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
Wall Street Journal (December 7)
“Advertising spending will grow more than predicted in 2025 because tariffs didn’t take as big a bite as expected and AI provided a boost…. Global ad revenue excluding U.S. political advertising will grow 8.8% in 2025 to $1.14 trillion, WPP Media said, raising its forecast from the 6% it predicted in June,” while worldwide advertising is now expected to grow 7.1% in 2026, up from June’s forecast of 6.1%.
Tags: $1.14 trillion, 2025, 2026, 8.8%, Ad revenue, Advertising, AI, Forecast, Predicted, Spending, Tariffs, U.S., WPP Media
New York Times (December 1)
“Investors had been growing more optimistic that the Fed will cut interest rates at next week’s meeting” while holiday sales “also bolstered the rally.” Still, “the consumer is still a major concern…. Analysts at Goldman Sachs and Bank of America have flagged that a recent rise in spending may be masking a concerning economic undercurrent: Many lower-income consumers are struggling with stubbornly high inflation and an uncertain labor market.”
Tags: Analysts, BoA, Consumer, Fed, GS, Holiday sales, Inflation, Interest rates, Investors, Labor market, Lower-income, Optimistic, Rally, Spending, Struggling, Undercurrent
Reuters (October 6)
Though “Sanae Takaichi likens herself to fiscal disciplinarian Margaret Thatcher,” she’s “no Iron Lady.” Takaichi “wants to up spending. Nor is she an unalloyed heir to mentor Shinzo Abe. Rather, her priorities portend either political discord or a sharp swerve that shatters economic consensus and pummels the yen.”
Tags: Abe, Economic consensus, Fiscal discipline, Heir, Iron Lady, Mentor, Political discord, Priorities, Shatters, Spending, Swerve, Takaichi, Thatcher, Yen
The Economist (October 2)
Donald Trump has remade, rather than destroyed, American financial diplomacy. He has refashioned it “in his image. It is now nakedly self-interested. Money flows to ideological allies, to leaders who control something he covets and to countries he hopes to lure away from China. In the long run, spending on these goals may outpace what was once allocated to poverty alleviation.”
Tags: China, Control, Covets, Destroyed, Financial diplomacy, Ideological allies, Leaders, Lure, Money, Outpace, Poverty alleviation, Remade, Self-interested, Spending, Trump, U.S.
New York Times (September 16)
“While other countries have scrambled to meet President Trump’s demands to strike deals for reduced tariffs, China has kept to its own timetable.” The costly price has been a 15% drop in “China’s exports to the United States… so far this year.” China has successfully offset this with surging exports to other countries, but robust exports are “masking weakness in other parts of its economy. A persistent real estate downturn has wrecked [sic] havoc on the economy. Consumers are spending less, while joblessness among young people remains a major problem. China is also dealing with a stubborn deflationary spiral, spurred by overproduction in key industries and price wars.” Still, given its degree of media control, the Chinese government does not appear anxious about negotiating a trade deal with the U.S.
Tags: China, Consumers, Deals, Deflationary spiral, Demands, Downturn, Economy, Exports, Havoc, Joblessness, Overproduction, Price wars, Real estate, Spending, Surging, Tariffs, Trump, U.S., Weakness
The Times (May 13)
“The United States is expected to lose $12.5 billion in international travel spending by the end of the year.” According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) “reports of tourists being stopped at the border, visa detentions, a tariff war waged by the Trump administration and a higher exchange rate” are all factors in what they estimate will reduce 2025 spending by foreign tourists in the U.S. to $169 billion, “down 7 per cent from $181 billion last year and 22 per cent from the peak before the pandemic.”
Tags: $12.5 billion, $169 billion, 2025, Border, Exchange rate, International travel, Pandemic, Reduce, Spending, Tariff war, Tourists, Trump, U.S., Visa detentions, WTTC
CNN (November 20)
Major retailer Target is noticing customer behavior that “is causing it to cast doubt on its future sales.” Store traffic “grew by about 2% year-over-year,” but customer “spending per purchase shrunk by 2%.” According to CEO Brian Cornell, customers are “’becoming increasingly resourceful in their shopping behaviors, waiting to buy until (the) last moment of need, focusing on deals and then stocking up when they find them.’”
Tags: CEO, Cornell, Customer behavior, Deals, Resourceful, Retailer, Sales, Shopping, Spending, Stocking up, Store traffic, Target, Waiting
New York Times (July 31)
“The technology sector is facing another rough patch, after Microsoft reported mixed quarterly earnings and its shares tumbled. The company’s results are fueling more concern among investors about whether hefty spending on artificial intelligence will pay off, and how long that might take.” The tech giant, however, is confident that its efforts will pay off.”
Tags: AI, Concern, Confident, Investors, Microsoft, Pay off, Quarterly earnings, Results, Shares, Spending, Technology sector, Tumbled
The Week (June 28)
“There may be no bigger scramble in business right now than the race to dominate retail media,” which is expected to “account for more than a fifth of all digital ad spending in 2024.” The stakes are high. Amazon, for example, “earned $46.9 billion from retail ads,” which was more than all of Coca-Cola’s global revenue “and makes Amazon the third-largest advertising platform in the United States, behind only Google and Facebook.”
Tags: $46.9 billion, 2024, Advertising platform, Amazon, Business, Coca Cola, Digital, Dominate, Facebook, Google, Race, Retail media, Scramble, Spending, U.S.
