In December, China’s factory output fell to its lowest level since February 2020, according to the country’s National Statistics Bureau, and as we report in “Asian Factory Output Slows Under Sluggish Global Demand” in this issue.
Category: 10 January 2023
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SPOTLIGHT, TOP 2023 TREND: GOING GREEN
States and localities that lost manufacturing jobs to Asia in past decades are getting some back now as the U.S. battery industry flourishes.
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SPOTLIGHT, TOP TREND 2023: GOING NUCLEAR
Sweden said it is prepared to dramatically increase its domestic nuclear energy production and expressed hope for France, Europe’s top producer, for help to achieve its goals.
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INFLATION SLOWS IN EUROPE AS ENERGY PRICES FALL
Inflation in France eased to 6.7 percent in December, down from 7.1 in November, because prices for oil and gas fell, as we detail in “Oil and Gas Prices Fall in U.S., Europe” in this issue.
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ASIAN FACTORY OUTPUT SHRINKS UNDER SLUGGISH GLOBAL DEMAND
In December, the S&P Global Market Intelligence purchasing managers index (PMI) for manufacturing in Vietnam slipped to 46.4 from 47.4 in November, its lowest rating since September 2021.
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WORLD FOOD PRICES SET RECORD IN 2022
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO’s) food price index, which tracks costs of the world’s most common commodity foods, jumped 14.3 percent last year to bring food prices to their highest on record.
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ROCKY ROAD AHEAD FOR WORLD ECONOMY
The global economy in 2023 faces lingering high-interest rates, sharpened rivalry between the U.S. and China, the ongoing mess in Ukraine, and debt bombs exploding in developing economies, speakers at this year’s annual meeting of the American Economic Association in New Orleans said last week.
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WHEN THE ECONOMY FALLS JOBS GO WITH IT
This is week 22 of our report of job losses, and with each passing week, the losses grow larger.
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TOP TREND 2023, WE OWN YOU: OPENAI SEEKS INVESTORS, VALUES ITSELF AT $30 BILLION
OpenAI, the private company that developed ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence that converses in natural language, is seeking to raise capital in deals that would value the company at $30 billion, the Financial Times reported.
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COMPANIES LEASING LESS WAREHOUSE SPACE
U.S. companies leased 132 million square feet of warehouse space in 2022’s final quarter, 28.2 percent less than in the third quarter, real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield reported.