Africa Data Response South Africa Manufacturing Production (Aug.) Manufacturing figures released today supported our view that the economy exited recession in Q3. But growth probably remained weak by historical standards, which we think will forestall rate hikes. 11th October 2018 · 1 min read
India Economic Outlook Rapid growth to continue for a while yet GDP growth has surged in recent quarters and, while it has probably peaked, we expect it to remain strong ahead of the general election in the first half of 2019. Thereafter, a focus on fiscal... 11th October 2018 · 1 min read
Japan Data Response Machinery Orders (Aug.) The continued surge in machinery orders in August suggests that business investment may have been stronger in Q3 than we had anticipated. Even so, we still expect a marked slowdown in Q3 GDP growth. 10th October 2018 · 1 min read
Europe Data Response German Industrial Production (Aug.) August’s 0.3% fall in German industrial production was much weaker than expected and suggests that the economy is very unlikely to match Q2’s 0.5% expansion in the third quarter. We have revised down... 8th October 2018 · 1 min read
Japan Economics Weekly Households remain gloomy, yen to strengthen again Japan’s labour market is as strong as most of today’s workers will ever have known, which makes the persistent weakness of consumption all the more puzzling. Spending remains flat according to data... 5th October 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Economics Weekly RBA’s upbeat tone contrasts with downbeat data We doubt that the gap between the Reserve Bank of Australia’s relatively upbeat tone and the downbeat feel of the recent economic news will be sustained for long. We suspect the RBA may become a... 5th October 2018 · 1 min read
Australia & New Zealand Data Response Retail Sales (Aug.) The rebound in retail sales in August provides further evidence that households are still proving reasonably resilient to low income growth and falling house prices. But with house prices falling at... 5th October 2018 · 1 min read
Europe Chart Pack Country divergence looks set to continue Business and consumer surveys suggest that growth in the euro-zone as a whole will continue at a fairly healthy pace of around 0.4% per quarter in the near term. But there is a growing divergence by... 4th October 2018 · 1 min read
Global Economics Chart Pack Third-quarter slowdown a sign of things to come The world economy seems to have lost some momentum in the past few months and we expect it to slow further in the coming year. World trade growth has fallen sharply, though this is due to weakening... 4th October 2018 · 1 min read
Canada Economics Update Energy investment unlikely to surge The recent run-up in oil prices, yesterday’s announcement of a new massive LNG project and the coming expansion in the capacity to export crude oil by rail all seem to bode well for energy investment... 3rd October 2018 · 1 min read
UK Data Response Markit/CIPS Services PMI (Sep.) The drop back in September’s Markit/CIPS report on services was a little disappointing but a bit of a fall was expected after a large jump in August. The bigger picture is that growth in the services... 3rd October 2018 · 1 min read
Europe Data Response Euro-zone Retail Sales (Aug.) & Final PMIs (Sep.) August’s euro-zone retail sales data suggest that spending growth failed to gain pace in Q3, but there are good reasons to think that sales volumes will accelerate as inflation falls in the months... 3rd October 2018 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Data Response Whole Economy PMIs (Sep.) Last month’s PMI data paint a mixed picture in the Gulf but we expect growth in non-oil sectors to pick up over the coming months on the back of fiscal stimulus. Elsewhere, the survey in Egypt... 3rd October 2018 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Assessing the impact of higher oil prices We don’t expect the recent jump in oil prices to be sustained but if we are wrong and prices stay at $85pb, annual export revenues in the Gulf would be $200bn higher than in 2017. Governments would... 2nd October 2018 · 1 min read
Emerging Europe Economics Update Russia’s economy still has some slack Russia’s recovery doesn’t appear to have used up the spare capacity in the economy and we estimate that there is an output gap of about 1% of potential GDP. That means there’s scope for GDP to grow... 2nd October 2018 · 1 min read
Latin America Data Response Brazil Industrial Production (Aug.) The surprisingly large 0.3% m/m fall in Brazilian industrial production in August seems to be due to a temporary halt in production at one of the country’s petroleum refineries, which should have... 2nd October 2018 · 1 min read