The current business cycle is atypical and this influences the analytical approach, with a focus on the supply side and whether it will be able to meet the level of demand in the economy, rather than on the demand side. Supply side disruption has been a key issue but recent PMI data suggest that we may have seen the worst. In the euro area and the US, the percentage of companies that are confronted with rising input prices and are contemplating to increase their output prices has started to decline and delivery lags are shortening. The Federal Reserve of New York’s global supply chain pressures index seems to have peaked. However, anecdotal evidence suggests visibility remains very low
The global manufacturing PMI was stable in December and has hardly moved since the spring of 2021. However, this masks significant differences between countries. Focusing on the most recent data, the US and the euro area saw a slight decline. Data for France and Germany were essentially stable whereas Italy and the Netherlands recorded a decline. Italy continues to have the highest score of euro area countries. The Czech Republic and Poland saw a further increase. China is doing better than last month whereas India saw a rather considerable decline.
The Fed gets serious. Faced with an unprecedented increase in inflation (6.9% y/y in November, probably scarcely less in December) the Federal Reserve will tighten monetary policy more than previously expected.
The indicators currently available for the end of last year suggest that Germany recorded weak growth at best in Q4 2021: a GDP contraction cannot be ruled out. Industrial orders remained at a relatively strong level, but production continued to be held back significantly by supply problems for certain components.
The highest number of new cases in a single country was the was the United States (3,141,071, a 100% increase from the previous week). It was followed by the UK, France, Italy and Spain. Some 9.33 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide since vaccination campaigns began in the fourth quarter of 2020, including 547 million booster doses. Nearly 60% of the world’s population has now received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
