Eurozone economic activity continues to expand

Aug 10, 2015 23:09 pm UTC| Commentary Economy

Eurozone economic activity continues to expand at a modest pace, with the manufacturing PMI reaching 52.4 in July. Italy and Spain PMIs remain in strong expansion, near multi-year historical highs. Spain GDP accelerated...

China industrial profits declining

Aug 10, 2015 22:52 pm UTC| Commentary

China profits at major industrial firms declined -0.3% yoy in June (vs. +0.6% in May). The decline of corporate profitability is putting pressure on highly leveraged companies that face large excess capacity and weaker...

New Zealand electronic card spending likely to slowdown

Aug 10, 2015 22:27 pm UTC| Commentary

After surging at the start of the year, electronic card spending has had a much slower run in the last few months. That includes June, when a 0.5% rise in the value of spending was entirely due to a lift in fuel prices....

US economic conditions continuing to improve

Aug 10, 2015 21:31 pm UTC| Commentary

The outperformer on the global stage has been the US economy, where economic conditions have continued to improve. This has been seen most clearly in the labour market, with non-farm employment growth averaging a robust...

Conditions in China are expected to remain sluggish

Aug 10, 2015 21:18 pm UTC| Commentary

Through June and July, Chinese equity markets plunged by more than 30%, with declines only arrested after significant policy support was introduced. At this stage, the impact of this volatility on the wider economy is...

New Zealand's real retail sales on Friday

Aug 10, 2015 20:55 pm UTC| Commentary

New Zealand retail activity had a storming start to the year, but electronic card spending data point to a sharp slowdown since. A 0.1% lift in both volumes and values are expected in the June quarter. This would add to...

Rising CPI to limit PBoC’s scope for rate cuts

Aug 10, 2015 20:34 pm UTC| Commentary

Given the supply shortage and the upcoming seasonal increases in pork demand, the pork prices will probably keep moving higher in the short term. Consequently, the CPI could be pushed higher. However, this pork cycle is...