China uses 'common prosperity' to guide economic changes

<p>Kia ora, </p><p>Welcome to Monday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect New Zealand.</p><p>I'm David Chaston and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz.</p><p>Today we lead with news the long-anticipated rise of robots and AI may now be happening, and will bring a new surge in productivity.</p><p>But first up we should note that the Australian petrol retailer and distributor Ampol (ex-Caltex in Australia) is apparently in "<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-22/fuel-retailer-ampol-is-said-in-advanced-talks-for-z-energy?srnd=premium-asia" target="_blank"><strong>advanced talks</strong></a>" to take over our listed Z Energy (<a href="http://www.interest.co.nz/nzx50/zel" target="_blank"><strong>ZEL</strong></a>, #22). Z Energy also operate the Caltex brand in New Zealand. If this deal proceeds, it will take $1.6 bln out of the NZX50, but the local shareholders will end up with these funds of course.</p><p>And in different energy news, Swedish carmaker Volvo (owned by China's Geely Motors) has taken delivery of <a href="https://www.mining.com/volvo-buys-worlds-first-fossil-free-steel/" target="_blank"><strong>fossil-fuel-free steel</strong></a> and plans to make cars from it, demonstration ones to start. The iron ore mines and the steel making process was all powered by green hydrogen (hydrogen produced from hydroelectricity).</p><p>The annual Jackson Hole meeting of central bankers is to be another 'virtual' event in 2021, mirroring its 2020 edition. This year the focus will be on 'the uneven economy" and will start on Saturday, NZT.</p><p>One aspect may well be about how jobs aren't quite bouncing back as anticipated. This may well be because the pandemic has allowed job-replacing robots to gain ascendency. There was a lot of talk about such a move after the GFC, but i is now apparent firms did the work without rolling this technology out at scale. But that work has now been done and scale rollouts are now happening. It is expected to usher