Reuters (December 11)
“India’s blistering growth has a quality problem. GDP is speeding ahead at 8% in the world’s fifth-largest economy but the government is doing the heavy lifting on investment. Policymakers have spent years trying to coax companies into spending more, with limited success. The result: growth that looks fast but feels flimsy.”
Tags: 8%, Coax, Economy, FAST, GDP, Government, Growth, India, Investment, Policymakers, Quality, Spending, Success
Reuters (November 16)
“China’s factory output and retail sales grew at their weakest pace in over a year in October, piling pressure on policymakers to revamp the $19 trillion export-driven economy as mounting supply and demand strains threaten to further curtail growth.” Officials may be running out of options to keep “the world’s second-largest economy humming…. even an economy of China’s size can only squeeze so much growth from building more industrial parks, power substations and dams.”
Tags: China, Dams, Demand, Economy, Export-driven, Factory output, Industrial parks, October, Officials, Policymakers, Retail sales, Substations, Supply, Weakest
Reuters (September 4)
“China’s automotive industry must seem like an unstoppable force to outsiders.” Nevertheless, “scores of their carmakers are heading for a crash.” They remain challenged by “a vicious price war that has lasted more than two years,” with Chinese policymakers expect an “involution” or “frantic, self-destructive struggle.” Government officials are struggling to bring the price war to an end, but their measures have not addressed overcapacity. Sales of passenger vehicles stood at 27.6 million in 2024, while “production capacity hit 55.6 million units, more than 50% higher than a decade ago.”
Tags: Automotive industry, Carmakers, China, Frantic, Government, Involution, Officials, Overcapacity, Passenger vehicles, Policymakers, Price war, Production, Self-destructive, Struggle
Chicago Booth Review (May 8)
The United States “will miss having reliable data.” The U.S. government “has recently taken steps to pare its infrastructure for economic data collection and analysis, including shuttering the Bureau of Economic Analysis Advisory Committee and the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee.” Based on a March poll, economists ”expressed broad concern about how eroding the government’s data-collection resources might affect the quality of American economic information—and the decisions based on it.” There responses suggested “that less reliable statistics won’t just be a problem for policymakers.”
Tags: Analysis, Bureau of Economic Analysis Advisory Committee, Data collection, Decisions. Statistics, Eroding, Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee, Government, Infrastructure, Pare, Policymakers, Quality, Reliable, U.S.
Bloomberg (April 16)
Investors have learned that “there’s no way to guess what America will do next. With its on-again, off-again tariffs, the US administration has demonstrated a rare and reckless willingness to shock markets.” Given the “radical uncertainty, a financial crisis isn’t out of the question.” It is regrettable “that policymakers need to contemplate a self-inflicted crisis of this kind. But the possibility must be taken seriously. Regulators everywhere should do what they can to be ready.”
Tags: Crisis, Financial Crisis, Investors, Markets, Off-again, On-again, Policymakers, Radical uncertainty, Rare, Reckless, Regrettable, Regulators, Self-inflicted, Shock, Tariffs, U.S.
Reuters (December 23)
“EU industries pay power prices 2-3 times higher than those in the U.S. Taxes made up, on average, 23% of the retail electricity price paid by Europe’s energy-intensive firms in 2023.” In addition, energy-intensive industries face “a more fragmented market than China and difficult access to credit.” Lowering taxes might be a way for policymakers “to offer fast relief” to industry.
Tags: China, Credit, Energy-intensive, EU, Fragmented market, Higher, Industry, Policymakers, Power prices, Relief, Retail electricity, Taxes, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (September 12)
“Investors and policymakers alike are eager for big-bank mergers in the European Union. U.S. banks, which have the benefit of scale and cheaper funding, rule the roost when it comes to dealmaking even in Europe, with France’s BNP Paribas as the only universal bank that comes close to posing a challenge.” With the possible merger of UniCredit and Commerzbank, “technocrats in Brussels might finally get their wish for bigger European banks. But Wall Street still shouldn’t expect any real competition to emerge from this.”
Tags: Big-bank mergers, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Dealmaking, EU, Funding, Investors, Policymakers, Scale, Technocrats, U.S. banks, UniCredit, Wall Street
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
Financial Times (March 10)
“Policymakers at the Bank of Japan are tackling a series of thorny policy debates as they confront the practicalities of raising interest rates for the first time since the summer of 2006.” Despite signaling the “unprecedented era of cheap money” could end with a rate increase as early as March, the BoJ “still faces a number of challenging decisions about how to leave negative rates behind without causing turmoil for global markets and Japanese lenders.”
Tags: 2006, BOJ, Cheap money, Confront, Global markets, Japan, Lenders, March, Negative rates, Policy debates, Policymakers, Practicalities, Thorny, Turmoil, Unprecedented era
Barron’s (January 24)
“The continued slide in Chinese stocks toward lows set more than a decade ago may be mobilizing Beijing’s policymakers into action. But it isn’t clear if it will be enough to help the country’s embattled economy or improve sentiment in a meaningful way.”
Tags: Action, Beijing, China, Clear, Economy, Embattled, Lows, Meaningful, Mobilizing, Policymakers, Sentiment, Slide, Stocks
