Charting the Global Economy: Payrolls and Fed Pause

(Bloomberg) -- America’s job market, and the consumer spending growth that goes along with it, is alive and kicking, while China’s economy continues to search for a foothold and South Africa’s finances remain bleak.

Following are some of the top charts that appeared on the Bloomberg terminal and Bloomberg.com this week. The scope of this weekly series, grouped by region, is a graphical depiction of an evolving world economy. Chart selection is based on financial market and national economy relevance, shifts in demographics and geopolitical events.

U.S.

Employment gains in October were stronger than forecast despite being undercut by the union walkout at General Motors Co. and the completion of temporary work within the federal government for the 2020 census. What’s more, payrolls in the prior two months were revised up sharply, validating the Federal Reserve’s signal of a pause from interest-rate cuts.

Such job growth, along with steady income gains, continue to power the biggest part of the economy -- consumer spending. Household outlays are more than offsetting the economic drags of business investment and exports.

Europe

One of Christine Lagarde’s most important tools for stimulating inflation might be falling out of favor even before she gets to wield it as European Central Bank president: negative interest rates.

The U.K.’s unemployment rate is hovering close to the lowest level since the 1970s, and wage growth is running well ahead of inflation, having broken out of years of stagnation to reach the fastest since 2008.

Asia

China’s third-quarter slowdown continued into October, with only a few signs of stabilization evident amid the weakest pace of expansion in almost thirty years.

Hong Kong’s economy slipped into a recession in the third quarter as increasingly violent protests hurt local businesses and tourism.

Emerging markets

South Africa’s finances are dire and set to worsen in coming years.

Russia’s economy should gather some momentum into 2020, but growth will remain frustratingly slow.

World

The New Economy Drivers and Disrupters Report captures the new forces narrowing the path to development and upending the pattern of winners and losers in the global economy.

--With assistance from Rene Vollgraaff, Craig Stirling, Piotr Skolimowski, Prinesha Naidoo, Ana Monteiro, Lucy Meakin, Eric Lam, Jeff Kearns, Paul Gordon, David Goodman, Enda Curran, Sophie Caronello, Scott Johnson (Economist) and Tom Orlik (Economist).

To contact the reporters on this story: Vince Golle in Washington at vgolle@bloomberg.net;Zoe Schneeweiss in London at zschneeweiss@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Kennedy at skennedy4@bloomberg.net, Vince Golle, Zoe Schneeweiss

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