Tariff War: Global Manufacturing Activity Contracts For First Time This Year
Global manufacturing activity contracted for the first time this year in April, dragged down by shrinking orders and employment.
The JPMorgan Global Manufacturing Index decreased to 49.8 from 50.3 a month earlier as uncertainty around US trade and tariff policies weighed on demand and business expectations. Figures below 50 indicate contraction.
The future output index fell to the lowest level since October 2022 and has slid 4.5 points since President Donald Trump was elected in November.
A gauge of factory output prices edged up to the highest since March 2023, according to the report. Input prices held steady in April but at a level considerably higher on average than in the prior two years.
Meanwhile, new orders contracted for the first time since December, and a measure of export orders fell by 2.8 points. That was the biggest drop since March 2022, consistent with the slowdown in global manufacturing activity. At 47.2, the gauge is the weakest since August 2023.
Manufacturers are responding to changing demand and supply conditions by trimming headcounts. The measure of global factory employment contracted for the ninth consecutive month, the longest such stretch since the pandemic.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
