Bloomberg (April 11)
“For global equity investors and Shinzo Abe, it’s splitsville.” For 13 straight weeks during 2016, “foreign traders have been pulling out of Tokyo’s stock market.” They’ve dumped “$46 billion of shares as economic reports deteriorated, stimulus from the Bank of Japan backfired and the yen’s surge pressured exporters. The benchmark Topix index is down 18 percent in 2016, the world’s steepest declines behind Italy.”
Tags: Abe, BOJ, Equity investors, Exporters, Italy, Shares, Stock market, Tokyo, Topix, Traders, Yen
The Economist (June 27)
“Electric buses in parts of South Korea, Italy, Britain and California are, today, recharging themselves from underground wireless chargers.” Wireless charging isn’t new. Nicholas Tesla used resonant induction in the 19th century, but it may finally prove revolutionary. From mobile phones to cars and kitchen appliances, “sales of such machines, now half a billion dollars a year, will grow 30-fold over the next decade.” Furthermore, the technology may succeed in “decarbonising the world’s road vehicles.”
Tags: Britain, California, Electric buses, Italy, Recharging, Resonant induction, Revolutionary, South Korea, Tesla, Vehicles, Wireless charging
The Economist (February 21)
“Deflation can be a good thing. But today’s version is pernicious.” Prices have fallen in Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, indeed the euro zone as a whole, and “ultra-low inflation is also widespread. America, Britain and China each have inflation rates of less than 1%.” Should there be another crash, central banks would have little room to act. “The world is grievously underestimating the danger of deflation.”
Tags: Central banks, China, Deflation, Euro zone, Germany, Greece, Italy, Pernicious, Prices, Spain, U.S., UK
Financial Times (December 13)
“France is in a similar situation to Italy. Both are attempting structural reform while fighting the threat of recession and asking the EU—which is to say Berlin—for more leeway on fiscal policy.” The reforms will help to remove “the bureaucratic sclerosis that chokes off innovation and growth.”
Tags: Berlin, Bureaucracy, EU, Fiscal policy, France, Growth, Innovation, Italy, Recession, Structural reform, Threat
New York Times (December 6)
“Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey — the so-called MINT economies — along with the more developed South Korea,” could surpass Italy, the world’s eighth largest economy, to each contribute 3-5% of global GDP. The MINTs may even give some of the BRICs a run for their money. Jim O’Neil, who coined the term BRIC to refer to Brazil, Russia, India and China, thought each had potential to produce 5% of global GDP. China’s already there and India will be soon, but it’s becoming apparent that Brazil and Russia will struggle without reforms. While the MINTs “have many challenges, they all have exciting potential, and could become mini-giants, if not quite on the scale of some of their well-known BRIC colleagues.”
Tags: Brazil, BRIC, BRICS, China, GDP, India, Indonesia, Italy, Jim O’Neil, Mexico, MINT, Nigeria, Reforms, Russia, South Korea, Turkey
Wall Street Journal (October 12)
Japan’s dilemma over whether to proceed with the sales tax increase to 10% “mirrors the dynamics in Europe, where France and Italy recently delayed deficit-reduction plans, fearing that spending cuts could tip their fragile economies back into recession.” With much of the developed world facing aging demographics and similar quandaries, all eyes are on Japan. “In a world haunted by stubbornly slow growth and low inflation, Japan’s clinical trial—whether it ends up cure or toxin—will inform other countries when they reach Japan’s state.”
Tags: Deficit reduction, Demographics, Dilemma, Economies, Europe, France, Growth, Inflation, Italy, Japan, Recession, Sales tax, Spending cuts
The Economist (August 30)
“If Germany, France and Italy cannot find a way to refloat Europe’s economy, the euro may yet be doomed.” With inflation “perilously low” at just 0.4%, “the euro zone stands (or wobbles) in stark contrast with America and Britain, whose economies are enjoying sustained growth.”
Financial Times (May 29)
Britain’s GDP is set to increase by £10 billion as the Office for National Statistics begins to include illegal drug sales and prostitution in its calculations. To move into alignment with EU standards many countries have already taken this step. Italy is also advancing plans to include “among other activities, the sale of cocaine and prostitution.” Estonia, Austria, Slovenia, Finland, Sweden and Norway have already added prostitution and illegal drugs to their GDP calculations.
Tags: Alignment, Austria, Britain, Calculations, Cocaine, Drug sales, Estonia, EU, Finland, GDP, Italy, Norway, Prostitution, Slovenia, Statistics, Sweden
Wall Street Journal (April 15)
“Japan still firmly leads the world in aging.” Over a quarter (25.1%) of Japan’s population is now over 65. The next grayest countries are Germany and Italy with roughly 21% over 65.
Washington Post (October 27)
“Not many countries would cheer about an economic growth rate of one-tenth of 1 percent, sustained for a mere three months. But for Spain, which has been mired in negative growth for two years, the tiny uptick in the third quarter of 2013 represents a kind of breakthrough.” For Europe, however, this is just the slightest hint of a “silver lining in a what is still a very dense, dark cloud hanging over Europe’s economy. Spain and its fellow euro-zone debtors — Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Greece — don’t just need a trickle of growth to bring down their unemployment rates and debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratios. They need a gusher; many consecutive months of high-single-digit growth. And there is no short-term prospect of that.”
Tags: Breakthrough, Debt, Economy, Euro zone, Europe, GDP, Greece, Growth, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Unemployment, Uptick
