The industrial sector’s profits in China saw a year-on-year jump of 16.3 percent in September to reach CNY738.74 billion ($115.5 billion), official data revealed. This is higher than last month’s gain of 10.1 percent.
While the sector faced rising prices and disruptions in the supply chain, mining and raw materials industries still grew at significantly high rates, pushing the entire sector’s profits up.
Compared to January, profits in the coal mining and washing industries surged by 172.2 percent in September while profits of the fuel processing industry soared by 930 percent over the same period. On the other hand, power firms experienced a decline in profits, falling by 24.6 percent.
Consumer Confidence in Western Europe
France’s official statistics agency said that consumer confidence declined to 99 points in October, down from 101 points in September. It was below the long-term average of 100.
Households were mainly worried about the impact of increasing prices on their ability to save in the future. They also seemed to have a negative outlook for their future financial situation and standard of living.
Germany's GfK consumer climate index unexpectedly jumped to 0.9 heading into November 2021. This is the highest level since April 2020. However, rising prices could pose risks to consumer confidence if they were to persist.
The GFK Group added that Germans seem to make more purchases now in a bid to avoid surging prices in the future.
Australia’s Inflation Rate
Year-on-year inflation rate in Australia was down to 3 percent in the third quarter of 2021 from a 12.5-year high of 3.8 percent in the previous quarter, official data showed.
Transportation costs slowed to 10.4 percent in 3Q of this year compared to 10.7 percent in the previous quarter. Similarly, price inflation for tobacco and alcohol products reached 4.4 percent, falling from the previous period’s 6.7 percent rise.
Turkey’s trade deficit and economic confidence
The trade deficit in Turkey sharply narrowed to $2.55 billion in September, down from a deficit of $4.86 billion in the same month last year, Turkish Statistical Institute said.
Exports jumped by a significant 30 percent year-on-year in September to reach $20.8 billion. Exports for manufactured products rose by 29.7 percent while sales of mining and quarrying activities leaped by 38.8 percent.
Meanwhile, imports rose by a lower 11.9 percent to be valued at $23.3 billion in September. This was mainly driven by a rise in purchases of intermediate goods, which increased by a 16.5 percent annual rate.
Turkey’s economic confidence index lowered to 101.4 in October. This is a 1 percent decrease from September’s reading of 102.4, the highest since April of 2018.
Consumers and manufacturers’ sentiment got more pessimistic but service providers, retailers and constructors had a more favorable outlook.
France’s producer prices
Industrial producer prices in France increased by 1.7 percent month-on-month in September, up from August’s 1 percent rise, official data showed.
Sources of inflationary pressures included rises in mining and quarrying activities prices as well as hikes in the costs of utilities.
In addition, producer prices rose annually by 11.6 percent in September compared to the same month in 2020.
Indonesia’s FDI
Indonesia's foreign direct investment inflows fell by 2.7 percent on an annual basis to IDR 103.2 trillion ($7.3 billion) in the third quarter of 2021, official data revealed. This is a sharp decline when compared to the previous quarter’s 19.6 percent gain. Also, this was the first decrease since the second quarter of 2020.
