Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT

With inflation at a 31-year high of 6.8 percent, last week the Bank of Canada (BoC) boosted its policy interest rate from 1 percent to 1.5, the second consecutive half-point hike. The bank has not made consecutive half-point interest rate increases since late 2000. Analysts expect another half-point move in July, the Wall Street Journal...

India’s economy expanded by 4.1 percent in its most recent quarter, a figure that would have been higher if inflation had not been as strong, The Wall Street Journal reported. Prices grew by 7.7 percent in April, the fourth consecutive month in which inflation’s rate surpassed the central bank’s target of 6 percent. Food prices...

Across the 19-country Eurozone, the prices manufacturers charge for their products leaving the factory spiked 37.2 percent in April, year over year, the fastest since the euro common currency was created in 1999. April’s pace outstripped March’s record of 36.9 percent. Factory gate prices for non-durable consumer goods, such as food and beverages, climbed 11.2...

After recent major sell-offs, hedge funds see an even more gloomy future for the world’s equity markets, according to the Financial Times. “Life is going to be much more difficult for investors,” Crispin Odey, founder of Odey Asset Management, wrote in a note to clients last week. “Outages, shortages, strikes, and war will come along,”...

On 1 June, China’s largest city, with 25 million people, began lifting its two-month anti-COVID lockdown that had trapped people in their homes and workplaces and shut the world’s busiest port. The lockdown was ended after four days with no COVID deaths in the city and the rate of new infections at its slowest since...

In a concession to the West, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and an affiliated group of oil producers led by Russia agreed last week to raise their output quota to an additional 648,000 barrels a day in July and August, up from the 432,000 they had negotiated earlier this year. President Joe Biden and...

During the COVID War, China became the world’s manufacturer, supplying everything from razor blades to laptops—and the world’s consumers bought, boosting China’s exports to record growth. After two years of having little to spend money on other than more stuff, consumers are emerging from their lockdowns and satisfying their need for experiences—travel, dining out, massages,...

Investors and government officials are underestimating the impact of the global “food shock” now spreading across emerging countries and beginning to impact developing nations as well, a new report by S&P Global warns. Ukraine’s inability to ship grains and oils, and sanctions on Russia’s food exports, are threatening food shortages and spiking prices across Africa,...

In April, for the first time in almost two years, South Korea’s consumer spending, industrial output, and investment all declined at the same time. In the same month, the nation’s inflation moved at an annual pace of 5.4 percent, the fastest in 14 years. The inflation rate surpassed analysts’ forecast of 5.1 percent and April’s...