1. The RBA’s Interest Rate Decision
2. Moderna is preparing to apply for a license in the US and EU
3. OPEC + meetings got postponed

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The RBA’s Interest Rate Decision

The Reserve Bank of Australia kept the policy rate constant, meanwhile  showing that it does not expect an increase in rates for the following 3 years.

Philip Lowe, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, confirmed that the bond buying program of the bank was being examined and if necessary, more could be done.

The bank kept the policy rate at 0.10% at its December meeting. Economists who took part in the Bloomberg survey expected that the interest rate would be kept constant at 0.10%.

In his statement on the decision, Australian Central Bank Governor Philip Lowe stated that the bank expects interest rates will not rise for at least three years. Lowe stated that the bond purchase program is being reviewed and more can be done if necessary. The Reserve Bank of Australia announced in its November meeting that it had started a $70 billion bond purchase program.

In its monetary statement, Philip Lowe claimed that the bank is doing its maximum to recover the nation from its current Covid-19 recession.

 “In Australia, the economic recovery is underway and recent data have generally been better than expected. This is good news, but the recovery is still expected to be uneven and drawn out and it remains dependent on significant policy support,” Mr. Lowe said.

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Moderna is Preparing to Apply for License in The US and EU

The US pharmaceutical company Moderna has announced that it has made an emergency application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the coronavirus vaccine candidate it has developed. The company announced that it will also apply to the European Medicines Agency for the conditional approval of the vaccine candidate.

Moderna announced that the effectiveness rate of the vaccine candidate, according to the first results of the Phase 3 studies, was 94.1%. In the statement made by the company, it was noted that the effectiveness of the vaccine candidate against severe Covid-19 was 100%.

According to the company’s statement, the effectiveness of the vaccine candidate was consistent across age, race, ethnicity, and gender groups.
The company announced that the security data review of the vaccine candidate is ongoing, and no serious safety concerns have been identified yet.
According to the first analysis, it was noted that the most common side effects were pain at the injection site, fatigue, muscle, and joint pain, headache, skin rash, and the frequency and severity of side effects increased after the second dose.

The US drug monopoly Pfizer and Germany-based biotech company BioNTech SE also applied to the FDA for an emergency use license for the vaccine candidate they developed.

The FDA will meet on December 10 to review Pfizer’s data and on December 17 to review Moderna’s.

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OPEC+ Meetings Got Postponed

The scheduled meeting of the ministers of OPEC members and some non-cartel oil producers for Tuesday was postponed for two days. It got postponed as key players still could not agree on how much oil they should pump due to weak demand as a result of pandemic.

According to Bloomberg’s report, the decision to delay was taken after the talks held on Monday to assess whether the oil production increases will be realized as planned as of January.

In the letter seen by Bloomberg, it was stated that the talks were decided to be held on December 3 for further consultation. At the start of the talks, although it seems like an agreement will be reached on the extension of the production cuts, unexpectedly tensions grew, and Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said he could resign as vice president of the OPEC + panel.

During preliminary talks held on Sunday, the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan opposed the continuation of production cuts. If no consensus is reached, the 1.9 million barrels of oil previously cut will be put into production daily.

Oil prices dropped after an OPEC meeting to decide on output policy failed to reach a final result and was postponed. As a result Brent Crude Oil dropped by 0.81%, and West Texas fell by 0.79%.