The Covid-19 pandemic slowed worldwide for the second consecutive week, with a significant 14% decline in the number of new cases reported between 31 March and 6 April compared to the previous week. New fact to notice: this improvement benefitted all regions (chart 1): South America and Africa (-27%), Asia (-20%), Europe (-11%) and North America (-5%). Meanwhile, vaccination campaigns continue to progress. To date, 11.4 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered worldwide, bringing to 65% the share of the global population that has received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
A priori, rising inflation and inflation expectations, reflecting robust growth in demand and economic activity, should boost household spending by reducing real interest rates. Today’s situation is different. In many advanced economies, inflation is exceptionally high and to a considerable degree explained by negative supply shocks. In the EU and the euro area, household confidence recorded a big drop in March. Although unemployment expectations have increased, the main reason seems to be concern about high and rising inflation. Eurozone consumer confidence measures provide information about spending up to three quarters into the future. Given their recent decline, one should expect below-average consumer spending growth over the coming months
After a week of stabilisation, global Covid-19 case numbers have started to fall again. 11 million new cases were recorded between 24 and 30 March, a 9% drop on the previous week. In more general terms, the number of new cases has continued to fall in North and South America, whilst Asia saw its first fall in case numbers after two months of near-continuous increases. In Europe, by contrast, the situation was stable for the second week in a row.
After a week of rises, figures for the Covid-19 pandemic have stabilised worldwide, albeit at a high level. 12 million new cases were recorded around the world in the week of 17-23 March, a figure similar to that in the previous week. However, the picture is uneven around the world.
After trending downwards since the end of January, Covid-19 figures have been ticking upwards again around the globe: 11.7 million new cases were reported between 10-16 March, a 9% increase over the previous week. This increase is due to the highly contagious Omicron variant and to the easing of health restrictions in several countries. The increase in the number of new cases was especially striking in Asia and Africa, up 15% and 12%, respectively.
With the Omicron variant now becoming dominant in most countries, the number of new Covid-19 cases worldwide continues to fall. However, the pace of this decline has slowed during the week of March 3-9 (-2% compared to the previous week). By region, South America and Africa saw big falls, at 38%, followed by North America (-30%) and Europe (-7%). In contrast, case numbers in Asia rose by 15%. Meanwhile, 64% of the world’s population has now received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Purchasing power is a major concern for French households, a hot topic that is currently acute. For the first time since 1989, inflation is expected to rise above the 3% threshold for most of the year 2022. Aggregate household revenue is growing at a dynamic pace, offsetting the observed inflation impact. Purchasing power has increased by 2.3% in 2021 and a slight gain at 0.2% is even possible in 2022. Strong job creations have bolstered the total disposable income of French households. Looking at the average compensation, purchasing power has increased by 1.1% in 2021, but is expected to contract by 0.6% in 2022
According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, more than 22 million new cases were recorded around the world between 27 January and 2 February, a fall of 3% on the previous week. Nearly 61.3% of the world’s population has now received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. The last two weeks have brought an increase in visits to retail and recreation facilities in Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the USA. The UK saw a bigger increase, probably due to the removal of nearly all health protection measures, whilst the downward trend in Japan continued.
The number of new daily cases of Covid-19 has continued to rise in most parts of the world. Over the same period, several individual countries saw falls (Chart 4, black line): United Kingdom (-11%), USA (-9%), Argentina, Spain (both -5%), and Italy (-3%). Meanwhile, Japan (109%), Brazil (70%) and Germany (58%) stood out for their soaring case numbers. At the same time, vaccination doses hit the symbolic 10 billion mark.
On a weekly basis, the highest number of new cases in a single country was in the USA, followed by France and India, which stands out with a 117% surge in cases of). Visits to retail and leisure facilities remain on a downward trend in Spain and Italy, and although the most recent figures in Germany, Belgium, France, the US and the UK show an increase, the trend remains downward. In Japan, mobility now is falling fairly sharply after previously showing positive momentum for several months.
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.
In the week of 8 to 14 December, 4.31 million new Covid-19 cases were reported worldwide, a 5.1% increase compared to the previous week. The biggest weekly increase was in Africa (+111%). New cases also soared in North America, up 23%, due to the increase in contaminations following the Thanksgiving holidays (chart 4, black line). Over the same period, a decline in new cases was observed in South America (-7.4%), Asia (-5%) and Europe (-0.2%), but in Europe this comes after an exponential increase in previous weeks (chart 1). As to the spread of Covid-19 variants, several countries reported confirmed cases of Omicron recently, bringing the total to 67 countries.
Once Covid-related restrictions are lifted, the economy is projected to rebound strongly in 2022, driven initially by household consumption. Next year, the fiscal stance is likely to tighten because of the gradual withdrawal of the special support measures. A major political risk is the possible falling apart of coalition between the conservative ÖVP and the Greens.
