The world economy is going into the year end on the best footing it has been since the financial crisis. Still, that’s not saying much. News highlights today–spiking interest rates in China’s interbank markets, sliding producer prices in Spain and waning Italian consumer confidence–are a reminder that risks loom over the global economy. Overriding this, however, is good news of recent days showing that for the first time since 2007, there is a mostly synchronized recovery underway.
Readers of this column might find it odd we can end the year on an optimistic note. After all, unemployment is still woefully high in the advanced world, the stress in China’s banking system speaks to the risk of a debt crisis in a country undergoing a difficult economic transition and the specter of deflation looms over the euro zone. But the antidote to all these ills is growth. And for once, all three regions of the world are ending 2013 in a state of moderate expansion. This is led by the U.S., where ebullient markets–as seen in the Dow Jones Industrial Average registering its first inflation-adjusted valuation record in nearly 14 years Friday–is ensuring that people are taking in stride the prospect of the Federal Reserve withdrawing monetary stimulus and so happily going about their holiday shopping. A modest recovery in Europe–led by Germany–also is helping, if for no other reason that the region’s recession is no longer a drag on global growth. And while Asia is hindered by a somewhat slower China, the impact of stronger U.S. demand for Asian exports is filter through to that region.
CHINA: Despite liquidity injections late last week by the central bank. The seven-day repo rate rose to 9.8% from 8.2% on Friday, its highest level since it hit 11.62% on June 20, at the peak of China’s summer cash crunch.
Borrowing costs briefly fell to 5.57% on Monday morning after the People’s Bank of China announced late Friday it had injected more than 300 billion yuan ($49.4 billion) into the financial system last week, but they rose again throughout the rest of the day amid a surge in banks’ year-end demand for cash. The stress in the banking system has spread elsewhere, with stocks in Shanghai falling for nine straight days through Fridaybefore eking out slim gains Monday. Unlike June’s cash crunch, this one doesn’t appear to be engineered by the authorities trying to teach banks a lesson.. Until now the central bank has been relying on a little-used tool called short-term liquidity operations, or SLOs, that are confined to a select group of 12 banks deemed crucial to the overall stability of China’s financial system. Look for the central bank to start using 14-day repurchase operations to tide banks over during the holiday period. (MA)
SPAIN: 3 a.m. EST (9 a.m., Madrid). November industrial price index came in at -0.6% on an annualized basis month and was down 0.9% on the month, according to the National Statistics Institute.
November’s sharp decline in producer prices marks a deterioration in this deflationary trend, following October’s -0.2% readout for this indicator’s year-on-year estimate. Spain has been beset by deflationary forces, a direct result of the austerity it has imposed on its economy in a bid to resolve its debt crisis–a form of “internal devaluation” to restore competitiveness in lieu of an otherwise possible external devaluation via its exchange rate. The risk is that these downward-facing producer prices will translate into all-out consumer price deflation as they wind their way through the supply chain. (MC)
ITALY: 4 a.m. EST (10 a.m, Rome)
Italy’s economy had been showing signs of recovery. However, some industrial numbers out last week raised some doubts about that growth. That may have contributed to the deterioration in consumer confidence, which dropped to its lowest level since June. Odd, though, most of the decline in the confidence index was explained by a downgrading in people’s personal assessment; their assessment of the state of the economy held up. For a country that has, like Spain, been through so much economic and political turmoil over the past two years, a sustained improvement in consumer confidence is vital for growth. (MC)
NORWAY: 4 a.m. EST (10 a.m, Oslo) October unemployment rate 3.3%. September’s unemployment 3.4%.
Norway’s state-central economic model allows it to sustain low unemployment rates. But that doesn’t mean the economy is in a strong state right now. With oil prices stabilizing or pointing lower, growth has been sluggish, leading the Norwegian central bank into aggressive monetary-easing measures and to warn of further rate cuts, which has in turn weakened the Norwegian krone against both the euro and its Scandinavian counterpart, the Swedish krona. Both that weakening krone and the gradual decline in joblessness provide an argument for a reversal in the official policy position. (MC)
Source: the Wall Street Journal
