Welcome to our #208 weekly newsletter.
“For women taking control of their financial future”
-Jana Hlistova
From The Purse
In this week’s newsletter, we highlight the new UN Report “The Gender Snapshot 2023” which warns that if current trends continue, over 340m women and girls – an estimated 8% of the world’s female population – will live in extreme poverty by 2030, and close to one in four will experience moderate or severe food insecurity.
An additional $360m of investment per year is required to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment by 2030.
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And don’t forget you can review the news in brief so you stay on top of global financial, economic and investing trends.
I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter.
Until next week,
Jana
UN Report: an additional $360bn investment per year is needed to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment by 2030
According to this new report, the world is failing women and girls.
This year’s edition of the UN Women and UN DESA “Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2023” launched recently, paints a worrisome picture halfway through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (see the press release here).
The Gender Snapshot 2023 warns that, if current trends continue, over 340m women and girls – an estimated 8% of the world’s female population – will live in extreme poverty by 2030, and close to one in four will experience moderate or severe food insecurity.
With a special focus this year on older women, the report finds that older women face higher rates of poverty and violence than older men:
in 28 of the 116 countries with data, less than 50% of older women have a pension;
in 12 countries less than 10% had access to a pension.
The Gender Snapshot 2023 underscores the urgent need for concrete efforts to accelerate progress towards gender equality by 2030, revealing that an additional $360bn per year is needed to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment across key global goals.
The report also calls for:
an integrated and holistic approach
greater collaboration among stakeholders
sustained funding
policy actions to address gender disparities and empower women and girls worldwide.
Crucially the report concludes that failure to prioritise gender equality now could jeopardise the entire 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Further facts and figures highlighted in the report include:
Under a worst-case climate scenario, food insecurity is projected to affect as many as 236m more women and girls, compared to 131m more men and boys, due to climate change.
No country is within reach of eradicating intimate partner violence and only 27 countries have comprehensive systems to track and make budgetary allocations for gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The labour and earnings gap remains persistently high. For each dollar men earn in labour income globally, women earn only 51 cents. Only 61.4% of prime working age women are in the labour force, compared to 90 % of prime working age men.
According to Maria-Francesca Spatolisano, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs of UN DESA:
“Gender equality is not just a goal within the 2030 Agenda. It is the very foundation of a fair society, and a goal upon which all other goals must stand. By breaking down the barriers that have hindered the full participation of women and girls in every aspect of society, we unleash the untapped potential that can drive progress and prosperity for all.”
What next? (Re) listen to The Purse Purse:
News in Brief
Financial news
We are one miscalculation short of a Middle East firestorm and the next world oil crisis, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes: The strange calm on world oil markets is unlikely to survive blockade of Gaza.
The Israeli economy has shown resilience to a series of shocks in the past, Moody's says.
Global bond yields rising again after mixed US inflation data. US 10y yields jump 10bps to 4.66%.
China on brink of deflation again. September inflation slowed to 0% YoY, after edging up 0.1% in August and vs +0.1% expected. PPI dropped 2.5% YoY in September. Consensus was -2.4%.
US inflation is cooling, but only slowly. From the perspective of the Fed, the figures are probably not worrying enough to trigger another interest rate hike.
Full force of interest rate hikes is yet to be felt, says Bank of England official. Swati Dhingra says economy has flatlined and millions of mostly young and poorer people could be affected if rates stay high.
World's banks earned $1.3tn in 2022, in the best period for global banking overall since at least 2007, according to McKinsey. Estimate for 2023 profits, at $1.4tn, is even higher. Spike in global interest rates has broadly been great for banks.
Another setback for the IPO market: Birkenstock opens 11% below $46 IPO price in trading debut flop.
Harvard's Claudia Goldin won 2023 Nobel Economics Prize for work on gender differences in the Labour market.
Crypto: bitcoin, ethereum, DeFi & NFTs
Bitcoin dropped 3.7% over the last seven days and currently changes hands at $26,928, according to CoinGecko.
Ethereum (ETH), had a setback this week of 5.4%. It currently trades for $1,554—its lowest price level since March.
Several coins depreciated substantially more including Polygon (MATIC), which fell 8.6% to $0.521054, and Polkadot (DOT), which fell 8% to $3.76.
On Wednesday, Cathie Woods’ Ark Invest refiled its application for a Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Bitcoin ETFs could come soon as SEC declines to challenge court loss.
Ferrari to accept crypto as payment for its cars in the US and will extend the scheme to Europe following requests from its wealthy customers, its marketing and commercial chief told Reuters.
MetaMask crypto wallet briefly pulled from Apple app store. The app was restored within hours, while other wallet apps remained available.
Coffee Break? Read This
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