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World economy 20th November 2014

China-U.S. Investment Treaty Would Strengthen Economic Relations

BEIJING | By Sean Miner via Caixin | The United States and China disagree on many issues but especially in the foreign policy sphere, and there are few reasons the two economic heavyweights will become closer in the next few years. Among the few areas that could bring them closer could be increased bilateral investment. With the recent “breakthrough” between China and the United States in the negotiations on the Information Technology Agreement, the prospects for a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between them have been improved.

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World economy 19th November 2014

Fed, beware of the inflation!

SAO PAULO | By Marcus Nunes via Historinhas | In The Risks to the Inflation Outlook SF Fed researcher Vasco Cúrdia writes: the median inflation forecast is not expected to return to the FOMC target of 2% until after the end of 2016. The uptick in inflation in the first half of 2014 could lead one to believe inflation is finally on the path back toward its target. However, inflation has shown similar patterns several times before and each time the uptick has never lasted very long. According to this model, we should not see inflation begin to recover more firmly until around the end of 2015.

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World economy 17th November 2014

Trade as a confidence-building measure in Asia

By Volker Stanzel via Caixin | The world debate may be preoccupied with crises in the Middle East and in eastern Ukraine and with ISIS and fighting Ebola. Yet, tensions in East Asia have not subsided. Even though the region has seen quite a remarkable level of peace since China’s war against Vietnam in 1978-79, there is a new uncertainty.

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World economy 17th November 2014

Living well with a strong dollar

ZURICH | By UBS analysts | Will a strong dollar much weaken overall U.S. growth and inflation? The answer importantly depends on how much export and import prices respond to changes in the dollar’s foreign exchange value. Exporters may cut dollar prices and profit margins in order to blunt a stronger dollar’s impact on their market shares and volumes. In fact, over the three months through October, dollar prices of nonagricultural exports fell steadily (by a cumulative 1.3%).

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World economy 17th November 2014

Japan falls into technical recession

MADRID | The Corner | The Japanese economy unexpectedly entered recession in the third quarter, just after the GDP decreased by an annualised pace of 1.6 per cent, versus forecasts that it would rebound by 2.2 per cent. Japan contracted by 0.4% in the 3Q14, leaving the country in a technical recession, which drove the Nikkei to near 3% losses and raised serious questions about the planned sales tax hike next year.

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World economy 17th November 2014

Deflation: John Cochrane defiantly takes on economic history

SAO PAULO | By Benjamin Cole via Marcus Nunes‘ Historinhas | As I predicted, the right-wing has gone past its fixation on absolutely dead prices as an economic cure-all and moral imperative, to the even-better nirvana of…deflation. I wish I was making this up. But comes now University of Chicago scholar John Cochrane, path-breaking with stalwart allies such a FOMC member Charles Plosser, that deflation is an economic elixir, not a sign of stagnation. Cochrane authored a recent The Wall Street Journal op-ed genuflecting to southerly price drifts. I just don’t get it.

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World economy 16th November 2014

Less Slack=Self Sustaining Momentum

By UBS analysts | As the US economic recovery completes its fifth year, direct policy stimulus is no longer being applied, but the economy is poised to move ahead on its own self-generating momentum. Real GDP growth is expected at 2.9% in 2015 and 2.8% in 2016. Less slack in the labor market along with accelerating labor demand should soon be accompanied by somewhat faster wage gains to boost household incomes, confidence and spending. A rising industrial capacity utilization rate should help trigger more sustained gains in capex. And a falling residential rental vacancy rate should further stimulate rents and residential construction. 

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World economy 15th November 2014

China: How a soft landing feels

BEIJING | By Michael Gavin (Barclays) | There are many reasons to be interested in the slowdown of the Chinese economy. Here, we focus on the potential implications for advanced manufacturing economies. They are not the ones with the most to lose in a slowdown; that distinction very likely belongs to commodity exporters. But China’s systemic significance is such that no economy is likely to remain utterly unscathed by a cyclical event there. The question is how scathed major economies will be, and the answer is of some considerable interest for investors, if only because they comprise such a large share of the world’s financial assets.