As the war in Ukraine and pandemic disruptions continue to wreak havoc on supply chains, stagflation is here to stay – marked by low growth and high inflation for at least the next 12 months.
The pandemic as well as the war in Ukraine have stifled supply of commodities and goods and upended efficient distribution through global supply chains, forcing up prices of everyday goods such as fuel and food.
A global recession is not imminent, but brace for rising costs and slower growth, economists say.
Commodity prices will start to ease from next quarter but will remain permanently higher than before the war in Ukraine for the simple reason that Russian supplies of many commodities will be permanently reduced.
But, while higher prices will cause pain for households, growth in many parts of the world, while slow, is still ticking over and job markets have not collapsed.
In the US, consumer spending held up well despite decades-high inflation and showed more evidence that they’re dipping into their savings to support purchases. China’s economy remained deep in a slump in May as lockdowns continued to weigh on activity.
Central banks across the globe are tightening up interest rates to combat inflation.
The double crises of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s new pandemic lockdowns are jolting the world recovery by exacerbating inflation and hurting growth.
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has amended the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Regulation, EU 64/2012, to add 27 pesticides and eight industrial chemicals into Annex I, bringing the total to 295. As a result, EU exporters are now required to notify their intentions to export them from 1 November onwards.
The global custom synthesis and manufacturing market was valued at US$271.33 billion in 2022. The market value is expected to reach US$474.94 billion by 2028.
The ocean freight industry is undergoing a massive transformation, as the technology and supply chain management tools are being improved by the day, impacting ocean freight rates.
In the second half of 2022, China unveiled the details of its data export regulations, providing further explanations to its existing laws and regulations on data.
The current energy crisis has reached an unsustainable level for the European chemical industry. For the first time ever, the EU imports more chemicals than it exports, both in volume and value, resulting in a trade deficit of € 5.6 bn for the first half of 2022.
Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (also referred to as hormone disruptors or EDCs) are synthetic chemicals that are not produced by the human body and that disrupt the normal functioning of humans and animals.
The shipping industry is now returning to normality and is in a downward spiral. The cost of shipping goods from China has slumped to the lowest level in more than two years as the world economy stumbles, dimming prospects for container carriers that turned in record profits during the pandemic.
No precipitous plunge in container shipping rates, just ‘orderly’ decline.
The global food and beverage market size is expected to grow from $5.8 trillion in 2021 to $6.4 trillion in 2022 at a growth rate of 9.7%. The food and beverage market size is expected to grow to $8.9 trillion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate of 8.7%.