Economy

Our coverage of global economics, from inflation-fighting central banks to apprehensive financial markets

Data

American consumers are finally cheering up

Much to the relief of Joe Biden

The world’s richest countries in 2023

Our ranking compares economies in three different ways


These are the world’s most expensive cities

EIU’s cost-of-living index shows where prices are highest


Which city is the cheapest in the world?

The cost of living there is a little over a tenth of what it is in New York


What Donald Trump can learn from the Big Mac index

Should the presidential candidate go on another crusade against the yuan?


The US economy

Trumponomics would not be as bad as most expect

Opposition would come from all angles

America’s banks are more exposed to a downturn than they appear

To understand why, consider the ouroboros theory of financial risk


American stocks are consuming global markets

That does not necessarily spell trouble


McDonald’s v Burger King: what a price war means for inflation

American consumers will be licking their lips. So will Federal Reserve officials

What to make of Joe Biden’s plans for a second term

His domestic agenda is underwhelming, unrealistic and better than the alternative

Will services make the world rich?

American fried chicken can now be served from the Philippines

America’s rich never sell their assets. How should they be taxed?



China’s economy

China unveils its new economic vision

It promises many reforms, but remains ambivalent about the role of the market

Why is Xi Jinping building secret commodity stockpiles?

Vast new holdings of grain, natural gas and oil suggest trouble ahead


Xi Jinping really is unshakeably committed to the private sector

He balances that with being unshakeably committed to state-owned enterprises, too


Why Chinese banks are now vanishing

The state is struggling to deal with troubled institutions



Russia’s economy

How Vladimir Putin created a housing bubble

Prices have risen by 172% in Russia’s biggest cities over the past three years


Russia’s gas business will never recover from the war in Ukraine

Hopes of a Chinese rescue look increasingly vain


Frozen Russian assets will soon pay for Ukraine’s war

And America now hopes to convince others to make better use of the stash


How a Russia-linked mine may keep the ANC in power

South Africa’s ruling party was broke a few months ago, but its fortunes are changing


Asia’s economies

Japan’s mind-bending bento-box economics

The paradox of red-hot labour markets, falling demand and rising prices

Narendra Modi needs to win over low-income Indians

They are dissatisfied with their share of the country’s growth



Indian state capitalism looks to be in trouble

A weakened Narendra Modi is bad news for investors in government-controlled firms



Europe’s economies

Is Britain’s economy finally moving?

Sticky inflation and a weakening job market could still spoil the mood

Ukraine has a month to avoid default

Lending to a borrower at war entails an additional gamble: that it will win


Is the revival of Paris in peril?

The French election threatens a remarkable commercial renaissance


Keir Starmer should be Britain’s next prime minister

Why Labour must form the next government

European millionaires seek a safe harbour from populism

Many are fleeing to the Gulf—never mind war next door

How bad could things get in France?

The country’s next prime minister faces a brutal fiscal crunch