Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT

Interest rates in the 19-nation Eurozone are surging as the European Central Bank (ECB) is halting its multi-year bond-buying program in advance of raising interest rates for the first time in eight years. On 4 May, the yield on Germany’s 10-year government bond—a benchmark for Eurozone rates—topped 1 percent for the first time since 2015....

The number of new orders placed with German factories declined 4.7 percent in March, according to state agency Destatis, far below the 1.1-percent dip that analysts had expected. Orders from within Germany dropped 6.7 percent. Orders from outside the Eurozone plummeted 13.7 percent. German automakers, the foundation of the country’s industry, lost production due to...

Retail sales across the 19 countries using the euro currency slipped 0.4 percent in March, three times more than the 0.1 percent expected by economists Reuters had surveyed. Sales dropped 4 percent in Spain; France and Germany also saw sharp declines. People bought more food, drinks, and tobacco, but less non-food consumer products, motor fuel,...

As many as 70,000 skilled tech workers have left Russia since the Ukraine war began, with another 100,000 expected to emigrate by June, the Russian Association for Electronic Communications told the country’s parliament last month. Ok Russians, a nonprofit group helping people leave the country, estimates that almost 300,000 Russians have left since the war...

KEY U.S. INFLATION GAUGE NOTCHES 40-YEAR RECORD The Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, sped along this year through March at 6.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported. Food and energy costs were particularly inflated, due in large measure to the Ukraine war and Western sanctions....

AP Moller-Maersk, the world’s second-largest ocean shipping company, has raised its profit forecast for 2022 by 25 percent—from $24 billion to $30 billion—despite foreseeing stagnating container shipping volume this year, or even a 1-percent decline. Due to an “exceptional market situation,” Maersk saw first-quarter freight rates soar by 71 percent, year over year, while container...

The shortage of computer chips that chip-maker Intel had expected to end next year now will extend into 2024 as manufacturers scramble to add equipment and boost production, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger told The Wall Street Journal. “We have seen that equipment shortages are really impeding the ability of the industry to ramp supply at...

On 29 April, Russia’s central bank trimmed its key interest rate for the second time during that month, dropping it from 17 percent to 14 percent. The bank had doubled its rate to 20 percent to defend the ruble after Russia attacked Ukraine and Western countries froze half the bank’s foreign exchange assets. The bank...

To fulfill its announced plan to shift to carbon-neutral energy by 2050, Europe will need 35 times more lithium, up to 26 times more rare earth metals, twice as much nickel, and 35 percent more copper than it uses today, a new study warned. Russia is a major exporter of minerals. After Russia attacked Ukraine,...