Asian economies bounce back amid renewed COVID-19 fears: Economic wrap

China posted an all-time high trade surplus of $84.5 billion in October, compared to a surplus of $57.3 billion a year earlier, official data revealed.

This was fueled by a surge in China’s exports in October, growing by 27.1 percent from a year ago to stand at $300.2 billion. Most noticeably, exports of rare earths experienced considerable expansion, increasing by 89 percent.

Imports jumped by a slower yearly rate of 20.6 percent in October to reach $215.7 billion. Imports of coal soared by 96.2 percent while purchases of natural gas went up by 24.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the country’s foreign exchange reserves increased slightly in October, reaching $3.22 trillion up from $3.20 trillion in the previous month.

Indonesia’s growth

Indonesia’s economy in the third quarter of 2021 recorded a quarterly expansion of 1.6 percent, falling from last quarter’s growth of 3.3 percent, Statistics Indonesia said.

Government spending growth shrank considerably from last quarter’s 28.7 percent to 9 percent. Similarly, household consumption went down by 0.2 percent compared to a growth of 1.3 percent in the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, exports jumped by 9.3 percent while imports declined by 1.2 percent.

On an annual basis, Indonesia’s economic growth eased from 7.1 percent in the second quarter to 3.5 percent in this year’s third quarter. This was mainly caused by restrictions implemented to limit the delta variant’s spread.

Canada’s unemployment

The Canadian unemployment rate decreased for the fifth consecutive month in October to reach 6.7 percent, down from 6.9 percent in September, Statistics Canada revealed.

This is the lowest level of unemployment since the start of the pandemic and was driven by a reopening of non-essential venues following implementation of vaccination requirements.

Eurozone’s construction

The euro zone’s construction Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose moderately to 51.2 in October compared to the 50 recorded in the previous month, IHS Markit revealed.

This is the first expansion in the indicator since June of this year and was partly caused by healthier demand and rising workloads. Additionally, house building was the strongest sub-sector in the Eurozone.

Also, the growth in job creation was the highest since February 2020.

Consumer confidence

Consumer confidence in Mexico went up slightly to 43.6 percent in October up from 43.4 percent in the previous month, the country’s official statistics authority said.

The improvement was partly due to a betterment in consumers’ outlook for the economy next year and an enhanced view on the country’s current economic conditions.

On the other hand, Spain’s consumer confidence edged down to 97.3 in October compared the previous month’s 98.3, data released by the Spanish public research institute CIS showed.

A fall in consumer expectations was mainly responsible for the index’s decline.