China’s manufacturing economy slumped in April, with the purchasing managers index (PMI) for the sector slipping from 51.9 in March to 49.2 last month.
Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT – May 2 2023
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SPOTLIGHT: BYE BYE BUCKS – DEATH OF THE DOLLAR
China’s yuan, not the dollar, was the most-used currency in China’s international trade at the end of March, Business Insider reported.
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SOUTH KOREA’S EXPORTS CONTINUE THREE-YEAR LOSING STREAK
In April, South Korea's exports declined 14.2 percent, year on year, for the seventh consecutive month, their longest slide since the beginning of the COVID War, Reuters reported.
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EXXONMOBIL, CHEVRON POST HIGHEST PROFITS IN 15 YEARS
On 28 April, ExxonMobil posted its highest quarterly net income ever, reaching $11.4 billion after new U.S. and coastal South American wells produced more robustly than had been expected.
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DRAGFLATION TREND: EU EKES OUT SMALL GROWTH IN FIRST QUARTER
The European Union’s (EU’s) economy managed to grow by 0.3 percent in this year’s first quarter, even though Germany’s – Europe’s largest economy – flatlined for the period, showing neither growth nor contraction, the Financial Times reported.
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CORPORATE DEFAULTS RISING
In this year’s first quarter, 33 corporations tracked by Moody’s Analytics defaulted on debts, the largest number since 47 failed to pay in the final quarter of 2020.
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WHEN THE ECONOMY FALLS JOBS GO WITH IT: AI WILL MAKE IT WORSE
The layoff binge continues to escalate. This is week 37 of our reporting the long trend-line of layoffs that signal recession in a country near you. And now, with The Street betting that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates 25 basis points tomorrow, the economy will slow down and the job cuts will increase.
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SPOTLIGHT: OFFICE BUILDING BUST
The combination of the remote-work revolution and rising interest rates “could be worse than anything corporate landlords have experienced before,” The New York Times said in a 26 April analysis.