Bloomberg (September 21)
“The value of the yen has slumped to the lowest on record, as measured against a broad basket of its peers and adjusted for inflation,” the Bank for International Settlements found based on data from 1970 onward. This serves to “underscore the pressure on the Bank of Japan to normalize its ultra-easy monetary regime, which continues to weigh down the nation’s interest rates and weaken the currency. The drop in the so-called real effective exchange rate means Japanese have to pay more for imported goods and services at a time when wage growth is failing to compensate for inflation.”
Tags: BIS, BOJ, Currency, Imports, Inflation adjusted, Interest rates, Japan, Normalize, Pressure, Real effective exchange rate, Record, Slumped, Ultra-easy, Wage growth, Yen
South China Morning Post (September 16)
“The European Union is scrambling to answer SOS calls from its hi-tech industries to fend off the challenge of China’s manufacturing juggernaut. From electric vehicles (EVs) and solar panels to wind turbines and hi-tech batteries, European businesses say they are being eaten alive by Chinese imports sold well below market rates.”
Tags: Batteries, Challenge, China, EU, EVs, Hi-tech, Imports, Manufacturing juggernaut, Market rates, Scrambling, Solar panels, SOS, Wind turbines
Financial Times (September 15)
Internal combustion engines “are on their way out,” while sales of EVs “are set to increase worldwide from about 10mn in 2022 to about 14mn in 2023, or 18 per cent of all cars sold.” This partly explains legacy carmakers low valuations, but the switch also lowers barriers to entry. “Chinese imports already account for about 15 per cent of EVs sold on the continent,” with Chinese automakers hoping to seize more of “a $130bn revenue opportunity by 2030.”
Tags: $130bn, Barriers to entry, China, EVs, Ice, Imports, Legacy carmakers, Opportunity, Revenue, Sales, Valuations
Bloomberg (August 8)
“China’s trade plunged in July as slowing global demand clouded the outlook for exports, while domestic pressures weighed on imports in a hit to the economic recovery.” Exports (dollar denominated) fell 14.5% while imports decreased 12.4%. Both figures “were worse than what economists polled by Bloomberg had expected.”
Tags: Bloomberg, China, Domestic pressures, Economic recovery, Economists, Exports, Global demand, Imports, Outlook, Plunged, Trade
New York Times (June 19)
“China’s economic weakness holds benefits and dangers for the global economy. Consumer and producer prices have fallen for the past four months in China, putting a brake on inflation in the West by pushing down the cost of imports from China. But weak demand in China may exacerbate a global slowdown. “
Tags: Benefits, China, Consumer, Dangers, Demand, Global economy, Imports, Inflation, Producer prices, Weakness, West
The Korea Economic Daily (June 15)
“Everything Asian policymakers were sure they knew about 2023 is going sideways.” When the year opened, “conventional wisdom” expected “Chinese growth would help the region make up for lost economic time.” Now the worry “is about deflation risks as factory-gate prices go negative” with consumer prices in China “on the verge of contraction.” Its exports are “cratering,” but China’s falling imports are “the bigger problem for Korea, and Asia more broadly.” In May, China’s imports fell by 4.5%, “dampening hopes that post-pandemic ‘revenge spending’ by 1.4 billion Chinese would propel Asian growth sharply higher.”
Tags: Asia, China, Consumer prices, Contraction, Cratering, Deflation risks, Exports, Factory-gate prices, Growth, Imports, Korea, Negative, Policymakers, Sideways
Reuters (June 7)
After beating expectations in Q1, “China’s exports shrank much faster than expected in May while imports extended declines with a grim outlook for global demand, especially from developed markets, raising doubts about the fragile economic recovery.”
Tags: Beating, China, Declines, Developed markets, Doubts, Expectations, Exports, Fragile, Global demand, Grim outlook, Imports, May, Q1
Oilprice.com (January 22)
“Since China doesn’t report crude oil inventories, it’s all guesswork as to just how much crude the country has stashed over the past year.” Rising inventory levels “could mean that China’s imports may not be as strong as anticipated. But it could also mean that refiners are preparing for a surge in demand” in the post-Covid restriction era. “There is one certainty in the oil markets – the economic growth in China has been and will continue to be a key factor in global oil demand, capable of moving oil prices in either direction.”
Tags: China, Covid, Crude oil, Demand, Economic growth, Guesswork, Imports, Inventories, Prices, Refiners, Strong, Surge
Bloomberg (January 17)
“Trade between the US and China is on track to break records, a signal of resilient links between the world’s top economies amid the heated national security rhetoric in Washington and fears of ‘decoupling.’” Data for the first 11 months of implies “imports and exports in 2022 will add up to an all-time high, or at least come very close, when the final report comes out Feb. 7.”
Tags: 2022, China, Decoupling, Exports, Fears, Heated, Imports, National security, Resilient, Rhetoric, Top economies, Trade, U.S.
Oilprice.com (December 26)
“Although the EU embargo and the EU-G7 price cap on Russian crude oil at $60 per barrel didn’t immediately roil the oil market – although traders were concerned about a possible demand hit from slowing economies – uncertainty is growing over how the bans on Russian imports will affect supply balances over the next few months.”
Tags: $60, Bans, Barrel, Crude oil, Demand, Economies, Embargo, EU, EU-G7, Imports, Oil market, Price cap, Roil, Russia, Supply, Traders, Uncertainty