Saturday, February 7, 2015

International Economic Week in Review: A General Malaise, Edition

This is over at XE.com

Two economies – Australia and Canada – have recently seen a drop in rates, caused by an overall weakness in their respective economies.  Neither are heading toward a recession, but both are clearly suffering from a certain level of malaise.  Both are also dependent on raw material exports, meaning the drop in commodity prices is seriously harming both.  Japan may be making a slight comeback – at least based on this week’s numbers – but they are hardly out of the deflationary woods yet.  The US and the UK are both showing some really strong results.  And, the EU is also showing some signs of life.  Germany is still growing and Spain is really starting to come alive.  France is slowing, but their numbers have been just barely negative.  Overall, it could be argued that we’re beginning to see positive signs from the EU QE announcement, but we certainly don’t have enough data to make a definitive call.