Category Archives: China

19/4/21: COVID19: BRIICS

BRIICS are now in a fully-developed Wave 4 of the pandemic, like much of the rest of the world. This is confirmed across both new case numbers and weekly deaths counts:



I highlighted in the table below two BRIICS countries with seriously questionable data quality: China and India. China has been routinely reporting numbers that simply are out of line with anything reported by other countries around the world. India's death statistics appear to be similarly out line with experience in most countries. In the past, Russia received a lot of criticism for its reporting of Covid19 deaths, but their numbers do not appear to be out of line with other countries reported statistics.

These are six largest emerging and middle income economies in the world, and their pandemic dynamics, in the end, hold the key to the global efforts on combating the spread of the disease. Not surprisingly, these countries account for three of the four main variants of the disease to-date. If anyone thinks that Europe and North America can effectively insulate themselves from what is happening in these countries, by any means other than attaining a sufficient and robust immunity through vaccinations, they really need to reflect hard on their rational thought capacity.


19/4/21: COVID19: Most impacted countries

 

Updated tables for world's most impacted countries and regions below. Starting with the countries with the highest recognized levels of infections:


Followed by the countries with the highest rates of mortality:
  • Andorra, Montenegro and Czechia are top three countries in the world in terms of infections rates
  • Gibraltar, Czechia and San Marino are top three countries in the world in terms of mortality rates
  • Of larger countries, with population > 100 million, the U.S. is the only country featured on both lists, while Mexico is on the list of countries with highest mortality.
A set of table for countries with more than 250,000 recorded cases:


  • There are 57 countries on the list as of Thursday last week. 
  • Across three metrics used (infections rate, deaths per capita and mortality rate per case), Hungary is rated the worst, followed by Belgium and Bulgaria. Czechia and Slovakia share the 4th and 5th places.
  • The U.S. is ranked 3rd highest in the number of infections, in the 8th place in terms of highest deaths per 1 million of population and in the 32nd place in terms of deaths per 1,000 infections. Overall, the U.S. is ranked 8th worst country in terms of pandemic performance across the three metrics.
Table next shows comparatives by the same metrics across regions, treating regions as if they were countries (ranks):

Finally, looking at the major countries and groupings in terms of their cases and deaths counts within the context of their shares of global population:

Notably, majority of the most impacted countries are, currently, in the process of developing, or already experiencing, a new wave of the pandemic.

8/4/21: BRIC Composite PMIs 1Q 2021: A Mixed Bag for Recovery Votes

 

I covered BRIC Manufacturing PMIs for 1Q 2021 (https://trueeconomics.blogspot.com/2021/04/5421-brics-manufacturing-pmis-1q-2021.html) and BRIC Services PMIs (https://trueeconomics.blogspot.com/2021/04/8421-bric-services-pmi-1q-2021-slowing.html) in the two posts earlier.  Now, the round up analysis based on Composite PMIs:

  • Brazil Composite PMI fell from 54.4 in 4Q 2020 to 52.1 in 1Q 2021, marking a slowdown in growth conditions in the economy. Quarterly activity in 1Q 2021 is still ahead of where it was in 3Q 2020 (51.6) and marks third consecutive quarter of growth. But, for the first time during this recovery period, Brazil Composite PMI is now below Global Composite PMI (53.43 in 1Q 2021).
  • Russia Composite PMI increased from recessionary 47.7 in 4Q 2020 to still negative-growth (albeit statistically, indistinguishable from zero growth) 49.5 in 1Q 2021. Russian economy has now posted four quarters of contracting economic growth PMIs out of five quarters of the pandemic. Needless to say, Russian Composite PMIs are remaining well below Global Composite PMI as the did in 4Q 2020 as well.
  • India Composite PMI slipped from 56.4 in 4Q 2020 to 55.7 in 1Q 2021 signaling slower, but still robust growth in the economy. India outperformed Global Composite PMIs in 4Q 2020 and 1Q 2021, the only two quarters of > 50 readings in India's case.
  • China Composite PMI fell from 56.3 in 4Q 2020 to still robust 55.2 in 1Q 2021. Thus, China, like India, managed to outperform Global Composite PMIs in both of the last two quarters. Unlike India, China also beat Global Composite PMIs in 1Q and 2Q 2020 as well. Since Chinese economy was the only BRIC economy to regain its 2019 levels of activity back in 3Q 2020, the last two quarters of PMIs suggest strong rebound in the world's largest economy (or second largest one, depending on how one counts economic output).


