When it comes to coercive sterilization, most people think of China. But India sterilizes 4.6 million women each year—37% of sterilizations that take place globally, as Bloomberg reports. Here’s how India stacks up, as captured by this Bloomberg graphic:
Euro zone industrial output picked up 0.4% in April, compared with March (pdf). Sure, that seems miniscule. But this is the euro zone we’re talking about, so we count everything. Plus, this upturn surprised even Bloomberg’s stable of economists. Here’s a look at the trend:
Even China’s most prominent cities and provinces are increasingly relying on high-risk and murky forms of borrowing. That’s according to a new report from China’s National Audit Office on the finances of 36 provincial and municipal governments (link in Chinese). The report covered the governments of cities including Shanghai, Chongqing and Tianjin, and the provincial governments of Guangdong, Jiangsu and others. Here’s a roundup of the most notable numbers:
We recently hailed the arrival of the UK recovery. The good news is it wasn’t a false positive. Here’s a roundup of the latest data:
China’s recent crackdown on luxury goods may be overlooking a wildly popular big-ticket item: brides.
China’s trade data for May make it increasingly clear that the country’s robust export performance of late has been distorted by faked invoicing.
China’s leading credit ratings agency, Dagong Global Credit Rating Co, has struggled for years to be taken seriously. Even though it’s made some prescient calls—like its 2011 downgrade of US sovereign debt—its blind spot on certain Chinese debt and penchant for colorful rhetoric has hurt its credibility.
For whatever reason, sexual themes seem to be dominating Xi Jinping’s tour of the Americas. Earlier today, a picture of Xi with his wife in Mexico—which Durex’s corporate Sina Weibo account doctored to show a condom in Xi’s pocket—was “harmonized” in China (meaning, deleted by the censors).
Chinese tech companies like Baidu, Sina and Ctrip were once the darlings of the US exchanges. That changed abruptly in 2011, when financial and accounting frauds from a slew of Chinese companies spurred a short-selling bonanza, followed by mass de-listing. Guilt by association tarnished the reputations of even the most well-regarded Chinese companies, frightening off would-be IPO candidates. Since 2012, only two companies—VIPshop and YY—have listed on New York exchanges.
In May, the weakening economy meant that China’s “Big Four” state-owned commercial banks issued fewer loans than in April—208 billion yuan ($34 billion), compared with 245.5 billion yuan the previous month. That number was also 20% down on the year.
Some euro zone unemployment data is out today, and it’s not pretty. In Q1, France’s jobless rate hit 10.8% (pdf), the highest it’s been since 1998, and significantly higher than the 10.5% in Q4 of 2012. Worse, Eurostat, which calculates things a little differently, estimates that it’s already risen to 11%. The news isn’t that shocking, given that the GDP shrunk 0.2% during that quarter (pdf), but it sure doesn’t take any pressure off president Francois Hollande, who just last week vowed to sharpen his focus on creating jobs, particularly as there are hints that April unemployment was even worse. Here’s a look at the trend in quarterly unemployment:
In May, the UK’s service sector saw its fastest pickup in new business in more than three years, based on the purchasing managers’ index. This is the fifth straight month of growth in the UK’s service sector, which makes up around three-quarters of its economy. That puts the UK’s GDP on track to hit 0.5% growth in the second quarter (pdf), says Chris Williamson, the chief economist at Markit, which compiles and analyzes the survey.
South Korea has way too many old people—and that problem, as we’ve written, is only getting worse. It needs workers to support these seniors. But at its current birthrate, it’s not churning out enough babies to do that.
This month, prime minister Shinzo Abe will begin unveiling Japan’s “national growth strategy,” the structural reforms from the “third arrow” of Abenomics. This will include a crucial one: boosting female employment. Already, Abe has called on corporations to have at least one female executive per company (paywall). The government also plans to open 250,000 daycares over the next few years.
As a competitor to Japan in high-tech exports, Korea has worried for a while that Japan’s aggressive yen-weakening would undercut it. In Markit Economics’ manufacturing survey, the purchasing managers’ index (PMI), published today, Korean exporters said “the weakness of the yen was improving the competitiveness of Japanese rival manufacturers” (pdf). And over the weekend, Hyun Oh-seok, South Korea’s finance minister and deputy prime minister, railed against Abenomics to the Financial Times (paywall). “We need some kind of co-ordinated efforts to prevent these kinds of unintended side-effects from [Japan’s new] monetary policy,” Hyun said. Here’s a look at how the yen has weakened versus the dollar, compared with how the Korean won has:
May data on manufacturing business activity for a slew of countries in Europe are out, and they’re surprisingly upbeat. At a 15-month high of 48.3, the overall euro zone purchasing managers’ index (PMI) suggests that the pace of deterioration of business conditions is slowing throughout the region.
This post has been corrected.
A recent cover from The Economist imagines prime minister Shinzo Abe as Superman. Ok, Abe in a crimson lounge singer jacket is cringe-worthy; so is the “super yen” emblazoned on his chest. But still, the image captures a big misunderstanding about Abenomics: that it’s all about the weakening of the yen.
Euro zone unemployment continues to break records. Some 95,000 euro zone workers lost their jobs in April, bringing the total to 19.4 million—an unprecedented unemployment rate of 12.2%, up from 12.1% in March. Here’s a look at the trend:
Thailand’s fishing industry is a global powerhouse. It exports around $7.3 billion worth of seafood annually, making it the planet’s third-biggest exporter after China and Norway. But the length of its coastline alone isn’t what got Thailand there. Instead, it probably has more to do with the fantastic profitability of its business model. Specifically, the labor inputs: brutally underpaid laborers, and often outright slavery.
Shuanghui’s bid for Smithfield has whipped Americans into a frenzy about food hailing from China. But perhaps more worrisome is Taiwan’s most popular export: bubble tea.
Today’s selloff in the Japanese stock market—the Nikkei 225 index fell 5.2% today—has many worried that a bigger drop lies in wait, particularly after last 7% drop.
The conceit of “Baby Formula 2013,” the latest installation by Chinese dissident and artist Ai Weiwei, should be outdated.
The biggest takeover yet of a US company by a Chinese one won’t be in telecoms, technology or oil, but something just as strategically important: pork.
