The Economist (September 26)
“The pandemic could lead governments to prolong the life of many undeserving firms. Keeping the growth of the undead in check will be vital to the long-term economic recovery…. Marginally profitable firms were central to Japan’s “lost decade” in the 1990s…. Zombie-infested industries suffered from inert labour markets and lower productivity growth. Since then, the rich world as a whole has begun to look more zombified.”
Tags: Economic recovery, Governments, Growth, Inert, Japan, Labour markets, Lost decade, Pandemic, Productivity, Profitable, Undeserving, Zombie, Zombified
Institutional Investor (August 6)
“Markets may have bounced back quickly from March’s Covid-19 crash, but the asset management industry will not escape 2020 unscathed.” The pandemic is “expected to shrink” the global asset management industry by almost $2 trillion. “The decline in global assets under management ends more than a decade of growth for money managers.”
Tags: Asset management, AUM, COVID-19, Crash, Decline, Growth, Markets, Money managers, Pandemic, Shrink
Wall Street Journal (July 9)
“Slack Chinese imports are a symptom of the underlying reason China’s trade surpluses, not just with the U.S. but the world, persist: China consumes too little and saves too much.” Though China’s surpluses have shrunk as a share of GDP, due a decade of explosive GDP growth, the surpluses “remain enormous.” Domestic “consumption is still under 40% of Chinese GDP, one of the lowest ratios among major economies. The persistence of those imbalances is why trade conflicts aren’t about to go away even if Mr. Trump isn’t re-elected.”
Tags: China, Conflicts, Consumption, GDP, Growth, Imbalances, Imports, Saves, Slack, Trade surpluses, Trump, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (May 3)
“Global brands are hoping China’s gigantic consumer market will help rekindle growth as the world tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. They are facing an uphill battle.” Despite “seeing a solid bounceback in China… a full return to normal, much less growth, is proving harder because so many people have lost jobs and income, or want to save more.”
Tags: Bounceback, China, Consumer market, Coronavirus pandemic, Global brands, Growth, Income, Jobs, Normal, Recover
Reuters (April 29)
“There’s an end to everything except, apparently, central bankers’ creativity. Virus-damaged economies will need lots of help to heal, and more downturns are inevitable in the future. The monetary-policy bigwigs will keep coming up with more new ways to stimulate growth.” The Fed and BoE may “eventually overcome their aversion to negative interest rates” and/or “copy Bank of Japan chief Haruhiko Kuroda’s yield-curve control policy of targeting specific levels for 10-year government bond yields.”
Tags: BOE, BOJ, Creativity, Damaged, Downturns, Economies, Fed, Growth, Heal, Kuroda, Monetary policy, Negative interest, Virus, Yield curve
WARC (January 28)
“Advertiser spend on sports sponsorship is expected to rise 5% this year to reach more than $48bn worldwide–the strongest growth in a decade and ahead of growth projections for all traditional media.” The growth has “been buoyed by record investment ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.”
Wall Street Journal (November 1)
In the U.S., “GDP growth accelerated to 3% for a time along with investment, but then came Mr. Trump’s trade interventions. More than the damage from tariffs, business confidence fell amid the uncertainty of what Mr. Trump might do next. This has led to slower growth that is reflected in roughly 2% GDP growth in the last two quarters…. The strong evidence is that trade policy is the main growth culprit.”
Tags: Business confidence, Culprit, Damage, GDP, Growth, Interventions, Investment, Tariffs, Trade, Trump, U.S., Uncertainty
Financial Times (October 12)
“Two years ago growth was accelerating in 75 per cent of the world, the IMF now expects it to decelerate in nearly 90 per cent of the global economy in 2019.”
Tags: Accelerating, Decelerate, Global economy, Growth, IMF, World
Investment Week (September 18)
“The global economy is in a tricky spot…. Money markets are pricing in two possible scenarios, with two very different outcomes. First, a high probability of limited Fed easing…. This would not be enough to kick‑start global growth. Second, a low probability of significant Fed easing, resulting in rates being cut close to zero. This—combined with some limited fiscal stimulus from Europe and China—would be enough to refresh global growth.”
Tags: EU, Fed easing, Fiscal stimulus, Global economy, Growth, Money markets, Outcomes, Pricing, Rate cut, Scenarios
Bloomberg (September 17)
Global investors have “sold $4.5 billion of Indian shares since June, on course for the biggest quarterly exodus since at least 1999.” That’s roughly a tenth of their total investment during the previous six years. “India’s economic growth has decelerated for five straight quarters.” India could now experience “a structural slowdown that pummels the country’s $2 trillion stock market, throws a wrench into growth plans of international companies from Amazon.com Inc. to Netflix Inc.,” and diminishes job prospects “for the millions of young Indians who enter the workforce every year.”
Tags: Amazon, Exodus, Global, Growth, India, Investors, Jobs, Netflix, Prospects, Shares, Slowdown, Stock market
