Global growth rebound hopes hit by weak factory data

In this article trade tensions were targeted as affecting factory outputs from manufacturers in Europe, Japan, and the United States. March surveys showed that this “setback” is not beneficial to the overall slowdown of the global economy. In Europe, factory activity contracted at the fastest pace in six years throughout the 19-country euro zone, Japans’ manufacturing output declined the most in three years, and in the U.S., manufacturing was at its’ smallest since June 2017 along with the 10-year Treasury note yield in New York reducing to a 14-month low. On Friday, U.S. stocks, European shares, and the euro all fell as well.

Global trade tensions are being pointed to as the root cause of these events. The article also mentioned that the “spillovers” from events in Europe, the problems in Italy and with Brexit, create an “uncertainty” that needs to be considered if countries seek to end the slow global growth. China’s economic slowdown, another external factor, is a large cause of the global economic slowdown. It most notably affects Japan for they also are hit by the trade tensions between China and the U.S., due to many of their outputs being shipped to China who then sends them as finished goods to the U.S.

At the end of 2018, the euro zone was at its’ slowest economic growth pace in four years at 0.2 percent. The European Central Bank has decided to “offer banks a new round of cheap loans,” in the hopes that this will help the economy. Other solutions could come from the trade discussions next week between China and the United States. I am curious to see if the talks can really bring an end to the trade war that is contributing to the slowdown of global growth of many nations.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-economy-global/global-growth-rebound-hopes-hit-by-weak-factory-data-idUSKCN1R32AX