Brazil’s retail sales indicate that Q3 consumption could be nearly 45% worse than estimated

Oct 14, 2015 16:53 pm UTC| Commentary Economy

At -6.9% yoy (-0.9% mom), August retail sales were much weaker than expected and the worst since early 2003. All of the major sales segments fell sharply - with the exception of medical care and cosmetics - as consumers...

The slowly disappearing US labor market slack

Oct 14, 2015 05:07 am UTC| Commentary Economy

After the decision not to hike in September, the FOMC statement repeated that the Committee would like to see some further improvement in the labor market and it would like to be reasonably confident that inflation will...

US retail and food services sales probably dipped in September

Oct 13, 2015 22:53 pm UTC| Commentary Economy

A tug of war between a price-induced drop in gasoline purchases and stepped-up consumer outlays on other goods and restaurant meals probably left retail and food services sales 0.1% lower in September, after a modest 0.2%...

Rounding out another strong quarter for Australia’s labour market

Oct 12, 2015 23:34 pm UTC| Commentary Economy

After two strong reports for July and August, when employment expanded at an average of 28k or 2.9% at an annualised rate, data for September is expected to be on the soft side with only a marginal increase in jobs of...

No constructive message from China’s September trade data

Oct 12, 2015 20:28 pm UTC| Commentary Economy

Chinas trade growth bounced back slightly in August from July. However, the rebound is not expected to be sustained. The gauge of export orders in the September PMI report ticked up to 47.9 in September, but this was still...

A Zombification could weigh on the long-term growth prospect of Chinese economy

Oct 12, 2015 18:38 pm UTC| Commentary Economy

Chinas state-owned banks will support its highly indebted companies. China should thus avoid a recession. However, Japan shows that keeping many seemingly dead companies (zombies) afloat weighs on the long-term growth...

China’s auto sales tax cut is a key economic and policy move worth monitoring

Oct 11, 2015 11:23 am UTC| Commentary Economy

In an effort to revive the countrys auto sector, Chinas State Council announced on September 30th that the sales tax on the purchase of vehicles with engine capacity of less than 1.6 liters (i.e. most passenger cars) would...