Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT

Japan’s economy, the world’s third-largest in 2019, contracted 1.3 percent in this year’s first quarter, a 5.1-percent annualized rate of loss, the Financial Times reported. The economy stumbled as the government declared a state of emergency in January that extended into March.  The quarterly loss edged below analysts’ expectations of a 1.2-percent pucker and guaranteed...

Ports clogged with goods lined up to enter or leave are causing shortages of raw materials and consumer goods and contributing to inflated prices around the world. Globally, about 40 percent of container ships were entering ports on time in March, with average delays of more than six days as ships anchored offshore to wait...

Price hikes clouding the world’s economic recovery “are of a temporary nature” and inflation will return to modest levels in 2022, Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), said in 21 May comments quoted by the Financial Times.  “Underlying factors and fundamentals are certainly not there to let us… forecast that inflation will...

The massive debts taken on by Europe’s businesses and governments to survive the economic shutdown raise risks of financial turmoil if the economic recovery does not go smoothly, the European Central Bank (ECB) warned on 19 May in its latest review of the continent’s financial stability. “There is a reality that [2020’s crisis] will leave...

China’s government has approved a joint venture led by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, to open a wealth management business on the mainland. The venture, 50.1-percent owned by BlackRock and including the China Construction Bank (CCB) and Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, will target a market of Chinese savers estimated to be worth $18.9...

Although retail sales in China grew 17.7 percent year-over-year in April, the volume still disappointed analysts polled by Reuters, which had expected shoppers to spend 24.9 percent more.  April’s sales increase was barely half of the 34.2-percent surge booked in March. Online purchases of consumer goods gained 23.1 percent during the first four months of...

China’s Producer Price Index (PPI) – the cost of raw materials going into, and of goods coming out of, Chinese factories – shot up 6.8 percent in April year over year, according to government figures, the greatest 12-month hike since 2018. Consumer prices rose only 1 percent, reflecting a slow recovery from last year’s shutdown...

The world of spirits will see a “post-COVID renaissance,” according to Möet Hennessy, the French producer of cognacs and champagnes, in which drinkers will repopulate restaurants and bars and splurge on fine wines and spirits in a “revenge of pleasure or the new Roaring 20s,” CEO Phillippe Schaus said. “It’s clear people are almost desperate...

In 2030, more than half of new Toyota vehicles sold in the U.S. will be hybrids, 30 percent will run solely on gas or diesel, and only a fraction will be all-electric, Toyota Motor Corp. executive Jun Nagata said at a 12 May news conference reported by the Wall Street Journal. By 2030, “the price...

All-electric passenger cars will be cheaper to build in Europe by 2027 than cars running on fossil fuels if governments take measures to make that happen according to a new study by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Light vans will be cheaper to make than their diesel-powered counterparts by 2025 and heavy vans and SUVs will...