Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT – Feb 28 2023

Turkey’s central bank cut its policy interest rate from 9 percent to 8.5 percent last week, partly in response to this month’s earthquake that devastated swaths of Syria and Turkey and killed tens of thousands of people.

Eighty-five percent of Canada’s white-collar workers want to work from home at least some of the time, a survey by recruiting firm Robert Half has found.

In China, the price of lithium carbonate—essential in electric vehicle (EV) batteries—has fallen more than 29 percent to $61,795 per ton last week from its November record price above $87,000, analysis firm Fastmarkets reported.

The MSCI global index of defense stocks has rocketed up 30 percent since October, doubling gains made by broader equity markets worldwide. 

Germany’s economy contracted 0.4 percent in last year’s final quarter as high inflation shrank consumer spending and business investment.

The total debt—corporate, financial-sector, government, and household borrowings—among 30 large modest- and middle-income countries had reached $98 trillion at the end of 2022, according to a report by the International Institute of Finance (IIF).

After slumping in January, France and Germany both are showing economic growth this month, Bloomberg reported, posting growth rates not seen since last May.

This is week 30 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.