WARC (November 26)
Global advertising spend looks set to exceed “$1 trillion for the first time this year.” It is on course to grow 10.7% this year to a total of $1.08trn, with online media leading the charge – the strongest growth rate in six years and the largest absolute rise on record if the post-Covid recovery of 2021 (+27.9% year-on-year) is disregarded.”
Tags: $1 trillion, 10.7%, 2021, Advertising spend, First time, Global, Growth rate, Largest, Online media, Post-Covid, Record, Rise
Wall Street Journal (July 29)
The “post-covid factory boom Is running out of steam,” leaving U.S. manufacturers to rethink “their plans as they brace for an extended slump in demand.” Compounding factors include “higher interest rates, rising operating costs, a strengthening U.S. dollar and lower selling prices for commodities” as more executives forecast “challenging business conditions for the remainder of the year.”
Tags: Commodities, Demand, Dollar, Executives, Extended slump, Factory boom, Interest rates, Manufacturers, Operating costs, Plans, Post-Covid, Rethink, U.S.
USA Today (January 2)
“The post-COVID-19 economy was finally supposed to stop defying gravity and topple into a recession this year.” While “growth is expected to slow… other factors are likely to keep the economy afloat, forecasters say, including near-record home and stock prices, a further easing of inflation to or near the Fed’s 2% goal and the central bank’s tentative plans to cut interest rates more sharply than previously anticipated.”
Tags: Easing, Economy, Fed, Growth, Inflation, Interest, Post-Covid, Rates, Recession, Record, Slow, Stock prices
Washington Post (October 1)
“Offices in many of the world’s major cities are struggling to find workers to occupy them.” In contrast, during 2023 “Tokyo will add some 1.26 million square meters… of new office space, with little trouble occupying it…. Foreign investors, some of whom are dumping properties overseas, are snapping up buildings.” While Tokyo’s post-COVID recovery “has been more circuitous…it may be more complete than global peers.”
Tags: 2023, Buildings, Circuitous, Foreign investors, Major cities, Office space, Overseas, Post-Covid, Properties, Recovery, Struggling, Tokyo, Workers
Investment & Pensions Europe (September Edition)
“Continental Europe appears to have largely escaped the trend known in the US as the ‘Great Retirement Boom’, where an economically comfortable cohort of 50 to 64-year-olds has retreated from work in the post-COVID period.” In contrast, labour market participation in the EU is increasing among the over-55s and “the EU expects the proportion of economically active over-55s to continue increasing, reaching around 72% by 2040.”
Tags: 2040, Cohort, Comfortable, Economically active, EU, Europe, Great Retirement Boom, Labour market participation, Over-55s, Post-Covid, Trend, U.S., Work
The Economist (June 18)
“China’s economy is on course for a ‘double dip.’ The post-covid economy was meant to roar. But it is faltering again.” Since April, “retail sales, investment and property sales all fell short of expectations. And the unemployment rate among China’s urban youth rose above 20%, the highest since data began to be recorded in 2018.”
Tags: China, Double-dip, Economy, Expectations, Faltering, Investment, Post-Covid, Property sales, Retail sales, Unemployment rate, Urban youth
South China Morning Post (February 17)
“China’s regulators have unblocked the path for companies to list overseas, reopening the avenue of fundraising after a 20-month obstruction to enable businesses to recapitalise for growth in the post-Covid period.” Applications must be vetted by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) while the issuer must adhere to rules established by industry regulators in “disclosures of customers’ data and anything that could be construed as state secret.”
Tags: China, CSRC, Customers’ data, Disclosures, Fundraising, Growth, Industry regulators, Issuer, Overseas, Post-Covid, Recapitalise, Regulators, Reopening, State secrets, Vetted
Boston Globe (June 19)
“Many firms are implementing hybrid plans that call for two or three days a week in-office, though few enforce them. And fully remote situations remain common.” Things will never return to fully in-office, but offices are likely to grow more enticing. Companies that signed big leases, “with years of big rent checks ahead of them,” are left trying to rethink “the role — and look — of the office in a post-COVID world.” They are “trying to design an office worth coming back to.”
Tags: Companies, Design, Enforce, Enticing, Hybrid, In-office, Leases, Office, Post-Covid, Remote, Rent
MarketWatch (July 13)
“U.S. stock indexes on Tuesday morning edged slightly lower from Monday’s record closes, as investors assessed a hotter-than-expected consumer inflation report for June, which suggests to some that the Federal Reserve may need to consider removing some of its monetary policy measures to avoid an overheated post-COVID economy.”
Tags: Consumer inflation, Economy, Fed, Investors, June, Monetary policy, Overheated, Post-Covid, Record closes, Stock, U.S.
San Francisco Chronicle (June 16)
“California shrugged off 15 months of pandemic restrictions Tuesday and emerged into an appropriately sunny day to take a celebratory—if cautious—collective leap toward a post-COVID normal.” This historic day marks the first time “life could return to some semblance of what it used to be, a future bolstered by vaccines that will likely forestall another deadly surge.”
Tags: California, Cautious, Celebratory, Deadly surge, Forestall, Future, Normal, Pandemic, Post-Covid, Restrictions, Shrugged, Vaccines
