12 May 2014: Australia most pricey in G20 and World bank's review of global poverty limits

Nice quote from editor Jennifer Hewett concernng the Oppositions opposition of the budget:

All care, no responsibility. It's one of the few joys of being in opposition these days.

There is a lot of attention on tomorrow's pending budget.  I expect I will spend time reviewing the impacts once the announcement is made to avoid speculation.  

There are always perceived winners and losers in business. A story about CabCharge notes how a couple of up-start businesses are threatening dominance in the taxi industry. Another story on JB Hi-Fi outlined how the chain's looking to be last man standing in the CD and DVD market. 

With all this focus on budgets and spending, I found the stories appropriate that highlight Australia as one of the most expensive countries while at the same time a review by the World Bank shows how good we have it in relation to global poverty.

Australia most pricey in G20

Australia is the most expensive G20 country to live in, and ranks the fourth most expensive economy out of 177 countries measured by the price level index. Major factirs pushing the price up include:

• the mining boom
• high exchange rate
• unbroken economic growth for 22 years
• oligopolistic major industries
• relatively low unemployment
• high labour costs for business.

Multifactor productivity, which measures how efficiently labour and capital are contributing to output, declined an average of 0.6% annually over the past five years. Australia's minimum wage is the highest in the developed world. Comparison of 2013 real minimum wage in US dollars:

• AU: $29,982
• NZ: $23,127
• CA: $20,285
• UK: $19,674
• US: $14,978

Data from the Purchasing Power Parities and Real Expenditures of World Economies report released by he World Bank's International Comparison Program.

World Bank reviews poverty line

New estimates of purchasing power parity - which corrects for exchange rate distortions to calculate the amount of goods and services that money buys in each country. New calculations show the number of people living below $1.25 per day fell from 1.2 billion down to fewer than 600 million. New calculations will inform discussions about objectives of the UN's Millennium Development goals which have shaped aid policy since 2000 and expire in 2015. Initial considerations are that the poverty line will be raised from $1.25 per day to $1.75 per day. Africa is now home to four in ten of the developing world's poor.  

We have so much. The more I read, the more I question whether we re doing the most with what we have.