The Chinese Communist Party on Thursday passed a resolution that essentially puts President Xi Jinping in the same category as Deng Xiaoping and Mao Zedong, while cementing his power in the country. Qu Qingshan, a senior party official, told a press conference on Friday that the resolution will help the CCP “to achieve future progress”...
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SPOTLIGHT: INFLATION STILL ON THE RISE
IKEA: SALES AND PRICES UP, PROFITS DOWN Although online and in-store sales rose 6 percent to a record €49.1 billion, or about $57 billion, during its fiscal year ending 31 August, Ikea reported profits slumped 17 percent to €1.4 billion during the period. This was the second consecutive year of falling profits for the world’s...
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS KEEP GROWING BIGGER
FOSSIL FUEL COMPANIES RAKED IN RECORD SUBSIDIES IN 2020 In 2020, companies that produce oil, natural gas, and coal collected a record $5.9 trillion in direct and indirect subsidies from the world’s taxpayers, a record amount, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported. The figure includes not only direct tax breaks and allowances, but also the...
CHINA’S FACTORY PRODUCTION SLOWS, SERVICES CONTINUE STRONG
Shortages of power and high prices for raw materials shrank China’s factory output in October, while the services economy continued to expand, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported. Factories’ productivity and demand for their products both declined last month, the bureau said. The manufacturing sector’s purchasing managers index slipped from 49.6 in September to...
SPOTLIGHT: INFLATION SPREADING
INFLATION WALLOPS EUROZONE Costs for Europe’s manufacturers and service companies rose at their fastest pace on record, according to IHS Markit’s October purchasing managers index. The index fell from 56.2 in September to 54.3 in October, a sharper drop than analysts had foreseen and taking the measure to a six-month low. Numbers above 50 indicate...
CHINA STRUGGLES TO STABILIZE HOUSING MARKET
China’s home prices have galloped to all-time highs in recent months in tandem with developers’ debt loads. The higher prices helped subsidize builders’ debt payments. However, over the summer, Beijing tightened rules around lending to property developers, saying that the industry was overleveraged, a fact underscored by the ongoing debt crisis among building companies, which...
CHINA’S REAL ESTATE TROUBLES RIPPLE ACROSS EMERGING MARKETS
Through recent years, China’s insatiable construction industry has drawn a steady flow of imported materials from emerging nations. Now, however, giant property developers such as Evergrande and Fantasia are on the brink of collapse, as we documented in “Spotlight China: Crash Coming? Recovery Ahead?” (19 Oct 2021). As a result, exports of raw materials—a crucial...
SPOTLIGHT: INFLATION SPREADS
AVERAGE AMERICANS CAN’T AFFORD AVERAGE NEW CAR Even though computer chips have been in short supply, car makers had enough on hand to work through the spring and summer and even to make April a particularly strong sales month in the United States Now, those stashes of chips are gone and auto companies can only...
SPOTLIGHT: BITCOIN BOUNCES BACK
SEC POISED TO ALLOW BITCOIN FUTURES ETFs The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will not block Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offered by Proshares and Invesco from starting to trade this week, insiders told Bloomberg. The odds are 75 percent that the SEC will approve at least one Bitcoin ETF this week, analyst Noelle Acheson at...
SPOTLIGHT: INFLATION SPREADS
SUPPLY CHAIN CLOG COMPLICATIONS Snarls in global supply chains are due, in part, to different areas of the world addressing the latest round of COVID infections at different rates, The Wall Street Journal reported. In the West, vaccination campaigns are well under way; countries and companies have emerged from shutdowns or cutbacks and need materials...