“The global auto industry is poised for its first sustained production drop since the financial crisis, according to RBC Capital Markets.
“Worldwide light-vehicle output fell 2.9 percent in the third quarter and probably will decline about 4 percent in the fourth quarter, analyst Joe Spak wrote in a report Wednesday. This will be the first back-to-back industrywide drop since 2009, he said.”
“The Swedish economic boom has peaked and the country is heading for a GDP slowdown, the government’s forecast authority said in a report released on Wednesday…
“The current political uncertainty – Sweden remains without a government over three months after the general election – is not expected to affect the GDP yet, according to KI, but means the future state of government finances remains unclear.”
https://www.thelocal.se/20181219/sweden-heading-for-an-economic-slowdown-report
“A no-deal Brexit — where the UK crashes out of the European Union without a transition plan in place — could cause food and medicine shortages for its closest neighbor, Ireland. On Wednesday, Dublin published a contingency plan for such a scenario, which has become more likely in recent weeks after British Prime Minister Theresa May had to first withdraw her Brexit deal and then face off two motions of no confidence in her, first from her own party and then from opposition MPs.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/19/uk/ireland-brexit-no-deal-intl-gbr/index.html
“The Bank of England is set to hold interest rates unchanged on Thursday as the economic outlook remains highly uncertain…
“…with the Theresa May government being accused of dilly-dallying on reaching a deal over Britain’s exit from the EU.”
“…the concerns raised by the EU Commission and financial markets about the Italian economy are likely to resurface.”
https://www.ft.com/content/204a1b96-039b-11e9-99df-6183d3002ee1
“According to a survey conducted by Nielsen in the third quarter of 2018, 72 percent of Greeks still believe that the country’s economy is in recession, despite the official figures showing that the economy has been continuously growing since late 2016.”
“Cai Zhonghui has worked in China’s construction industry all his adult life, graduating from a laborer to owning a company with 100 workers building factories and roads around eastern China.
“Cai says the industry is now facing the toughest challenges he has seen, squeezed by high materials costs, tougher regulations and tighter access to credit, making him cautious about taking on new projects.”
“Sydney’s plunging house prices are replacing a prolonged wage slump as the key worry for the Reserve Bank, with markets now showing more chance of an interest-rate cut than a hike in 2019.
“House prices in Australia’s biggest city have tumbled 10 per cent and some economists are tipping a similar fall next year.”
“It’s getting awfully difficult for investors to ignore Corporate America’s mountain of debt.
“Fears of an economic slowdown — or even recession — have turned a spotlight on the debt that businesses piled up during the past decade, when borrowing costs were historically low. For the first time since the Great Recession, investors want companies to prioritize paying down debt rather than investing in the future or share buybacks and dividends.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/19/investing/corporate-debt-recession/index.html
“Oil prices are likely to fall even further over the coming weeks, analysts told CNBC, as a sharp sell-off in global equities combines with intensifying fears about a market that could soon to be awash with crude. The latest wave of energy market selling comes amid reports of swelling inventories and forecasts of record U.S. and Russian output. Heightened worries of a possible economic slowdown in 2019 have also added downward pressure to the value of a barrel of oil.”
Nations like Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Angola, Venezuela and even Saudi that rely heavily on oil for income are really going to struggle with these lower prices:
“Nigeria is facing a serious financial crisis, according to the Director-General of the Budget Office, Ben Akabueze. Akabueze said this in Abuja on Tuesday while speaking to the Chief Executive Officers of Government-Owned Enterprises.”
“Global stock prices plunged Thursday, following Wall Street down after the Federal Reserve raised U.S. interest rates…
“The Fed raised its key interest rate for a fourth time this year to reflect U.S. economic strength and said it plans more increases next year. That lifted the Fed’s benchmark rate to its highest level since the 2008 global financial crisis.”
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/asian-stocks-plunge-wall-street-fall-rate-hike-59924132
As it says – a synchronised global slowdown looms:
https://www.ft.com/content/46c37246-02b4-11e9-bf0f-53b8511afd73
“The warning signs are multiplying and becoming clearer: global trade growth is slowing, which will pose an increasing threat to the world economy and financial markets next year. Cross-border commerce is in its poorest health since the Great Financial Crisis 10 years ago, or even in decades, depending on which measure you look at, and the incoming data point to further deterioration next year.”
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