Tag: may 11 2021

China’s service sector, which has lagged manufacturing’s economic recovery, posted its best results this year in April, according to the private Caixin China services purchasing managers index. The index rose to 56.3 in April, up 2 points from March, to post its best reading since December, Caixin Media Co. reported. Levels above 50 signal growth;...

Commerzbank, Germany’s third-largest bank, and its employees have agreed on a plan to cut 10,000 jobs. The plan includes early retirement and reduced hours for older workers, retraining for workers whose jobs are eliminated, and severance packages for those who are fired, the Verdi labor union announced on 8 May. The affected workers will not...

Britain’s central bank has raised its growth forecast for the U.K.’s economy this year by almost 50 percent, from 5 percent predicted in February to 7.25 percent now. If realized, it would be the U.K.’s greatest one-year economic expansion in the 72 years the bank has kept records. The brighter outlook has moved the bank...

Supply chains and shipping will be undependable for the rest of this year, Soren Skou, CEO of AP Moeller-Maersk, the world’s largest shipping line, said last week in comments announcing the company’s highest quarterly profit in its 117-year history. The cost of shipping – and profits for Maersk and its competitors – will remain high...

The spike in demand in recent weeks for raw materials from iron ore to sugar may signal the start of a commodities “supercycle,” in which prices for items rise steadily while supplies remain scarce, traders and analysts say. Steady demand from Chinese factories, government stimulus spending, a $2.3-billion U.S. infrastructure project, a greening world economy,...