Us economy
US Congress approves $900 billion stimulus package
The deal will spare millions of jobless workers who were days away from seeing their unemployment benefits expire, and provide a new round of cash payouts.
Facing a tough battle to hold on to the White House in the 3 November election, Trump seized on the data from the Commerce Department as proof the recovery he promised from the COVID-19 pandemic is under way.
The country’s troubled response to the coronavirus pandemic emerges as a chief risk to any sustained global recovery.
The US Congress responded by passing a massive $2.2 trillion aid package that gives cash directly to Americans, while the Federal Reserve has announced trillions of dollars in new lending programs to boost liquidity.
GDP grew 3.1% in the first quarter of 2019 and the last recession was a decade ago. Unemployment is at a 50-year low of 3.6%.
The panelists put the odds at 60% for a US recession before the end of 2020, nearly double the 35% forecast in the survey three months ago.
The announcement comes as trade tensions between the economic superpowers are rising after the US hiked tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods last week, to which Beijing retaliated.
The world's largest economy was slowing toward the end of 2018, suggesting the boom had begun to fade, according to the Commerce Department report.
One major risk in the coming year is the sharp drop-off in world trade growth, which fell from over 5% at the beginning of 2018 to nearly zero at the end.
London and Paris wobbled in holiday-shortened trade on New Year's Eve - but nursed dizzying double-digit annual falls after an exceptionally volatile 2018.
At the start of 2018, optimism about a robust global economic outlook was almost unanimous among respondents.
African swine fever has spread rapidly in eastern Europe and China, the world’s largest pork producer, where new cases are appearing and the disease is traveling far distances.
Call-center employees who handle customer refinance requests are the most vulnerable as rates have started to climb, analysts said.
The US topped the rankings, being ‘closest to the competitiveness frontier’, with Singapore, Germany, Switzerland and Japan, completing the top five.
Equities in China, whose economic and trade prospects have been at the heart of worries this year over the outlook for global growth, sank to near-four year lows.
The Chinese equity stock market — as represented by Shanghai stock market — actually peaked in 2015.
Larry Kudlow told Fox Business Network that US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had sent an invitation to senior Chinese officials, but he declined to provide further details.
In the middle of international trade disputes, Trump in an interview with Reuters also accused China and Europe of manipulating their respective currencies.
Manufacturers have been feeling the squeeze as China shifts its priorities from lower-end manufacturing to high technology industries as part of a broader bid to upgrade its economy.