Charting the Global Economy: The Week in Review

(Bloomberg) --

American households are tempering their spending, Europe’s economy is down but not out, China continues to wrestle with unrest in Hong Kong, and the world is staring at a massive pension funding gap.

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.

The mighty American consumer is coming back down to earth after two robust quarters of household spending on merchandise. The latest reading on retail sales shows the economy may receive a smaller boost from its biggest driver.

The Trump administration’s trade war is ravaging exports to China across the U.S. and well beyond the farm belt. More than 30 states stretching from Florida to Alaska suffered double-digit drops in merchandise exports to China through September of this year.

Europe

There’ve been some signs recently that the euro-area economy may be through the worst of its downturn, and business sentiment appears to have stabilized. Third-quarter growth in most major economies in the region beat expectations.

Asia

China’s trade-war struggles has reignited the debate over which developing countries in Asia could take over the mantle of the world’s workshop. The front-runners? India and Indonesia.

As Hong Kong endures one of its most turbulent weeks since anti-government demonstrations began five months ago, the city’s companies and employees are finding it increasingly difficult to work around the chaos.

Emerging markets

South African municipalities’ inability to provide consistent power is exacerbating supply disruptions by the debt-stricken state electricity utility, hobbling efforts to revive the nation’s economy.

World

The U.S., China and other leading economies confront a massive funding gap of $15.8 trillion in 2050 to ensure lifetime financial support for their aging populations, according to a report spearheaded by former U.K. Financial Services Authority Chairman Adair Turner for the prestigious Group of 30.

--With assistance from Miao Han, Jinshan Hong, Jiyeun Lee, Alfred Liu, Carolynn Look, Rich Miller, Ana Monteiro, Elena Popina, Anita Sharpe and Yuko Takeo.

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 editor responsible for this story: Simon Kennedy at skennedy4@bloomberg.net

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