Barron’s (April 23)
“The global debt situation is raising alarms for the International Monetary Fund, which on Wednesday said ‘off-the-charts’ trade uncertainty was exacerbating a global debt load that it estimates crossed the $100 trillion level in 2024.” Current IMF projections call for “levels to rise further, with debt to global gross domestic product hitting 100% by the end of the decade,” but worldwide public debt “could soar to around 117% of GDP by 2027” in an extreme “adverse scenario,” though noting, “even that extreme scenario may be underestimating tail risk because trade and geoeconomic uncertainty has escalated, financial conditions have tightened, financial market volatility is visible and spending pressures have intensified.”
Tags: $100 trillion, 2024, Adverse scenario, Alarms, Exacerbating, GDP, Geoeconomic Financial conditions, Global debt, IMF, Market volatility, Off-the-charts, Spending pressures, Tail risk, Trade uncertainty, Underestimating
Bloomberg (September 10)
“A deepening selloff in Chinese stocks is exacerbating a crisis of confidence in the world’s second-largest economy, heaping pressure on policymakers to halt the downward spiral.” The benchmark CSI 300 Index “of the nation’s onshore shares is near the lowest levels since January 2019, yet another reflection of the depth of the market gloom.”
Tags: 2019, Benchmark, China, Crisis of confidence, CSI 300 Index, Deepening, Downward spiral, Exacerbating, Policymakers, Pressure, Selloff, Stocks
Washington Post (August 7)
“A summer covid wave” has cases increasing ”in at least 84 countries despite perceptions that the pathogen is a remnant of the past.” Diminished testing, vaccinations and restrictions are making it hard to precisely chart the surge and likely exacerbating it. For example, testing was pervasive at the Tokyo Games, but at the Paris Games (where dozens of athletes are known to have come down with covid), “people who tested positive are competing, there are no testing requirements, and spectators are back in attendance.”
Tags: 84 countries, Athletes, Covid wave, Exacerbating, Paris Games, Pathogen, Restrictions, Summer, Surge, Testing, Tokyo Games, Vaccinations
