By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Economics Last updated: January 26th, 2012
A quick observation.
I could not help noticing that China’s imports from Japan fell 16.2pc in December. Imports from Taiwan fell 6.2pc.
The Shanghai Container Freight Index fell 1.4pc to a record low of 919.44 in November, after sliding relentlessly for several months. It has picked up slightly since.
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All very bullish data yes? Global growth engine and all.
The most telling was: “Chinese electricity use was flat in over the Autumn, with a sharp fall in the (year-on-year) growth rates from 8.9pc in September, to 8pc in October, and 7.7pc in December.”
Electricity use is a great proxy for GDP, as it is an input in almost everything and unlike actual GDP numbers it is much more difficult to do some ‘magical math’ with this metric. Seems to indicate a lack of expansion and possible contraction in economic activity.