At the start of a new decade, many commentators are understandably focused on the health of the global economy. GDP growth this decade most likely will be lower than during the teens, barring a notable improvement in productivity in the West and China, or a sustained acceleration in India and the largest African economies. Until we have final fourth-quarter data for 2019, we won’t be able to calculate global GDP growth for the 2010-2019 decade. Still, it is likely to be around 3.5% per year, which is similar to the ...

China will negotiate with American companies and increase imports of U.S. goods and products according to market principles, an official with its state planner said on Sunday. The United States has high quality supply in the fields of energy, manufactured goods, agricultural products, medical care and financial services, said Meng Wei, spokesperson for China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), at a press conference on Sunday. China will boost purchases of U.S. goods and services by $200 billion over two years in exchange for the rolling back of some tariffs ...

President Trump is seizing on the trade deal with China as proof that he is delivering on his campaign promises, but whether that message resonates with voters could hinge on how the agreement plays out in the coming months. For now, Mr. Trump and his campaign say the deal with China — along with Thursday’s Senate passage of a reworked North American trade pact — has shown that the president can stake out tough positions to achieve better deals for American businesses and workers and will do so again to ...

Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, has written a letter to all Forum Members and Partners asking them to tackle the urgent issue of climate change by committing to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 or earlier. The move comes days ahead of the start of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020, which convenes under the theme, Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World. In the letter, Schwab writes: ‘The opportunity and the need for companies and investors to show leadership on climate change is ...

Businesses are more dependent on nature and biodiversity than expected, according to The New Nature Economy Report, released today. Analysis of 163 industry sectors and their supply chains found that over half of the world’s GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services. Pollination, water quality and disease control are three examples of the services an ecosystem can provide. $44 trillion of economic value generation – over half the world’s total GDP – is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services and, as a result, ...

China’s GDP growth slowed to its lowest in almost 30 years as the US-China trade war weighed in, but improvements in the last quarter could mean Beijing will pare its stimulus focusing on deleveraging and reining in the property market. Data released showed Q4 expansion was at 6%, the same as the third quarter and the full-year GDP grew at 6.1%, down from 6.6% in 2018 and the slowest since 1990. It was in line with analysts’ expectations. “Monthly data showed that economic activities, including retail sales, industrial production and ...

A more comprehensive trade deal between the United States and China is unlikely, a global trade expert said on Friday, adding that the recently agreed Phase 1 deal lacks teeth and is too ambitious in its scope. Chris Rogers, research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence’s supply chain analysis group Panjiva, said the countries will find it tough to address the core issue of the long-standing trade dispute – state support of enterprise in China. In the near term, the United States may re-examine trade ties with other Asian countries ...

The National Bureau of Statistics Friday unveiled a raft of figures for China’s economy in 2019, showing the country’s high-quality development. The following are some key takeaways: — China’s economy grew 6.1 percent, within the government’s target of 6 to 6.5 percent. Growth in the fourth quarter came in at 6 percent. — Gross domestic product (GDP) totaled 99.09 trillion yuan (14.38 trillion U.S. dollars), with the service sector accounting for more than half of the total. The GDP per capita reached 10,276 U.S. dollars. — Value-added industrial output expanded ...

• Africa is missing out on the benefits global trade can bring. • Tackling corruption, governance and security of contracts is crucial to boosting trade. • The continent needs a network of logistics infrastructure to drive intra-continental trade. Something has gone wrong in the worldwide conversation about global trade. There is talk of trade wars; tariffs are being raised; non-tariff barriers are made tougher. It seems as if our world has forgotten a few fundamental economic facts. Fact one: global trade has lifted large parts of the world out of ...

Engineering goods, gems and jewellery, and finished petroleum products helped India achieve a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.9 per cent in commodity exports between 2015 and 2019. “Engineering goods and gems & jewellery are the two main exports accounting for 35.5 per cent of total in 2019. But there is a contrast in their shares. Engineering goods share has been fairly stable in the 22-24 per cent range while that of gems & jewellery has come down from 14-16 per cent in the first three years to 11-12 ...

American consumers have been carrying the economy on their back, but they sure could use more help from business. Companies cut back on investment last year after the U.S. trade fight with China disrupted the global economy, reduced exports and created an air of confusion. Spending on new equipment, offices, software and the like rose an estimated 1.3% in 2019 — well below increases of 6.4% and 4.4% in the prior two years. Business spending is one of the drivers of economic growth, along with consumer and government spending and ...

Job openings declined sharply in November, a sign of weakening employer demand that could restrain job growth in 2020. Job openings fell 10.8% in November from a year earlier to 6.8 million, the Labor Department said Friday. That marked the sixth straight month of annual declines and was the steepest fall since December 2009, when openings dropped 18.7% from a year earlier. “Pullback in employer demand is leading to a leveling off of momentum in the labor market and also in the bargaining power for job seekers,” Nick Bunker, economist ...

Combined stimulus from the world’s biggest central banks is likely to top $1.2 trillion this year, the highest amount since 2017, but it may well disappoint stock markets, which have surfed to successive record highs on the back of this tide of super-easy money. Liquidity injections from central banks – via asset purchases or cuts to interest rates and bank reserve ratios – have fuelled a near-relentless upwards march in equities and riskier types of bonds for more than a decade. Any reasons to sell have been more than matched ...

China’s central bank said the Phase 1 trade deal between Beijing and Washington will provide a reference model for major countries in future negotiations on exchange rate policies, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported. The language in the foreign exchange section of the trade deal is equal and reciprocal, representing a mutual obligation that will be respected by both sides, Xinhua reported, citing comments made by the central bank. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Meg Shen and Twinnie Siu, Editing by William Maclean)

The Chinese economy thrived amid downward pressure with major economic targets well met in 2019, showing more upbeat signs, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. The world’s second-largest economy’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew to 99.09 trillion yuan (14.38 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, within the government’s annual target of 6 to 6.5 percent, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Friday. China’s economy in 2019 was generally stable with quality steadily improving, fulfilling major annual targets and boding stable growth for 2020, Ning Jizhe, ...