What can alternative data tell us about relative economic performance?
Topic: The speed with which the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the global economy forced economists to supplement their ‘traditional’ data sources with unconventional indicators. By tracking mobility data, stringency of restrictions indices and health outcomes and their relationship with GDP, employment and other key outcomes, we can now see in near-real time the economic fallout of the pandemic. The emergence of the Delta variant has made this intelligence invaluable. Asian countries with low tolerance levels for COVID are seeing growth momentum soften (and even reverse, in the case of Australia and New Zealand), while high vaccination rates have enabled an easing of restrictions in Europe and North America. In this webinar our Chief Economist, Dr Sarah Hunter and the Regional Manager for Macrobond Ian Hissey will discuss what we’ve learnt about the impact of COVID and restrictions on national economies over the last 18 months, what the alternative indicators tell us about current economic conditions, and how the recovery may evolve from here.
Please note that we will be holding one webinar each for Americas, APAC and EMEA friendly time zones:
- APAC – Wednesday 29th September| 13:00 AEST
- EMEA – Thursday 30th September | 10:00 BST
- Americas – Thursday 30th September| 16:00 EST

Sarah Hunter
Chief Economist, BIS Oxford Economics

Sarah Hunter
Chief Economist, BIS Oxford Economics
Sarah Hunter | Chief Economist, BIS Oxford Economics
Sarah Hunter is the BIS Oxford Economics Chief Economist, and is responsible for delivering the company’s suite of subscription services. She has extensive experience presenting our regional and global outlook to clients, and previously led the team responsible for providing bespoke macroeconomic analysis to clients across the Asia Pacific region.

Ian Hissey
Regional Director, Macrobond

Ian Hissey
Regional Director, Macrobond
Ian Hissey| Regional Director, Macrobond
Ian Hissey is the Regional Director of Macrobond Financial and is responsible for the sale and delivery of the company’s data, platform and collaboration tools in Asia Pacific. He has extensive experience in Multi Asset Class Risk, Quantitative research and portfolio construction having previously led FactSet’s business for these analytics products in Asia Pacific.
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