Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT

Coinciding with the new strict lockdown measures that have had thousands out on the street protesting against, the new coalition government in Amsterdam announced plans to increase public spending that will focus on housing, education, defense and climate change. The Financial Times pointed out that the Netherlands was historically considered to be the E.U.’s frugal state,...

CHINA SETS EXPORT, IMPORT RECORDS IN NOVEMBER China exported nearly $326 billion worth of goods and services in November, a record, and imported $254 billion to satisfy its roaring demand for fuel and metals, Bloomberg reported. Imports shot up 30 percent compared to a year earlier; exports climbed 22 percent in dollar terms, with both...

INFLATION RUNS FASTER AGAIN IN NOVEMBER The U.S. Consumer Price Index grew by 6.8 percent last month, year on year, faster than at any time since June 1982, when prices rose at a 7.2-percent clip, the U.S. Labor Department reported. Inflation’s rate was just 1.1 percent in November 2020 and had shot to 6.2 percent...

Last month, investors began pulling money out of emerging markets’ equities and bonds, with more money leaving than entering for the first time since March 2020, according to the Institute for International Finance (IIF). MSCI’s index of emerging nations’ stock markets has slipped 3.3 percent this year, compared to an 18-percent gain in markets of...

Turkey’s lira has lost almost half its value against the dollar this year and inflation continues its relentless climb, thanks to the economic policies forced on the nation’s central bank by strongman president Recep Erdogan. High interest rates fuel inflation and low rates reduce it, Erdogan believes, contrary to economic theory and decades of experience....

From 1 July through 30 September, Japan’s economy contracted 3.6 percent, the government reported, more than the 3 percent the government had estimated earlier and more sharply than analysts’ 3.2-percent forecast. A rise in COVID cases and subsequent drop in consumer spending caused the pucker, the Financial Times reported. It was during that quarter that...

The European Central Bank’s (ECB) program of buying bonds since 2015 to prop up the Eurozone’s economy is beginning to show more negative effects than positive ones, Isabel Schnabel, in charge of ECB’s market operations, said last week at the European Systemic Risk Board’s annual conference. Buying bonds has been “an important tool” during periods...

Since 2019, Amazon has nearly doubled its fulfillment infrastructure, adding more than 450 distribution centers across the U.S., according to logistics consulting firm MWPVL International, as the world’s largest retailer aims to deliver all U.S. orders within a day. Amazon now has at least 930 such centers across the country, The Wall Street Journal reported....

U.S. banking giant Citigroup has applied to the China Securities and Regulatory Commission for a license to sell securities and will apply in the next few months for a license to operate a futures market, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company also plans to hire about 100 people over the next two years to...

Hoping to compete once again as a leader in electric vehicle technology and sales, Japan’s Nissan Motor Co. has announced a commitment of about $17.7 billion to “democratize” electric vehicle (EV) ownership. The plan, dubbed Nissan Ambition 2030, calls for 75 percent of the company’s European sales to be in EVs by fiscal 2026 and...