CEIC Blog

As the end of 2017 looms, Research Analyst Georgi Ninov has taken a look at the performance of Southern Eurozone country's bond performance, and which countries are fairing stronger than others at the end of the calendar year.

Asia is expected to be the fastest growing region in 2017. We decided to take a look at the economic activity of the largest economies in the region, as three countries in top 5 has registered higher than expected growth so far this year.

The Indian Commerce and Industry Ministry released a review of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) for the period 2015-20 on December 5. The most discussed point of the presentation was the enhancement of the scope of the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) and the Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS). The government announced that incentives worth 8,450 crore INR (1,3bn USD) would be applied to facilitate exports in labor-intensive sectors such as leather and footwear, hand-made carpets, agriculture and marine products.

China's manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMI increased by 0.2 ppt and 0.5 ppt to 51.8% and 54.8%, respectively in Nov 2017, as both indices remained in expansionary territory (>50%).

Manufacturing PMI edged up due to recovery from demand and supply. New orders (53.6%) and production (54.3%) climbed 0.7 ppt and 0.9 ppt, respectively from October levels. Raw material purchasing cost index declined further to 59.8%.

The Turkish lira dropped to a record low levels during the second half of November. A US dollar could be bought for 3.96 TRY on November 23, while the euro was valued at 4.69 on November 28. The discrepancy has been rising rapidly since the middle of September after political tensions between Turkey and the United States.

South Africa has registered its best Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) performance in five months. The seasonally adjusted PMI rose with 2,9 percentage points, from 44,9 in September to 47,8 in October 2017. This development was helped mostly by an increase of the new sales orders (6,7 % points), while inventories and employment remained weak. Nevertheless, PMI remained below the 50-mark threshold that separates economic expansion from contraction.

Romania recorded its highest annual real GDP growth since the global recession of 2007-08, reaching 8.6% in Q3 2017. Even though the country has been consistently among the overachievers in the EU in terms of economic growth in the past years, this development has surprised experts which were projecting figures close to the Q2 performance (5.9%).

The European Union's unemployment rate in September was 7.5%, the lowest figure recorded in the EU28 since November 2008. According to Eurostat, the EU28 unemployment rate was stable compared to the previous month and down from 8.4% in September 2016. Some of the largest economies in the EU, however, still experience high levels of unemployment.

China’s Single’s Day once more broke records this year with astounding figures to highlight the biggest retail day of the year in Asia.