Daily update
Daily update
- China’s consumers have been unenthusiastic, and exports are not necessarily dependable. Yesterday, China’s politburo signaled additional monetary and fiscal stimulus would be forthcoming. If US President-elect Trump taxes US consumers of goods from China, that may be a convenient excuse for China to cut taxes for its consumers.
- China’s November trade data showed weaker exports and imports. China’s export growth was positive (although China’s export numbers are peculiar—China sells more to the US than the US buys from China). Imports fell, reflecting weaker domestic demand but also (perhaps) a declining inclination to buy foreign goods in the wake of economic nationalism.
- German final November consumer price inflation is one of the few German figures that is almost never revised, and thus of little market impact. US productivity data is due—this is everything economists do not understand about the economy, carefully branded to avoid making economists look bad.
- The music artist Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour made around USD 2.1bn in sales. The economic impact would have been considerably more (travel, accommodation, secondary market sales, etc.). Around the world, GDP data and inflation numbers have been distorted by this event. The lessons: peculiarities do distort data; the focus on having fun may be a structural shift; social media memes matter economically.