8/4/21: BRIC Services PMI 1Q 2021: Slowing Growth Momentum

 Earlier this week, I posted on the latest PMI reports for BRIC economies for Manufacturing sector (https://trueeconomics.blogspot.com/2021/04/5421-brics-manufacturing-pmis-1q-2021.html).  Now, let's cover Services Sector 1Q 2021 PMIs. Remember, Markit - source of data - cover only monthly PMIs.

As reminder, Manufacturing PMIs fell in all BRIC economies except for Russia in 1Q 2021 compared to 4Q 2020. As the result, overall, BRIC Manufacturing Activity Index (GDP-weighted average of PMIs) fell from 54.8 to 52.8 between 4Q 2020 and 1Q 2021.

In services sector:

  • Brazil Services PMI slipped into a recessionary territory in 1Q 2021, falling from 4Q 2020 reading of 51.4 to 46.1 in 1Q 20201. This marks the lowest reading since 2Q 2020.
  • Russia Services PMI rebounded robustly from 4Q 2020 reading of 47.7 to 1Q 2021 reading of 53.6. Russian Services PMIs have been very volatile during the pandemic period, hitting the low of 32.0 in 2Q 2020 and the high of 56.8 in 3Q 2020.
  • India Services PMI improved from growth-signaling 53.4 in 4Q 2020 to even faster growth-consistent 54.2 in 1Q 2021. India and Russia were the two BRIC economies posting improvements in services sector in 1Q 2021.
  • China Services PMI fell from 'very high growth' signaling reading of 57.0 in 4Q 2020 to moderate growth-signaling 52.6 in 1Q 2021.
  • Overall, BRIC Services Sector Activity Index - a measure I calculate based on Markit PMI data inputs - fell from 54.8 in. 4Q 2020 to 52.6 in 1Q 2021, virtually matching the decline in Manufacturing Sector Activity Index over the same period of time. 
  • BRIC Services Activity Index also underperformed Global Services PMI which average 53.3 in 1Q 2021. In 4Q 2020, BRIC Services Activity Index was ahead of Global Services PMI (54.8 to 52.3).


5/4/21: BRIC’s Manufacturing PMIs: 1Q 2021

 

Given a lot of noise about economic re-opening and abatement of the late 2020 wave of the pandemic, we expected BRIC countries PMIs to improve significantly in 1Q 2021 compared to 4Q 2020. Alas, the opposite took place:


  • Brazil Manufacturing PMI fell from 64.1 in 4Q 2020 to 55.9 in 1Q 2021. All three months of 1Q 2021 came in sub-60 (all three months of 4Q 2020 were above 60) and March 2021 was the lowest monthly reading since June 2020.
  • Russia Manufacturing PMI slipped from 51.5 in February to 51.1 in March. On quarterly basis, Russia Manufacturing PMI actually managed to rise from a recessionary reading of 47.6 in 4Q 2020 to a weak recovery reading of 51.2 in 1Q 2021. This is the highest reading since 1Q 2019 and the first above-50 reading since the end of 2Q 2019. Russia was the only BRIC economy posting increasing PMI in Manufacturing sector in 1Q 2021, and at that, the improvement went to anaemic growth from pretty steep contraction.
  • China Manufacturing PMI disappointed, falling from 53.8 in 4Q 2020 to 51.0 in 1Q 2021. Given structural importance of Chinese manufacturing globally, this implies a further build up in orders backlogs in the global supply chains, signaling more inflationary pressures down the line. On a monthly basis, March 2021 posted fourth consecutive decline in monthly PMIs, with March reading of just 50.6 - statistically, basically indistinguishable from zero growth conditions in the sector.
  • India Manufacturing PMI fell from 57.7 and 57.5 in January and February 2021 to 55.4 in March 2021, marking the slowest monthly rate of growth since August 2020. On a quarterly basis, India Manufacturing PMI fell from a hard-to-believe rate of expansion of 57.2 in 4Q 2020 to still robust growth of 56.9 in 1Q 2021.
Brazil and India were the two BRIC economies that managed to outperform global manufacturing sector growth in 1Q 2021 which came in at 54.1, up on 53.5 in 4Q 2020.

Global GDP-weighted BRIC group Index of Manufacturing Activity that I calculate based on Markit data fell from from 54.8 in 4Q 2020 to 52.8 in 1Q 2021, reaching the lowest reading since 2Q 2020 when it was at 45.0. Whilst BRIC group Index of Manufacturing Activity outperformed Global Manufacturing PMI in every quarter between 1Q 2019 and 4Q 2020, it fell below the global measure in 1Q 2021.