Share market flat and AUD down, China unveils childbirth incentive

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The local share market was flat while the Aussie dollar continued its gentle decline. New data shows job mobility is low since vacancies reduced sharply after the pandemic. Overseas, China has announced a childbirth cash incentive to address a falling birthrate.

Transcript

00:00Before we get to today's boring markets, China has unveiled a plan to pay people to

00:06have babies to do something about the declining birth rate.

00:10Families who have a child will be given 3,600 yuan or $756 per year per child until they're

00:18three years old.

00:19Un-means-tested, so it goes to everyone.

00:22In 1979, they introduced the one-child policy and enforced that with fines and abortions.

00:28It was a demographic disaster.

00:30It became a two-child policy in 2015 and then three, but still the birth rate declined because

00:36marriages are in even steeper decline.

00:39Now in desperation, it's cash for kids.

00:43On the share market, it was all changed today.

00:45Yesterday banks went up, today they went down.

00:48And yesterday miners went down, today they went up.

00:52European markets fell in the wake of the EU's trade deal with America, criticised by both

00:56France and Germany last night.

00:58The German Chancellor said it would cause considerable damage to Germany, Europe and the United

01:02States.

01:03Nevertheless, the US dollar has lifted in response, which means the Australian dollar went down.

01:08Not helped by another fall in the iron ore price and a big drop in the price of coke and

01:12coal.

01:13But the oil price jumped 2%, apparently because Mr Trump is getting cross with Mr Putin and

01:18has given him 12 days to reach a truce with Ukraine or else there will be more sanctions.

01:23Finally, the ABS today revealed job mobility data for the year to February.

01:28It has kept declining.

01:30Only 7.7% of workers change jobs in the year.

01:34With house prices where they are, people just don't want to take risks.

01:37But also, there aren't that many jobs.

01:40The number of job vacancies has fallen sharply since the pandemic.

01:45And that's finance.

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