Responding to July’s inflation rate of 79.6 percent, Turkey’s central bank cut its key interest rate from 14 to 13 percent last week. Analysts had expected the bank to leave the rate untouched at 14 percent. “Leading indicators in the third quarter point to some loss of momentum in economic activity,” the bank said in...
Category: TRENDS ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC FRONT
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TOP 2022 TREND, DRAGFLATION: POLAND’S ECONOMY GOING DOWN
Poland’s economy is racing toward Dragflation: Sinking economy and rising inflation. Its economy shrank 2.3 percent in this year’s second quarter, which also signals fears of a regional recession later this year. And on the inflation side, it hit a 25-year high at 15.6 percent… while consumer confidence has sunk to its lowest level since...
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NORWAY’S CENTRAL BANK RAISES KEY RATE
Norges Bank, Norway’s central bank, added a half point to its key interest rate for the second time this year, lifting the rate to 1.75 percent as inflation rose to 6.8 percent in July. It plans another increase next month. Analysts expect it to be another half-point bump, the Financial Times reported. The bank’s inflation...
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NATURAL GAS PRICES IN EUROPE SET ANOTHER RECORD
On 15 August, natural gas futures in Europe grew by another 3.2 percent to €233.56, or about $237, per million Btus, a new record price. It continued rising on 22 August, climbing to €257.40. The continent is in the midst of its third heatwave this summer, with temperatures exceeding 100°F in France and reaching 106°F...
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WHEN THE ECONOMY FALLS JOBS GO WITH IT
Dragflation: Economic growth declining and inflation rising… plus the pressure of interest rate hikes that are drying up the cheap money pool are causing companies in many sectors to lay off employees. To illustrate the employment trends and the socioeconomic implications, each week we will list job losses. A survey released by PwC, which polled...
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SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
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. It should be noted...
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CHINA’S JULY ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE FAILS TO MEET PREDICTIONS
China’s retail sales and industrial production grew in July, year on year, but missed analysts’ predictions by significant amounts, showing the impact of the nation’s real estate crisis and massive zero-COVID policy lockdowns. These trends were forecast in previous Trends Journals and again reported in this issue. Retail sales expanded 2.7 percent in the month,...
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VENTURE CAPITAL FIRMS HAVE RECORD AMOUNTS OF CASH ON HAND
On 1 August, the world’s venture capital firms were sitting on a record $539 billion in cash waiting to be deployed. The amount has grown by $100 billion this year alone, data service Preqin reported. Funds that focus on cryptocurrencies and blockchain businesses have done especially well, drawing in $21 billion so far this year,...
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MEXICO’S CENTRAL BANK SETS RECORD-HIGH INTEREST RATE
Banxico, Mexico’s central bank, added three-quarters of a point to its base interest rate last week, lofting it to a record 8.5 percent after annual inflation sped up to 8.15 percent in July, its fastest clip since 2001. Wages rose an average of 9.5 percent at the same time, putting more upward pressure on prices....
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ARGENTINA’S INTEREST RATE IS NOW 69.5 PERCENT
On 11 August, Argentina’s central bank added 9.5 percentage points to its key Leliq interest rate, moving it up to 69.5 percent in the largest single rate hike in almost three years. The bank had raised the rate by eight percentage points just two weeks earlier. The bank has jacked up the Leliq eight times...