The June data for industry looks rather upbeat at face value with growth for a third month in a row and production at the highest level since December 2017. This means that industrial production contributed positively to GDP in the second quarter. The improvement in the supply of inputs is causing supply to catch up with previous demand, which has been significant over the course of the pandemic. Still, in June, growth in production was mainly driven by a continued surge in capital goods production while consumer- and intermediate goods ...

Since the beginning of 2022, in the face of the complex and severe international environment and the arduous domestic tasks of reform, development and stability, the Chinese government has effectively coordinated COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control work along with the country’s economic and social development. “More effective measures should be taken to achieve maximum effect in prevention and control with minimum cost, and to reduce the impact on economic and social development as much as possible,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the ...

Indonesia’s trade surplus may have narrowed to $3.93 billion last month due to weakening export performance as global trade activity slows, according to economists polled by Reuters. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy booked a larger-than-expected trade surplus of $5.09 billion in June on the back of palm oil exports resuming after a three-week ban was lifted in May. The median forecast of 12 analysts in the poll was for exports to show growth of 29.73% on a yearly basis in July, down from June’s 40.68%. July imports were seen rising 37.30% ...

It has been established that BRICS is one of the most unusual groupings in global politics. The countries that are signified by the acronym – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa at first glance have precious little tying them together. However, upon deeper reflection similarities, albeit not in the traditional sense of regional groupings, start to arise. The group was originally conceived as a bunch of countries that had an extremely bright economic future. Academic courses about BRICS and their economics and the investment in BRICS were commonly found ...

Increased rollout of COVID-19 vaccines during 2021 and resilient economic growth in China helped in the gradual recovery of the economic activity in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. As a result, the top 50 APAC companies have reported a 21% year-on-year growth in aggregate revenue to $6,782.9 billion in 2021, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. An analysis of GlobalData’s Company Reports Database reveals that seven companies out of the top 50 reported an increase of over 40% in their revenue and three companies reported a decline of more ...

The US economy will continue to face headwinds in the second half of the year from high inflation, but consultancy Oxford Economics still anticipates a soft landing amid a strong labour market and continued spending from US consumers. Oxford’s lead US economist Oren Klachkin and senior economist Ahmed Abdelmeguid made their comments on the US economic outlook during a webinar on Thursday. Klachkin said that despite the two consecutive quarters of contraction of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which is one technical definition of a recession, Oxford does not ...

Forty percent of Germans – more than ever before – expect to be worse off in a year’s time, an opinion poll published on Friday showed, highlighting households’ concerns about high inflation in Europe’s largest economy. The poll for broadcaster ZDF by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen, which surveyed 1,389 Germans of voting age from Aug. 9-11, also showed 49% expected their personal financial situation to be unchanged in a year’s time, with 10% expecting to be better off. Just 55% of those surveyed believed their financial situation was good, down from 65% ...

Confidence finally turns higher University of Michigan consumer sentiment has improved to 55.1 in August from 51.5 in July (consensus 52.5) with the expectations component bouncing from 47.3 to 54.9 while the current conditions weakened to 55.5 from 58.1. The expectations series is the one to watch as this tends to have a better relationship with future spending and likely reflects the hefty fall in gasoline prices. Gasoline prices have dropped for 59 straight days (from $5.02/gallon on June 13 to $3.98 today) according to Bloomberg data on national averages ...

Taiwan’s economy is expected to expand 3.76% in 2022, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said on Friday, downgrading its outlook from a previous estimate of 3.91% growth. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose by a revised 3.05% in the second quarter of 2022 from a year earlier, slightly down from a preliminary reading of 3.08%, the agency said. For 2023, it said it saw GDP growing 3.05%. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Roger Tung and Jeanny Kao; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

India will be the fastest growing major economy this year and the next despite headwinds from rising inflation, widening trade deficit and a declining rupee, a top government source said on Thursday. While the widening trade deficit and depleting forex reserves due to higher import bills had raised alarm bells for the current account deficit (CAD), the source said the situation should stabilise soon. The source went on to say that the 7 per cent decline in rupee value against the US dollar this year was not worrisome, and the ...

UK GDP falls in the second quarter It goes without saying that the latest UK GDP figures are very hard to read. Quarterly output fell by 0.1%, which is almost entirely down to the addition of an extra bank holiday for the Queen’s Jubilee in June, as well as the winding-down of Covid-19 testing/vaccine rollouts through the quarter. Admittedly the impact of the bank holiday was noticeably less than in previous years. The hit to manufacturing, wholesale/retail, transport and construction was generally more muted than during the 2002/2012 jubilee events, ...

Hong Kong’s economy contracted 1.3% in the second quarter from the same period a year earlier, government data showed on Friday, following a weak performance in external trade during the period. It was the second straight quarter of year-on-year contraction for the Asian financial hub’s gross domestic product (GDP). Seasonally adjusted GDP was 1% higher in the second quarter than three months earlier, however. Rising inflation, cooling global demand and weak consumer sentiment in the trade-reliant city remain significant risks for the recovery, analysts say. The second quarter’s annual growth ...

Walmart Inc could face an uphill battle to reclaim U.S. shoppers who opted for the neighborhood dollar store or Aldi rather than driving farther to a Walmart Supercenter when gasoline was $5 a gallon. While gasoline prices have dropped nearly 20% over the past month, there are no signs shoppers are returning to the nation’s biggest retailer, according to foot traffic data reviewed by Reuters and analysts. Inflation remains at a 40-year high, devouring a large chunk of the grocery budgets of many Americans, especially Walmart’s legions of cost-conscious shoppers. ...

U.S. consumer sentiment ticked further up in August from a record low earlier this summer, and American households’ near-term outlook for inflation eased again on the back of tumbling gasoline prices, a survey released on Friday showed. The University of Michigan’s preliminary August reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment came in at 55.1, up from 51.5 in the prior month. It had hit a record low of 50 in June. The preliminary August reading was above the median forecast of 52.5 among economists polled by Reuters. While the ...

China’s central bank is widely expected to partially roll over maturing medium-term policy loans on Monday, while keeping borrowing costs unchanged for the seventh month in a row, a Reuters survey showed. Rising domestic inflationary pressure has further limited room for policy manoeuvre to support the economy slowly recovering from COVID-19 shocks, at a time that other major economies are raising interest rates aggressively. In a poll of 32 market watchers this week, all respondents forecast no change in the interest rate on the one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF), which ...