Weekly numbers of new Covid-19 cases have continued to rise in most regions of the world. The biggest jump (81%) in weekly numbers was in Africa, particularly in southern Africa where the number of cases is soaring with the emergence of the Omicron variant. The continent was followed by North America (16%) and Europe (3%). Infection numbers in Asia fell by 6% and stabilised in South America. Meanwhile, 320 million booster doses were administered around the world, half of them in high-income countries. To date, 55.2% of the world’s population has now received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, 3.97 million new Covid-19 cases were reported worldwide between 25 November and 1 December, a 3.2% increase over the previous week. Increases were reported in Europe (+5.9%), Asia (+3.1%), South America (+3%) and Africa (+9.9%), where the sudden upturn in new cases is linked to the discovery of the new Omicron variant in South Africa. The new variant has now spread to 21 countries around the globe. North America, in contrast, reported a 6.1% decline in new cases. To date, 8.07 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered globally, including 250 million booster shots, which brings to 55% the share of the global population that has received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Some 3.82 million new cases of Covid-19 were recorded around the world in the week of 18-24 November, an 11% increase on the previous week. Europe and North America saw the biggest weekly increases, at 16% and 13.4% respectively, with Europe accounting for 61% of the world’s new cases, or 2.32 million new infections. In other regions, falls in infection numbers were reported in Asia, South America and Africa.
The curve of new Covid-19 cases is holding to an upward trajectory in most regions of the world. As to retail and leisure footfall, it is still trending downwards in Germany and Italy, at a much faster pace than in France, Spain or the UK. Belgium stands apart because its retail and leisure footfall has been relatively stable during the recent period. This is also the case for the United States, while in Japan, the trend has begun to decline again after several months of positive momentum. It is worth noting, however, that footfall is holding at high levels despite the resurgence of the pandemic in most of the main advanced countries.
The number of weekly new Covid-19 cases in Europe continued to rise for the seventh consecutive week, with 1.7 million new cases reported between 3 and 9 November. Retail and leisure footfall is on a slight downward trend in Germany and Italy, and to a lesser extent in France, Spain and the UK, a development that could be related to the health situation in Europe, especially in Germany.
Having been in decline for around two months, the number of Covid-19 cases is rising worldwide. Three million new cases were reported between 27 October and 2 November, up 3.2% relative to the previous week. This concerns all parts of the world an in particular Europe, where the number of cases is climbing fast (+11.8%) (Chart 1): 1.54 million new cases out of a global total of 3 million have been recorded in Europe (51% of the total). The biggest number of new cases has been in Russia (281,042), while the UK has reported a total of 275,078, Ukraine 153,353, Germany 134,891 and Romania 73,463.
More than 2.85 million new Covid-19 cases were reported worldwide between 14 and 20 October, a 2.3% decrease from the previous week. This has been the smallest decline since August. All regions contributed to this drop with the notable exception of Europe, which reported an increase for the fourth consecutive week of 14.7% (chart 1). Of the 2.85 million new cases worldwide, 1.16 million were reported in Europe (41% of the total). The number of new cases was highest in the UK (295,643), Russia (211,841), Ukraine (102,564), Romania (100,733) and Germany (68,259). Vaccination campaigns continue to progress around the globe (chart 2), although the pace has slowed recently. Retail and recreation footfall barely exceeds pre-pandemic levels in Belgium and Germany
The number of new Covid-19 cases around the world dropped below the symbolic level of 3 million in the week of 7 to 13 October, representing a 7% fall on the previous week. This fall was shared across all regions other than Europe, where case numbers climbed for the third week in a row. This increase has mainly been focused on Eastern Europe, the UK and, more recently, Germany. Meanwhile vaccination campaigns have continued to gain ground.
The number of daily new Covid-19 cases reported worldwide continues to decline. Meanwhile, there has been a recent drop in visits to retail and recreation facilities in France, Italy, Belgium, Japan and the UK, but continued increases in Germany, Spain and the USA. It is worth noting that in Belgium such visits are still at their pre-pandemic levels, despite recent falls.
The Covid-19 pandemic continued to ease for the fifth consecutive week, with new cases down by 10.3% between 23 and 29 September, relative to the previous week (chart 1). This represents the biggest fall in case numbers since the end of August 2021. As far as visits to retail and recreation facilities are concerned, we have recently seen weaker numbers in some euro area countries.
The global Covid-19 pandemic continued to ease for the fourth consecutive week, with new cases down by 6% between 16 and 22 September, relative to the previous week. This downward trend was observed in all regions. Meanwhile, vaccination campaigns have continued to gain ground.
Global Covid-19 case numbers have started to decline again after a rising trend lasting nearly two months. Some 4.2 million new cases were recorded between 2 and 8 September, a reduction of 6.3% on the previous week. This development was shared between all regions: Africa -25%; South America -16.2%; Asia -7.8%; Europe -2.3%; and North America -2.3%. The total number of deaths also fell over the same period. Meanwhile vaccination campaigns continue to gain ground, with 5.6 billion vaccine doses given by 8 September.
