Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT

Geely Auto, a Chinese maker of all-electric cars (EVs), has warned of possible production cuts because it remains unable to source enough computer chips. The shortage contributed to the company’s first-half sales falling about 10 percent below forecasts made by economists Bloomberg had surveyed, and missing the analysts’ profit target by a third. “Short supply...

July’s sales in China of alternative-fuel vehicles, including hybrids, all-electrics, and hydrogen fuel-cell cars and trucks, jumped 164 percent year over year to 271,000 units, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported. Those vehicles made up 10 percent of all passenger vehicles sold in China for the month, even though wholesale deliveries sank 12 percent...

China’s retail sales gained 8.5 percent in July from a year earlier, disappointing analysts polled by Reuters who had forecast a median rise of 11.5 percent, CNBC reported. “The impact of multiple factors including the growing external uncertainties and the domestic COVID-19 epidemic and flooding situation” around China weakened consumer spending, the National Bureau of...

Global shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd reported a tenfold increase in net profits during this year’s first six months, year over year, to €2.7 billion, almost triple the company’s net profit of €977 million booked over the past ten years, the Financial Times reported.  Shipping costs have skyrocketed over the past 16 months as containers have been...

Due to “restrictions and quarantine requirements in Hong Kong and many of our key markets,” Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific airline, a carrier with no domestic market, is unable to predict when its financial troubles will end and must wait for other countries, especially China, to reopen their borders to travelers, board chair Patrick Healy said...

Asian share prices fared less well than Europe’s as the Delta variant has spread through the region, largely under the weight of China’s new restrictions on movement. In addition to cracking down on its tech sector, China also had imposed a “zero tolerance” policy regarding COVID’s Delta version, which spurred authorities to close down one...

The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index gained another 0.2 percent on 13 August to notch its 10th consecutive record high in as many sessions, a record unmatched since at least 1990, the Financial Times reported. Consumer and financial stocks led gainers. Earnings reports on the continent so far have averaged 11 percent above expectations, according...

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has cut 550,000 barrels a day from its forecast for global oil use for the rest of this year, as several major oil-importing countries imposed new restrictions and lockdowns in attempts to control the COVID virus’s Delta variant, the Financial Times reported. The world will burn an average of 96.2...

What is old news for Trends Journal subscribers who were warned back in May that the launching of COVID War 2.0 to fight the Delta variant, has now, some three months later, made its way into the mainstream mindset. According to data analyzed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last week, the...

After expanding 18.3 percent in this year’s first quarter and 7.9 percent in the second, China’s economy posted a cumulative 12.7-percent growth during the first half of this year to 53.2 trillion yuan, the National Bureau of Statistics reported, the equivalent of about $8.2 trillion. After adding 2.3 percent in 2020, the bureau calculates the...