Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT

INVESTORS GRABBING LAND FOR TRUCK DEPOTS OUTSIDE CITIES With the U.S. short more than 70,000 truck drivers, real estate investors are locking up land outside cities as the prospect of self-driving trucks comes closer to reality. Embark Trucks, which became a $5-billion public company last November, will launch its fleet of self-driving trucks in 2024...

TURKEY’S INFLATION RATE TOPS 54 PERCENT In February, prices in Turkey rose at an annual clip of 54.4 percent, the Turkish Statistical Institute reported. The rate is the fastest since March 2002 and edged past the 52.5 percent expected by economists Bloomberg had polled.  Food prices skyrocketed 64.5 percent over the last 12 months and...

For the first time in three years, the Bank of Canada has raised a key interest rate, bumping its overnight rate by a quarter-point to 0.50 percent. More increases are coming, with the war in Ukraine forcing the bank’s hand to deal with inflation in Canada that the war is causing, the bank warned. TRENDPOST:...

The Eurozone’s annual pace of inflation sped to a record 5.8 percent in February, the European Commission’s statistics agency reported, the fourth consecutive month of a record rise. Energy prices were 31.7 percent higher last month than a year earlier, rising faster than the 28 percent posted in January and the highest since at least...

At its monthly meeting on 3 March, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+), chiefly Russia, declined to raise production beyond established targets despite prices approaching $120 a barrel and a looming global supply crunch. Instead, the group agreed to continue the monthly production boost of 400,000 barrels a day for April....

After two years of COVID-related restrictions and lockdowns, China has been unable to persuade its consumers to start buying again. December’s retail sales gained only 1.7 percent, year on year, the slowest monthly gain since August 2020 and a fraction of the 8 percent growth notched in December 2019. Disposable income among Chinese households grew...

Each week, we report instances where the money junky hedge funds, private equity groups and the already big companies swallow another piece of the global economy. Here are some more of what the BIGS have been gobbling up and how the Bigs keep getting bigger and the rich keep getting richer. DRUG MAKERS COLLECT HUGE...

Rocketing prices for iron ore, platinum, and other resources for which South Africa is a key supplier will give the country an unplanned $12 billion that it will use to cut its budget deficit, finance minister Enoch Godongwana said in comments cited by the Financial Times. The windfall also will allow the country to reduce...

Blackstone Group, the world’s largest private equity firm with more than $900 billion under management, has told clients that it will no longer invest in, or lend to, ventures exploring for or producing oil and gas, people familiar told Bloomberg. The decision follows two years in which petroleum prices have ridden a rollercoaster of COVID-era...