On 16 February, swarms of Lebanese citizens broke windows in two of the country’s banks and set tires alight on streets to protest the sinking value of the country’s currency, the Lebanese pound.
Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT – Feb 21 2023
Top Trend 2023: Office Building Bust
A quarter of white-collar businesses in London, England, are reducing their office space as their workforces go remote and another 18 percent are moving to shared or co-working locales, a Bloomberg Intelligence survey found.
INFLATION IN U.K. SLOWS AGAIN IN JANUARY
Inflation’s pace slowed in January in Great Britain for the third consecutive month, easing back to 10.1 percent per year from December’s rate of 10.5 percent, the Office of National Statistics reported.
CANADIAN HOME PRICES DIVE 15 PERCENT. WORSE TO COME, STUDY SAYS
The average price for a home in Canada slipped 1.9 percent last month compared to December, running the string of declines to 11 consecutive months and dropping the average by 15 percent compared to January 2022.
ECB OFFICIALS AT ODDS OVER NEXT RATE HIKE
European Central Bank (ECB) officials voiced differing views last week of the central bank’s next move on interest rates.
EUROPE’S BUSINESS BANKRUPTCIES CLIMB TO EIGHT-YEAR HIGH
Business bankruptcies across Europe rose 27 percent in last year’s fourth quarter compared to the third as more companies that had survived the COVID War on government aid finally failed, the Financial Times said.
EUROPE’S NATURAL GAS PRICE FALLS TO LOWEST SINCE MID-2021
On 17 February, the benchmark price of natural gas in Europe dropped below €50 per megawatt-hour, its lowest in 18 months, as mild winter weather kept gas reserves plentiful amid adequate alternative sources of supply after Russia cut off virtually all gas exports to the continent.
DOLLAR’S STRENGTH FORCES CURRENCY DEVALUATIONS ABROAD
The U.S. dollar’s value reached its highest in a month last week, forcing Egypt, Lebanon, and Pakistan to decouple their currencies from the dollar, effectively devaluing them.
WHEN THE ECONOMY FALLS JOBS GO WITH IT
This is week 29 of our reporting the long trend-line of layoffs that signal a further economic downturn in a country near you. Rising inflation and rising interest rate hikes are causing companies in many sectors to lay off employees.
EMERGING MARKETS’ STOCK AND BOND RUN IS RUNNING DOWN
Developing nations began this year by selling almost $41 billion in bonds, with their equity markets riding the wave.