting its reserves in fiscal year 2022, the HI trust fund in 2026, the DI trust fund in 2028, and the OASI trust fund in 2032.
• Americans regained a small amount of confidence in the path of an economic recovery in late August, but they are still quite pessimistic about how long it will take to get back to normal.
• Business shutdowns and job losses in 2020 have damaged the U.S. economy and consumer confidence so badly it could be three or four years before auto sales recover to pre-pandemic levels.
• As the COVID-19 viral pandemic continues to cause major disruptions throughout the global economy, countless restaurants across the U.S. are shifting to a delivery - or pickup-only business model in order to survive, often with a heavy reliance on online orders and digital payment.
• The level of consumer confidence, the weak economic outlook as well as the resurgence in COVID-19 cases will contribute to the U.S. economy remaining in recession territory in the near term.
• IATA downgraded its forecast for global passenger traffic and revenues, saying it will not return to last year's levels until 2024 because a COVID-19 resurgence in several countries, depressed corporate travel and weak consumer confidence is slowing growth more than expected.
• The global economy is forecast to expand by 5% in 2021 due to the easing of containment measures and a gradual recovery in consumer and business confidence.
• If Australia is hit by a significant second wave of coronavirus cases, that would postpone the economic recovery that many economists expect in the second half of 2020, unemployment would rise even further and consumer and business confidence would take a significant hit.
• Tax revenues are expected to further decline in FY2020 - 2021 due to the reduction in a number of taxes to stimulate economic activity, support tourism, restore consumer and business confidence and revive domestic demand.
• Excess reserves now held at the Fed are over US$ 3 trillion and the many Fed measures to restore confidence in the financial system since March have breathed air into the lungs of global risk markets.
• For 2021, ADB sees the Philippine economy bouncing back with a 6.5% growth, steady from April, on the back of state infrastructure spending as well as anticipated recovery in consumer and business confidence.
• Turkey's economy is expected to shrink by 3.8% in 2020, reflecting a continued fall in investment as confidence plummets to record lows, shrinking exports amid weak external demand, and the disruption to activity due to restrictive measures.
• India's oil supply is threatened by shifting energy geopolitics, and reliability is affected by frequent change in suppliers, which results in a lack of affordable and predictable energy supply and prices.
• Cybersecurity risk is the number one priority among senior management of global banks, and the data challenges, whether related to privacy, availability or integrity of data, are considered the biggest emerging risks in the coming years, greater than the risks associated with climate change.
• China has been seeking to shake off reliance on US dollar settlements that allow Washington to impose unilateral punitive sanctions on companies via the threat of exclusion from the SWIFT dollar settlement system.
• Activity is projected to pick up to 3% in 2021, as the impact of shocks related to the COVID-19 pandemic dissipates and tourism recovers alongside improving consumer and business confidence in Armenia and Georgia.
• In the Western Balkans, activity is expected to shrink by 3.2% in 2020, but to rebound by 4.6% in 2021, assuming that consumer and business confidence are restored as the impact of COVID-19 fades, and that political instability remains in check.
• The oil price environment now and potentially over the next few years marks a significant change from Moody's previous assumptions and creates downside risks for Saudi Arabia's already eroding fiscal strength due to the sovereign's still heavy reliance on oil revenues.

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Last updated: 20 September 2020