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
Bloomberg (September 8)
“China’s export growth slowed to the weakest in six months as a slump in shipments to the US deepened again, although a surge in sales to other markets kept Beijing on track for a record trade surplus of over $1.2 trillion this year.” The figures ‘add to the picture of fracturing global trade flows after President Donald Trump’s tariffs of 55% on Chinese exports…. By steering exports to markets outside… China has racked up a trade surplus of just over $785 billion in the first eight months of the year, almost a third more than during the same period of 2024.”
Tags: $1.2 trillion, Beijing, China, Export growth, Fracturing, Global trade flows, Shipments, Surge, Tariffs, Trade surplus, Trump, U.S., Weakest
The Guardian (August 28)
The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) “was already known to be at its weakest in 1,600 years as a result of the climate crisis.” Scientists believe its collapse would be catastrophic, but previous studies showed this was unlikely before 2100. Newer studies, with an extended horizon, are troubling. They “show the tipping point that makes an Amoc shutdown inevitable is likely to be passed within a few decades, but that the collapse itself may not happen until 50 to 100 years later.”
Tags: 2100, Amoc, Atlantic, Catastrophic, Climate crisis, Collapse, Inevitable, Scientists, Shutdown, Tipping point, Weakest
The Economist (November 28)
“Investors are turning one eye away from the immediate struggle of coping with the pandemic and looking instead at the longer-term competitive picture. Who has won and who has lost? Like viruses, recessions usually come for the weakest first. Companies with sickly balance-sheets or frail margins quickly succumb. As promising startups become crushed closedowns, it is often the incumbents that have the resources to wait it out.”
Tags: Balance sheets, Companies, Crushed closedowns, Incumbents, Investors, Margins, Pandemic, Promising, Recessions, Resources, Startups, Succumb, Weakest
