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• Global inflation on the rise

  Pimco, the world's largest bond investors, are worried about rising inflation . Their main concern is that many Asian and Middle Eastern countries had 'anchored' their currency to the US$. 'With that anchor gone', they comment, 'due... Posted Aug 14 2008, 08:06 PM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: Economic growth, Currencies, inflation, PIMCO

• Bank of England warns on inflation

  Andrew Sentance of the Bank of England has issued a very clear analysis of current oil and commodity price movements. It rejects the view that these have been caused by speculators. Instead it points to increasing demand, and lack of supply, as the principal... Posted Jul 17 2008, 05:38 PM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, Financial Events, Bank of England, inflation, M & A, Leverage, crude oil prices

• The 'difficult task of damage control'

  The central bankers' bank (the Bank for International Settlements) is not very impressed with its members' efforts over the past year. Readers may remember that its Report last year explicitly warned of the problems that were about to occur in... Posted Jul 08 2008, 10:20 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, central banks, Financial Events, Futures trading, inflation, Leverage, BIS, global downturn

• The blog's first birthday

  Its now a year since the blog started. Since then, 213 postings have appeared. It is now read in 72 countries and 620 cities (shown above). Most encouragingly, readership continues to steadily increase. Since January, it has risen a further 301%. The... Posted Jul 05 2008, 10:37 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: China, India, Wal-Mart, Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, Financial Events, credit crunch, food and energy costs, Futures trading, inflation, M & A, Leverage, Northern Rock, Dow Chemical, subprime mortgage crisis, Thailand, Warren Buffett, crude oil prices, Bear Stearns, global downturn, auto sales, Pension funds, feedstock pricing, Maserati, Tesco, Gisele Bundchen

• Sinopec receives $1bn subsidy in April

  Sinopec is now losing 3000 yuan ($425) on every tonne of oil product sold, due to China's price freeze, according to Sinopec spokesman Chen Ge yesterday . And this is on top of official government subsidies paid to Sinopec, which rocketed to $1bn... Posted May 27 2008, 11:36 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: China, Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, Futures trading, inflation, crude oil prices, Sinopec, oil product subsidies

• China exports inflation (2)

  I noted back in February that China is no longer exporting price deflation, and is instead causing global prices for commodities and manufactured goods to rise. A reader has now kindly sent me an interesting report from Credit Suisse, commenting on the... Posted May 06 2008, 03:32 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: China, Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, Financial Events, inflation

• Inflation worries increase in China, USA

  China announced yesterday that inflation had soared again last month, reaching 8.7%, versus the government target of 4.8%. Part of the increase is clearly due to the effects of recent major storms . But with the US Fed likely to cut rates soon, China... Posted Mar 11 2008, 07:44 AM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: China, Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, inflation, US Federal Reserve, crude oil prices, natural gas, Bloomberg

• Traders sell $, buy oil

  ‘ 'A vicious circle now seems to be in place again, where a lower dollar inspires raw material prices to rally, which in turn increases worries about inflation’. This was how strategists at BNP Paribas summed up the US Fed Chairman’s two days of testimony... Posted Mar 02 2008, 02:39 PM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: Economic growth, Oil markets, Currencies, Financial Events, inflation, oil prices, Leverage, US Federal Reserve, Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke

• Wheat prices add to CFO concerns

  Wheat prices rose 25% yesterday , the biggest one-day rise ever, as Kazakhstan imposed restrictions on wheat exports. The rationale for today’s rising prices is three-fold: • US farmers have shifted land over to corn, to meet increased ethanol demand... Posted Feb 26 2008, 12:05 PM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: wheat, Economic growth, Currencies, Financial Events, food and energy costs, Futures trading, inflation

• China exports inflation

  China has been a major source of price deflation for the past decade. It is now the world’s leading manufacturer of a whole range of products from microwaves to DVDs. And the rest of the world has benefited from the lower prices that it has provided.... Posted Feb 17 2008, 03:59 PM by Chemicals & The Economy Filed under: China, Economic growth, Currencies, inflation, American Chemistry Council

• China growth under severe threat

  I could easily be accused of ceaseless pessimism, but growth in China is moderating - regardless of what your view is of the extended article below on the impact of the bad-weather crisis. Slowing exports were already eating into estimates of GDP growth... Posted Feb 05 2008, 09:26 AM by Asian Chemical Connections Filed under: Economics, China, inflation, Polyolefins, Business, Oil & Gas, China slowdown, more blue-eared pig problems, Markets