In 2022’s fourth quarter, the proportion of Canada’s office space sitting empty reached a record 17.1 percent, according to real estate services firm CBRE, even though the country’s economy has fully reopened from its COVID-era lockdowns.
Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT – Jan 17 2023
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EV’S GROWTH IN MARKET SHARE WILL SLOW
Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) soared from 3.2 million worldwide in 2020 to more than 10 million in 2022, Bloomberg NEF reported.
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SPOTLIGHT: GOING NUCLEAR—SWEDEN MULLS LIFTING RESTRICTIONS ON NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
Sweden’s parliament will consider a law that would erase limits on the number of nuclear reactors the country will allow.
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HIGH-INTEREST RATES CRASH CANADA’S HOUSING MARKET
Higher interest rates are responsible for dropping the number of December home sales in Canada by 39 percent, year on year, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) said in a public statement announcing last month’s results.
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GERMANY ESCAPES RECESSION—FOR NOW
The German economy expanded by 1.9 percent in 2022 and is expected to have flatlined in last year’s fourth quarter, escaping the contraction that would have initiated a recession, the Financial Times reported.
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CHINA’S EXPORT VOLUME SLIPS AGAIN IN DECEMBER
Last month, China exported 9.9 percent fewer goods than a year earlier, accelerating from an 8.7-percent drop in November as the global economy continues to grind slower.
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EMERGING NATIONS RAISE $40 BILLION IN BONDS THIS YEAR
Despite rising risks of defaults among emerging nations, 14 developing economies have sold $41 billion worth of bonds in the first 12 days of this year on signs that inflation is easing and hopes that China’s economy will rebound, which would raise demand for raw materials, the Financial Times reported.
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CORPORATE CHIEFS PREP FOR GLOBAL RECESSION
Chief executives of the world’s leading corporations expect a short, mild recession this year and are preparing to weather it without laying off workers, a new Conference Board survey has found.
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WHEN THE ECONOMY FALLS JOBS GO WITH IT
This is our 24th week reporting the long trend-line of layoffs that signal a further economic downturn in a country near you. Inflation and interest rate hikes are causing companies in many sectors to lay off employees. An average of 1,600 tech workers have been laid off every single day of 2023 so far.
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TOP TREND 2023: IEA HERALDS “DAWN OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL AGE”
The world is poised at “the dawn of a new industrial age” of green energy and clean manufacturing, the International Energy Agency (IEA) proclaimed in a 10 January report.