GDP

China’s economy continued to improve in the second quarter, with corporate profits rising and hiring up, a private survey showed, but it suggested the Asian giant may have to brace for tougher times ahead even though firms have been able to weather a tighter financing environment.

To provide a more accurate read on China’s economy, Leland Miller and his team at China Beige Book International (CBB) interview thousands of companies and hundreds of bankers on the ground in China each quarter. They collect data and perform in-depth interviews with Chinese executives. The quarterly survey showed that while the property sector slowed, manufacturing improved further and the retail and services industries bounced back after a difficult first quarter.

Switzerland’s economy expanded at a slightly faster pace in the first quarter, data from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs showed Thursday.

Quarter-on-quarter real growth of 0.3 percent surpassed the upwardly revised 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter but lagged the 0.4 percent expansion expected on average in a Reuters poll of five economists.
In the same period GDP performance recorded a 0.5 per cent expansion in the eurozone, 0.6 per cent in Germany and 0.2 per cent in the UK.

Data released on Thursday revealed that the Swiss KOF leading indicator surged slightly over the month of March, reconfirming the strong February data and suggesting a better-than-expected growth of the country’s economy. The KOF Swiss Economic Institute reported the KOF index added 0.7 points last month and held strongly above its long-term average, jumping to 107.6 from a downwardly revised reading of 106.9 registered in the preceding month. The upmove was mainly driven by the positive trend established in the construction sector coupled with favourable signals from the financial sector and domestic private consumption.

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The Chinese economy is investing again in 2017, the latest data from the Statistics Bureau shows. The first two months of 2017 saw China’s fixed capital investment rise 8.9 % compared to the same period last year, which was also above expectations of 8.2%. Most of this came from the public sector, where investments grew 14.4%. Private-sector investment, which constitutes 60% of the total investment, increased by 6.7% from a year ago, the highest growth rate in a year.

"Today’s data appeared to be mainly driven by infrastructure spending and a rebound in the real estate sector," said Zhou Hao, a Singapore-based economist at Commerzbank.

The global economic order is expected to shift from advanced to emerging economies over the next few decades, and by 2040 India could edge past the US to become the world’s second largest economy in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, consulting firm PwC said in a new report titled “The World in 2050.”

The report, called "The long view: how will the global economic order change by 2050?," ranked 32 countries, based on their projected Gross Domestic Product by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).

The Swiss National Bank said Monday that it would add 4.6 billion Swiss francs ($4.5 billion) to its financial buffer for currency reserves in an effort to strengthen the central bank’s finances against any future bouts of economic weakness, raising the provisions to 62.8 billion francs.

"The annual allocation will continue to be determined on the basis of double the average nominal economic growth rate over the previous five years. However, a minimum annual allocation of 8 percent of the provisions will now also apply," the SNB said in a statement.

Experts at BAK Basel revised growth forecasts for the Swiss economy: according to the institute, gross domestic product will rise by 2.0% both in 2017 and in 2018. So far, the expectations were for an increase of 1.7 respectively % and 1.9%.

The inflation and long-term interest rates should go back to being positive. The experts then provide a new economic cycle, after the swiss economy was in an exceptional situation caused by the financial crisis, Martin Eichler, BAK Basel chief economist, said in the note.