BEIJING| Alberto Lebrón | There have been two events in November which have been key to measuring the trend in global consumption: China’s “Singles’ Day” on 11/11 and the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend in the rest of the world. Diane Wang, an e-business pioneer and one of the 10 most powerful women in the Asia Pacific, has created the largest b2b platform in China, with 10 million corporate clients.
With all the talk of an imminent interest rate hike, there are likely to be winners and losers.
Electricity consumption by large and medium-sized companies grew by 2.5% in August from a year earlier.
Spain’s annual GDP growth accelerates to 3.1% thanks to consumption uptick.
LONDON | UBS | Lower oil prices are evaluated as essentially “a wash” for the US economy.
MADRID | May 8, 2015 | By Félix Lores Juberías and Ignacio San Martín at BBVA Reasearch | Housing sales growth moderated in February while the mortgage market regains dynamism. On the other hand, the upturn in construction activity was mirrored in the land market, with an increase in transaction numbers and a mild rise in the price of urban plots.
April 22, 2015 | BNP Paribas | There is further upside risks on global consumption, especially in lower-income EM countries and the Eurozone. However, we do not believe that global deleveraging has come to an end: wage growth and inflation will likely continue to trend low over the coming years.
The Corner | March 6, 2015 | In yet more positive news for the Spanish economy, influential foundation FUNCAS has revised its growth projections upwards for 2015 to 3%. Increased consumption and an improvement in the construction sector are the chief reasons for the upward trend.
The Corner | March 3, 2015 | Retail sales in Germany beat expectations in January: they rose by 5.3% instead of the forecast 3.0%, and up from the December’s upwardly revised 4.8% rise. Spanish and German consumers are seemingly much happier about the state of the economy.
LONDON | By Barclays analysts | Consumer confidence increased again in June, reaching positive territory for the first time since March 2005. The GfK consumer confidence index rose to 1 from 0 in May, in line with our expectations (consensus: 2). Improvements were generally broad-based, with ‘general economic situation over the last 12 months’ improving the most, up 2 points to -3.