Tag: Economic Conditions and Trends

How China Censors Critics of the Economy

China’s top intelligence agency issued an ominous warning last month about an emerging threat to the country’s national security: Chinese people who criticize the economy. In a series of posts on its official WeChat account, the Ministry of State Security implored citizens to grasp President Xi Jinping’s economic vision and not be swayed by those […]

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Is the European Union’s Economy Really Worse Off Than America’s?

In my most recent column I had a bit of fun with Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, who has ominously warned that President Biden will turn us into Europe. I joked that this would mean adding five or six years to our life expectancy. When I shared Noem’s remarks on social media, some […]

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Global Economy Is Heading Toward ‘Soft Landing,’ I.M.F. Says

The global economy has been battered by a pandemic, record levels of inflation, protracted wars and skyrocketing interest rates over the past four years, raising fears of a painful worldwide downturn. But fresh forecasts published on Tuesday suggest that the world has managed to defy the odds, averting the threat of a so-called hard landing. […]

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Eurozone Economy Flatlines, Raising Concerns About Falling Behind

The eurozone economy stagnated late last year as a lingering energy crisis sparked a loss of competitiveness in some European industries, and consumers reined in spending to grapple with high living costs, Europe’s statistics agency reported Tuesday. But economists believe the worst may be over, as the European Central Bank continues its campaign to wring […]

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After China Evergrande, Real Estate Crisis ‘Has Not Touched Bottom’

The unwavering belief of Chinese home buyers that real estate was a can’t-lose investment propelled the country’s property sector to become the backbone of its economy. But over the last two years, as firms crumbled under the weight of massive debts and sales of new homes plunged, Chinese consumers have demonstrated an equally unshakable belief: […]

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China Evergrande Must Be Liquidated, a Judge Said. What Happens Next?

After nearly two years of false starts, last-ditch proposals and pleas for more time, China Evergrande, a massive property company, has been ordered to dismantle itself. It’s a big moment. Evergrande’s collapse in 2021 sent China’s housing market into a tailspin. The worries in real estate, where most households put their savings, helped tip the […]

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Real Estate Giant China Evergrande Will Be Liquidated

Months after China Evergrande ran out of cash and defaulted in 2021, investors around the world scooped up the property developer’s discounted I.O.U.’s, betting that the Chinese government would eventually step in to bail it out. On Monday it became clear just how misguided that bet was. After two years in limbo, Evergrande was ordered […]

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Venezuela Court Bars Opposition Leader From Running for President

Venezuela’s highest court ruled on Friday that a top opposition leader cannot run for president, dealing a crippling blow to prospects for credible elections that the government had agreed to hold this year in exchange for the lifting of crippling U.S. economic sanctions. The court’s decision bars the opposition figure, María Corina Machado, from taking […]

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As China’s Markets Stumble, Japan Rises Toward Record

There’s a shift underway in Asia that’s reverberating through global financial markets. Japan’s stock market, overlooked by investors for decades, is making a furious comeback. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index is edging closer to the record it set on Dec. 29, 1989, which effectively marked the peak of Japan’s economic ascendancy before a collapse that […]

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When Will the European Central Bank Start Cutting Rates?

If what goes up must come down, then the urgent question on the minds of many in Europe is when will interest rates begin dropping? For months, rates have been set at the highest in the European Central Bank’s history. Despite the protests of the eurozone’s policymakers, investors have been betting that the central bank […]

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Nationwide Union Strike Tests Milei’s Policies for Argentina

It has been six weeks since President Javier Milei took office in Argentina, and since then, gas prices have doubled, inflation has soared and the value of the national currency has plummeted. Such turmoil, he had warned, should be expected. Fixing decades of economic problems would first require more pain, he said. Yet on Wednesday, […]

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Why Americans Are Feeling Better About the Economy

In 2022, Republicans seemed to have an easy path to regaining the White House, no actual policy proposals required. All they had to do was contrast Donald Trump’s economic record — which they portrayed as stellar — with the lousy economy under President Biden. That rosy view of the Trump economy involved a lot of […]

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Brainard Pitches Biden’s Economic Efforts In Hard-Hit Regions

President Biden’s top economic adviser will argue on Monday that the administration is engineering a revival of economically disadvantaged communities across the nation, largely relying on anecdotal evidence and patterns of new federal spending in places like Eastern Pennsylvania and Milwaukee, Wis. Lael Brainard, who heads Mr. Biden’s National Economic Council, will use a speech […]

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At Davos, War Is on the Agenda, but the Focus Is on A.I. and Elections

Each day this week has brought a new and fleeting reminder to the executives and politicians at the annual World Economic Forum meeting of the two wars threatening global security and clouding the economy. Ukraine’s president spoke on Tuesday. Israel’s spoke on Thursday. Neither was able to hold the collective attention of a gathering that […]

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China’s Economy Is in Serious Trouble

In 2023, the U.S. economy vastly outperformed expectations. A widely predicted recession never happened. Many economists (though not me) argued that getting inflation down would require years of high unemployment; instead, we’ve experienced immaculate disinflation, rapidly falling inflation at no visible cost. But the story has been very different in the world’s biggest economy (or […]

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Germany’s Economy Stalls Amid Falling Output and Political Bickering

Germany started the year with Berlin’s streets choked with tractors and farmers blaring horns in furious protest of proposed budget cuts. Then train engineers walked off the job to demand better pay, stranding commuters and carloads of freight and leaving the country angry and gridlocked. The same could be said for the state of the […]

