Economy

Hong Kong (CNN Business) China's economy grew just 4.9% in the third quarter of 2021, the weakest rate of expansion in a year as the country contended with a major energy crunch , supply chain disruptions , and deepening debt woes in its outsized property sector. The rate of growth from a year ago in the July-to-September period was much slower than the 7.9% year-on-year increase China registered in the second quarter. It's also the weakest rate since the third quarter of 2020, when GDP also grew 4.9% year-on-year. This is a developing story and will be updated. …

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BEIJING, Oct 18 (Reuters): China's economy hit its slowest pace of growth in a year in the third quarter, hurt by power shortages, supply chain bottlenecks and major wobbles in the property market and raising pressure on policymakers to do more to prop up the faltering recovery. Data released on Monday showed gross domestic product (GDP) grew 4.9% in July-September from a earlier, the weakest clip since the third quarter of 2020 and missing forecasts. The world's second-largest economy is facing several major challenges, including the China Evergrande Group debt crisis, ongoing supply chain delays and a critical electricity crunch, which sent factory output to its weakest since early 2020, when heavy Covid-19 curbs were in place. "The domestic economic recovery is still unstable and uneven," said National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) spokesperson Fu Linghui at a briefing in Beijing on Monday. China's economy had staged an impressive rebound from last year's pandemic slump thanks …

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US employers posted a record 10.1 million job openings in June, another sign that the job market and economy are bouncing back briskly from last year’s coronavirus shutdowns. Job openings rose from 9.5 million in May, the Labor Department reported Monday. Employers hired 6.7 million workers in June. The gap between openings and hiring suggests that firms are scrambling to find workers. A record low 1.3 million people were laid off or fired in June. The US economy has rebounded with unexpected strength as the rollout of vaccines allows businesses to reopen or expand hours and encourages cooped-up Americans to get out again and visit restaurants, bars and shops. Still, the fast-spreading delta variant has cast a shadow over the outlook. Daily cases are averaging more than 100,000, up from fewer than 12,000 in late June but down around 250,000 in early January. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that the economy generated 943,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate …

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- A + A (Oct 18): The Biden administration unveiled on Friday a government-wide plan to address the systemic threat climate change poses to all sectors of the economy. The roadmap is part of the White House’s longer-term agenda to slash domestic greenhouse gas emissions nearly in half by 2030 and transition to a net-zero emissions economy by mid-century while mitigating the impact of climate change on the economy. Worsening climate-related disasters like heatwaves, drought, floods and wildfires threaten to upend the stability of the global financial system. This year, extreme weather events affected 1 in 3 Americans, according to federal disaster declarations, and interrupted supply chains across the country. In the past five years, extreme weather has cost Americans more than $600 billion in damages, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Siow Chen Ming …

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Representative image Dear Reader , Belated Dussehra wishes. The festive season is in full swing and this week saw a bunch of data that pointed to a strengthening of the economic recovery. The International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook and the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Report both projected solid economic growth for India in FY22 and FY23. Consumption also seems to be picking up, going by the increased spends in credit and debit cards. Privatisation , governance reforms such as GatiShakti, asset monetisation, and a corporate sector with cleaned-up balance sheets should all provide a fillip to growth, as we had mentioned in our Panorama newsletter earlier this week. The economy is being opened up further as evident from the government relaxing restrictions for the aviation sector . What can derail this strengthening recovery? A rise in prices when increasing demand clashes with a supply crunch. Close Although the latest …

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Even more, The China Evergrande Group debt crisis is getting worse every day. Will it affect your shares? Possibly, at least in the short term. Above all as International bond sales by Chinese developers have all but halted. Why Did Evergrande’s Share Price Collapse? When you look at the numbers, the Evergrande Group debacle was inevitable. The company borrowed too much ($300,000,000,000 – three billion dollars) and then could not afford to repay even the interest. Added to that is the way Evergrande has over-diversified from its property roots. Were Chinese Property Companies a Good Bet? Growth in China has been driven by property and infrastructure construction. Over the past six years, the construction bubble has grown and grown. Now, it’s popped. We can see deserted building sites in every Chinese city, with no activity on partially completed apartment blocks and office buildings. Then there are the completed, but empty buildings with no tenants. Chinese property was a …

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BEIJING: China's economy grew at the slowest pace in a year in the third quarter, hurt by power shortages, supply bottlenecks and sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks and raising heat on policymakers amid rising jitters over the property sector. Data released on Monday showed gross domestic product (GDP) grew 4.9% in July-September from a earlier, the weakest pace since the third quarter of 2020 and slowing from 7.9% in the second quarter. That marked a further deceleration from the 18.3% expansion in the first quarter, when the year-on-year growth rate was heavily flattered by the very low comparison seen during the COVID-induced slump of early 2020. "The domestic economic recovery is still unstable and uneven," said National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) spokesperson Fu Linghui at a briefing in Beijing on Monday. A Reuters poll of analysts had expected GDP to rise 5.2% in the third quarter. On a quarterly basis, growth eased to 0.2% in July-September from a downwardly revised 1.2% in …

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- A + A KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 17): The relaxation on standard operating procedures (SOPs), quarantine measures and interstate, as well overseas travel effective Oct 18 is set to kickstart the revival of the country's tourism sector, said Malaysian Association of Travel Agencies (MATTA) president Datuk Mohd Khalid Harun. He said the move would benefit several parties, especially the tourism sector as well as facilitate tourist travel. "With the ease in restrictions, it means that we are prepared to adhere to the SOPs. This relaxation is important in efforts to revitalise the tourism sector because the move will bring positive economic outcomes. "We need to follow in the footsteps of other developed countries where they allow their tourism sector to operate so that we are not left behind economically," he said when contacted by Bernama. Mohd Khalid also encouraged the public to go on a holiday either locally or abroad but reminded that the SOPs must be strictly …

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UNITED NATIONS(XINHUA) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Sunday (Cot 17) called for transformative, inclusive, and sustainable recovery from Covid-19 to end poverty and create a world of justice, dignity and opportunity for all. "Poverty is a moral indictment of our times. For the first time in two decades, extreme poverty is on the rise. Last year, around 120 million people fell into poverty as the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on economies and societies," he said in a message for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which falls on Oct 17. "A lopsided recovery is further deepening inequalities between the Global North and South. Solidarity is missing in action - just when we need it most," he said. Vaccine inequality is allowing variants to develop and run wild, condemning the world to millions more deaths, and prolonging an economic slowdown that could cost trillions of dollars. There is a need to end this outrage, tackle debt distress and ensure …

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StoneCo ( NASDAQ:STNE ) and MercadoLibre ( NASDAQ:MELI ) are leaders in the e-commerce and digital payments spaces in Latin America. Their stocks have not performed particularly well this year, though -- but that doesn't mean they won't be long-term winners. In this Motley Fool Live segment from "The 5" recorded Oct. 8 , Fool.com contributors Jason Hall, Jeremy Bowman, and Nicholas Rossolillo discuss why the future still looks bright for both tech firms. Jeremy Bowman: Let's talk about what your favorite international stock -- your favorite non-U.S. stock -- is right now. Nick, let's go to you. Nicholas Rossolillo: I don't have to defer for that long. [laughs] You asked about StoneCo. Man, what a disaster. Let's preface my pitch here with a chart that you never want to see. StoneCo, since they went public in late 2018, a pretty good run through the first month or two of 2021, and then, the last year-to-date has just been a disaster. You don't want to see …

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