EUROPEAN COMPANIES CUT BACK OPERATIONS IN CHINA European businesses are having to “reduce, localize, and silo” their work in China because of the country’s deteriorating climate for investment, according to a glum report from the European Union (EU) Chamber of Commerce in China. The report—the group’s “most dark” since its founding in 2000, Chamber president...
Despite inflation edging above 80 percent in August, Turkey’s central bank cut its benchmark one-week repo rate last week from 13 percent to 12. The country’s lira currency took yet another step down after the announcement, to 18.387 against the dollar. The lira has lost almost a third its value against the greenback so far...
For the first time since 1998, Japan’s central bank has sold dollars and bought yen to strengthen its currency’s value against the dollar and euro. The yen began this year valued at $115.1. By the end of last week, it had dropped to about $1.43, a loss of roughly 20 percent. By the end of...
The world economy will grow by 2.2 percent next year, the 37-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predicted in an updated forecast. The group trimmed growth forecasts for all so-called G-20 countries (the world’s richest), seeing only Indonesia growing faster than the rest, and then only modestly. China’s economic growth will slow to...
Dragflation: Economic growth declining and inflation rising… plus the pressure of interest rate hikes that are drying up the cheap money pool are causing companies in many sectors to lay off employees. To illustrate the employment trends and the socioeconomic implications, each week we will list job losses: Wells Enterprises will lay off 320 employees...
Sales of existing homes slipped 0.4 percent in August from July and fell 19.9 percent below August 2021, making it the slowest sales month since May 2020 when the housing market froze at the onset of the COVID panic. Aside from that blip, August was the worst sales month for existing home sales since November...
The U.S. Federal Reserve added 0.75 percent to its key federal funds interest rate on 21 September, raising it to a range of 3 to 3.25 percent, a level last seen in 2008 during the Great Recession. It was the third such boost in the Fed’s last three meetings, the central bank’s most aggressive campaign...
Iran has been rocked by deadly protests after the death of Mahsa Amini three days after she was arrested by the morality police earlier this month. The “crime” the 22-year-old woman allegedly committed was that she was not properly wearing her hijab in public. She was arrested on 13 September and reports indicate that she...
The U.S. Congress’ stop-gap spending bill being negotiated in Washington to fund the government after Friday’s deadline will include $12 billion earmarked for new economic and military aid for Ukraine, assuring that the killing fields will continue to be bloodied. Reuters, citing sources familiar with the negotiations, said $4.5 billion in military funding will go...
Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the Brothers of Italy, won the country’s election for prime minister and could lead Rome away from the EU orbit while taking aim at international bankers. “The situation in which Italy and the European Union find themselves is a particularly complex one,” she said during her victory speech. She continued,...