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Polish Truckers Lift Border Blockade With Ukraine

Polish truckers have lifted their blockade of checkpoints on the border with Ukraine after reaching an agreement with their government, putting an end for now to a two-month protest that has delayed tons of goods from reaching Europe and strained the Ukrainian economy. Under the agreement, reached on Tuesday afternoon, the truckers will suspend the […]

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U.K. Inflation Edges Higher, Halting 10-Month Decline

The News Inflation in Britain rose slightly in December, picking up for the first time in almost a year, after a change in tobacco taxes pushed up prices. Consumer prices rose 4 percent in December from a year earlier, up from 3.9 percent the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. Despite […]

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Hong Kong Stocks Sink 4 Percent as China’s Economy Scares Investors

China’s No. 2 leader, Li Qiang, traveled to Switzerland with a message for the titans of the business world gathered for the World Economic Forum. “Choosing the Chinese market is not a risk, but an opportunity,” Mr. Li, China’s premier, told an audience in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday. But there’s a different sentiment about China […]

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China’s Economy Grew Last Year, but Strains Lurk Behind the Numbers

Car production set records in China last year. Restaurants and hotels were increasingly full. Construction of new factories surged. Yet China’s economic strengths conceal weaknesses. Deep discounts helped drive car sales, particularly for electric cars. Diners and travelers chose cheaper dishes and less expensive hotels. Many factories ran at half capacity or less because of […]

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How the War With Hamas Has Damaged Israel’s Tech Firms and Economy

At 6:45 a.m. on Oct. 7, Jack “Tato” Bigio, the founder of the technology company UBQ Materials, talked to his chief operating officer, who said that terrorists were on his kibbutz. Other employees texted that they were hiding in safe rooms, and one said her husband had been shot in the stomach. “It was like […]

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World Bank Warns of Energy Price Surge if Mideast War Spreads

The global economy is at risk of a “wasted” decade and the weakest stretch of growth in 30 years, the World Bank warned on Tuesday, saying a sluggish recovery from the pandemic and crippling wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are expected to weigh heavily on output. In its semiannual Global Economic Prospects report, […]

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Eurozone Price Pressures Edged Higher to End the Year

What It Looks Like in Germany, France and Spain: The effect from Europe’s largest economies. In Germany, inflation jumped at an annual rate of 3.8 percent, up from 2.3 percent in November. But the increase was less than expected and driven by a statistical quirk: Energy costs in late 2022 were pushed to particularly low […]

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Eurozone Price Pressures Edged Higher to End the Year

What It Looks Like in Germany, France and Spain: The effect from Europe’s largest economies. In Germany, inflation jumped at an annual rate of 3.8 percent, up from 2.3 percent in November. But the increase was less than expected and driven by a statistical quirk: Energy costs in late 2022 were pushed to particularly low […]

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Carrefour Drops PepsiCo Products in France Over High Prices

The economic headlines in Europe have been glowing recently: Inflation, according to official statistics, is finally coming down. But tell that to consumers still facing runaway prices when they head to the supermarket. On Thursday, France’s biggest food retailer took a drastic step to confront the situation, announcing that it would no longer sell PepsiCo […]

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Indian Stocks Are Booming. Why Is Long-Term Investment Lagging?

India’s economy is booming. Stock prices are through the roof, among the best performing in the world. The government’s investment in airports, bridges and roads, and clean-energy infrastructure is visible almost everywhere. India’s total output, or gross domestic product, is expected to increase 6 percent this year — faster than the United States or China. […]

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Philippine Poverty and Farm-Based Economy Have Roots in Colonial Era

Rodino Sawan stepped into the wire harness and dug his toes into the muddy track that threads the sweltering plantation. He pushed forward, straining against the cargo trailing behind him: 25 bunches of freshly harvested bananas strung from hooks attached to an assembly line. Six days a week, Mr. Sawan, 55, a father of five, […]

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Hong Kong Stocks Plunge to Losses for 4th Straight Year

This summer, when Hong Kong’s stock market rout seemed to have no end in sight, the city’s financial chief, Paul Chan, jumped into action, creating a task force to inject confidence into a market that was being pummeled by global investors wary of China. Hong Kong cut taxes on trading and Mr. Chan went on […]

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Hong Kong Stocks Plunge to Losses for 4th Straight Year

This summer, when Hong Kong’s stock market rout seemed to have no end in sight, the city’s financial chief, Paul Chan, jumped into action, creating a task force to inject confidence into a market that was being pummeled by global investors wary of China. Hong Kong cut taxes on trading and Mr. Chan went on […]

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China’s Property Crisis Blew Up Investments That Couldn’t Lose

One of China’s largest investment firms, Citic Trust, had a clear pitch to investors when it was aiming to raise $1.7 billion to fund property development in 2020: There is no safer Chinese investment than real estate. The trust, the investment arm of the state-owned financial conglomerate Citic, called housing “China’s economic ballast” and “an […]

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Israel’s Economy Expected to Shrink 2% as War Sidelines Workers

The Israeli economy is expected to shrink by 2 percent this quarter, according to a leading research center, with hundreds of thousands of workers displaced by the war with Hamas or called up as reservists. About 20 percent of the Israeli work force was missing from the labor market in October, up from 3 percent […]

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