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Russia’s industrial activity plunges
Catrinia Stewart, AP via Yahoo!News
Russia’s industrial production plunged beyond expectations in November, fresh evidence that the economy may be entering a recession that will be deeper than previously feared.
(16 December 2008)
Canada PM’s economic flip: ‘I’ve never seen such uncertainty’
Brian Laghi, Steven Chase and Bill Curry; Globe & Mail
Stephen Harper has delivered his bleakest forecast yet for the Canadian economy, warning yesterday the future is increasingly hard to read and conceding the possibility of a depression.
“The truth is, I’ve never seen such uncertainty in terms of looking forward to the future,” the Prime Minister told CTV News in Halifax.
“I’m very worried about the Canadian economy.”
(16 December 2008)
Chinese flirt with recession
John Garnaut, The Age (Australia)
CHINA’S industrial output has slumped to a new low, as leading economists say its previously irrepressible economy is probably shrinking this quarter and will contract again in the first quarter of next year.
Industrial production, one of the most closely watched economic indicators, grew just 5.4 per cent over the year to November – implying a sharp contraction since mid-year, when the annual rate was running at 17 per cent.
Electricity production was down by 9.6 per cent over the year, which analysts say is the sharpest slump in 30 years of economic reform.
(16 December 2008)
Warning of 3m jobless in UK as US slashes rates
Ashley Seager, The Guardian
Unemployment is likely to rise above 3 million in the current recession, the Bank of England’s labour market expert, David Blanchflower, warns today.
His comments come the morning after the US Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to 0.25%, their lowest ever, in a bid to lift the world’s largest economy out of deepening recession.
In the UK, official figures are likely to show that the broadest Labour Force Survey measure of joblessness approached the 2 million mark in the three months to October.
(17 December 2008)
