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Chemicals and the Economy

The Age of Austerity

The world’s major retailers, particularly Wal-Mart and Tesco, keep a very close finger on the global economic pulse. They spotted looming recession 18 months ago – long before it became more widely apparent this year. Yesterday, Wal-Mart’s UK head went further, referring to “the dawning of the age of austerity”. He added that “this won’t […]

CFOs see lending ‘drying up’

A year ago, Tesco, the UK supermarket giant, were early to see problems ahead in consumer markets. Now, they see problems developing for corporate lending. Last week, Tesco paid €100m more than expected when borrowing €3bn. But Nick Mourtant, group Treasurer, still thought it a good deal. He said ‘the company wanted to raise as […]

‘Grey hair and good advice matter’

The credit crunch began a year ago. At that time, the blog was very much in a minority when worrying that it might turn into something big enough to impact ‘the real economy’. A year later, it is fascinating to review the crunch’s impact so far, and how people’s attitudes have changed:

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 blog’s aim is to identify ‘the influences that may shape the chemical industry […]

Wal-Mart, Tesco see slowing markets

Reports from leading retailers such as Wal-Mart and Tesco provide the best real-time insight into what is really happening in the wider economy. It is clear from both companies’ recent results that US and some other western consumer markets are slowing very quickly. This has critical implications for chemical companies. In the US, Wal-Mart see […]

US auto sales catch subprime fallout

Two of the largest US auto manufacturers, GM and Ford, have now followed Wal-Mart and Tesco’s lead in detecting a change in consumer sentiment. GM, after announcing particularly strong Q2 Asian and emerging market sales, added that US sales declined 7% as a result of ‘increasing fuel prices and concerns about housing’. Ford said that […]

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