As we have noted since the Central Banksters started to rapidly raise interest rates, the decade’s long merger and acquisition spree is over. However, the “Bigs” will still get bigger, as they buy out overleveraged companies that can’t afford to borrow at high rates to refinance while, at the same time, recessionary pressures erode their profitability.
China exported 6.2 percent fewer goods in September than in August, notching the fifth consecutive month of declines, although the rate of decline slowed from 8.8 percent the month before. Imports also shrank by 6.2 percent, according to customs data reported by the Associated Press.
Britain’s economic output grew 0.2 percent in August after contracting 0.6 percent in July, the Office of National Statistics reported. The increase matched the expectations of economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
Luxury conglomerate LVMH reported sales grew 9 percent in this year’s third quarter, falling by almost half from the 17-percent gain in the second quarter.
On 12 October, natural gas prices in Europe shot up to their highest since March as traders worried that the new Mideast war will sharpen global demand for fossil fuels. Also, Finland speculated that a leaking pipeline between it and Estonia had been sabotaged.
Inflation in the Eurozone is stuck at too high a level and wage growth is keeping upward pressure on prices, Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), said in a speech last week at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Morocco.
Higher interest rates lasting for a longer period around the world means a hard slog for the global economy, World Bank officials warned at the beginning of the bank’s annual meeting last week.
Economic growth in both advanced and emerging economies has ground to its slowest pace since the COVID War, according to the Brookings-Financial Times Tracking Index for the Global Economic Recovery.
The price of benchmark Brent crude oil broke through $90 on 13 October as Israel prepared to launch an armed assault in Gaza and speculation grew that Iran might intervene on behalf of terrorist group Hamas.
Sustained high interest rates, the war in Ukraine, the unraveling of global trade networks, and now the new Mideast war have left the global economy “limping along, not sprinting,” the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in an overview at its annual meeting last week.