The significant rise in American households’ mortgage rates prompted a depletion of housing inventories on the existing real estate market. This “freezing” situation on the existing home segment enabled some demand redirection towards newly built houses.
Faced with the urgency of climate change, many countries have begun their ecological transition, with the war in Ukraine only accelerating the movement. After soaring in 2022, investment in “clean” energies is set to reach a new record in 2023: around USD 1,800 billion worldwide, or 1.7 points of GDP, according to estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Although the search for new fossil fuels has not yet come to a halt, it is now mobilizing less capital (around USD 1,200 billion).
In Central Europe, capital flows (foreign direct investments, portfolio flows and bank lending flows) have resisted rather well despite geopolitical uncertainties. Similarly, they do not seem to be affected, for the time being, by the weakening of economic activity in the region.
The impact on financial expenses of rising interest rates - the result of the European Central Bank tightening its monetary policy - is very mixed, depending on the euro zone country. The impact depends on the proportion of variable-rate loans in outstanding amounts, and also on levels and changes in the amounts borrowed.
German exports of goods increased by 2.6% y/y in the first 7 months of 2023 compared with the same period in 2022, but one usual destination is missing: China (-8%).
Since its publication last May by France Stratégie, the "Pisani-Mahfouz" report on the cost of ecological transition in France has been the subject of numerous, sometimes imprecise comments. For example, the main quoted figure of EUR 66 billion does not refer to the investment required for decarbonization, but to a net additional financing requirement. Explanation.
In recent months, the African continent has been hit hard by inflationary pressures. In Eastern and Southern Africa, inflation peaked at 19.4% year-on-year in November 2022. It has since begun a slow and difficult deceleration: in July 2023, regional inflation fell to 15.5%, after peaking again at 20.6% in June. Nevertheless, this average masks major national disparities.
Italian commercial banks have drawn heavily on their reserves with the Eurosystem in order to repay the pending portion of the 28 June 2023 TLTRO III maturity.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have prompted many advanced countries to rethink and relocate their supply chains in order to secure strategic production and to create a framework that will help to promote the energy and environmental transition.
Whether it comes from the European agency Copernicus or the American NOAA, the conclusion is the same: in July 2023, average temperatures measured on the surface of the globe broke an absolute record, both on land and at sea. Scientific data confirm, if confirmation were still needed, that climate change is here, that its effects are becoming more pronounced, and that it is sparing no one.
Climate-related migration (internal displacements and cross-border flows) have increased significantly in recent years across Central America. Natural disasters and environmental changes (increasing temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, increasing intensity of storms) affect human mobility through their impact on agriculture (soil degradation, crop failure, declining agricultural yields), access to water resources, destruction of infrastructure and land losses (coastal erosion / flooding, landslides).
On average, over the past year, US money market funds (MMFs) have “deposited” almost USD 2,200bn in cash with the Federal Reserve (Fed) every day in exchange for the overnight reverse repurchase of Treasury securities held on the Fed’s balance sheet (Overnight Reverse Repo Facility, ON RRP). In recent months, these “deposits” have fallen sharply. On 17 July, they stood at «only» USD 1,730 bn.
It's summertime, so, with mass departures coming during the holiday season, a good opportunity to look at ongoing transformations in transport. In France, this sector is by far the biggest source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions: 126 million tons of CO2 equivalent or 30% of the total in 2021, i.e. three times as much as the housing sector
The labour market report published by the Spanish Employment Agency (SEPE) on July 4th surprised favourably again. The number of unemployed workers dropped by 1.8% m/m (-50,268) to its lowest level since September 2008.
On 22 June, the Mexican Central Bank maintained its main policy rate at 11.25% for the second time in a row. The Governing Board’s decision was unanimous and largely anticipated. In its press release, the Board stated that the pause should continue over the coming months: the downward trend in inflation seems to be confirmed, but the outlook remains «complex and uncertain».
The transmission of higher interbank rates to bank deposit rates is still limited in Spain.
The most comprehensive and well-documented assessment to date of the cost of France's ecological transition has just been published by the France Stratégie institute, in a widely commented report. By 2030, meeting our climate commitments - which involve a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to 1990 levels - will require almost EUR 70 billion or 2.5 points of GDP in additional annual expenditure.
Dutch GDP contracted by 0.7% q/q in Q1 2023, after +0.4% q/q in Q4 2022 (revised by 0.2 percentage points to the downside). There are several drivers to this contraction observed in Q1.
There were slight signs of recovery in real estate and construction activity following the lifting of health restrictions in December 2022 and thanks to support measures taken by the authorities. However, hopes for sustainable improvement in the property sector soon fell.
The normalisation of the Bank of England’s (BoE) monetary policy, which began in December 2021, helped increase the cost of mortgages to households: it rose from an average of 1.5% in November 2021 to 4.4% in March 2023.
Biodiversity loss, soil moisture reduction, food insecurity, migration increase: report after report, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) warns of the consequences of global warming and the need to keep it within the sustainable limit of 1.5°C to 2°C compared to the pre-industrial era.
The current inflationary momentum could encourage the BoJ to reassess its yield curve control policy, or even start a tightening in monetary policy. However, the timing and size of any such adjustments are difficult to predict and may not occur before next year.
Kenya's external solvency has been deteriorating for several months. After years of indebtedness to international markets and China, external public debt service rose significantly, accounting for 22% of export receipts in 2022. In addition, drought in the country has increased its dependence on imports, and the terms of trade have deteriorated significantly since the start of the war in Ukraine. On top of that are the dynamics of global monetary tightening.
In March 2023, the M2 measure of money supply contracted for the fifth consecutive month in the United States (-4.5% over one year).
In an interview with the press in 2021, the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, stated that "growth and CO2 emissions [were] not necessarily linked", citing the European Union (EU) as an example. Since 1990, the EU has in fact reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% while increasing its gross domestic product (GDP) by 60%. Although this is true at the level of the EU-27, it is hardly transposable on a global scale.
Weekly charts highlighting points of interest in the world economy
