Monday, May 27, 2024

World economy continues to recover

 S&P Global has released the provisional ("flash") estimates of the PMI indices for May.  The PMI indices are among the earliest data points available for the state of the economy.  The survey asks whether sales, employment, orders, etc are up or down on last month, but not by how much.  S&P Global then produces country indices for manufacturing and non-manufacturing/services.

I take these time series, extreme adjust them, and add them together, each weighted by that country's weight in world GDP (using purchasing power parity, or PPP, exchange rates to value national currency real GDP). 

The Big 5 are: the USA, the UK, the Euro Zone (European countries which use the euro currency), Japan and India.   The big 8 adds China, Brazil, and Russia to this calculation.

The chart below shows the Big 5 and the Big 8 GDP-weighted PMI averages, with manufacturing and service PMIs averaged (= "whole economy").  Since we don't have "flash" PMI estimates for China, Brazil and Russia, Big 8 PMI is only available to April.

Clearly, the world economy is accelerating.  Not only is the Big 5 PMI above the 50% "recession line" indicating that the economy is advancing, but it is also rising, i.e., the economy is accelerating.

The markets' conclusion that interest rates are likely to fall more slowly is correct.  And it is also likely that inflation will fall more slowly, too.




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