Shareswatch Australia

One of the world’s largest countries, sparsely populated, with extensive minerals in its remote hinterland deserts. Sound like Australia? This is Mongolia. On the cusp of an investment boom, fuelled by Chinese demand for resources and driven by Mongolia’s position just to the north of China’s industrial heartlands. Mongolia’s economy, like Australia’s, has defied the global gloom.

Back in April last year I suggested that the Australian economy was not quite as robust as most market commentators appeared to think and that it was quite possible for economic conditions to deteriorate quite markedly over the next few years.  So now one year later after I wrote about a possible economic slump in Australia let’s have a look at how events have unfolded since then.

It is time once again to put my ramblings, rants and ruminations for the previous 12 months under the spotlight. Did I correctly spot any stock market or economic trends or should I be standing in the corner with the dunce cap on for most of 2010?

When it is hard to make sense of what is going on with the global economy I feel it is often best to try and remove the noise created by endless stock market reports, economic surveys, financial forecasts etc. and try and focus on facts not fiction. It also helps to put aside people’s opinions (including our own), relax and calmly assess what the data is really telling us, as opposed to trying to use this data to predict the future.

In the frenzy to churn out China growth stories most financial and business journalists in Australia appear to live in a world where the European Union either no longer exists or does not matter. I must admit I also do not pay enough attention to European economic data, so today I will have a quick look at the European Union and outline why I believe we should all pay more attention to developments on the other side of the planet.

Recently there has been a lot of joyous reporting about the massive Gorgon Project and the expected boost that the Australian economy will get from  multi-billion dollar LNG export contracts. However is Australia really getting a good deal for it’s LNG and as a nation, are are we tapping into all the benefits we should be getting from this massive project?