United States of America

• The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for November declined by 1.7% mom, the decline was higher compared with the drop of 1.0% in the previous month. The steep m-o-m decline in the consumer prices indicates the possibility of deflationary situation in the USA.
• The initial jobless claims for the week ended December 2007 increased to 573,000 compared with 515,000 in the previous week. The factory orders for October declined by 5.1% yoy as compared with a decline of 3.1% yoy in the previous month, reflecting the ongoing slowdown in the overall industrial activity.
• To combat the ongoing turmoil in the financial markets and to address the slowdown in growth the Federal Open Market Committee has announced another rate cut of 75 basis points to 0.25%.

United Kingdom

• In the UK, industrial production declined sharply by 5.2% in October, the October drop was steeper compared with the decline of 2.9% in the previous month. The manufacturing production for October declined by 4.9% yoy as compared with a decline of 3.1% in the previous month.
• Bank of England has decided to cut the policy rate further by 100 basis points to 2.0% (in addition to the 150-basispoint rate cut announced earlier) to restrict the extent of moderation in growth.

Euro zone

• In the euro zone, industrial production declined by 5.3% in October, the fall was higher compared with the decline of 2.7% seen in September. Inflation measured in terms of the CPI declined to 2.1% in November from 3.2% in October. The fall in the CPI is perhaps the steepest in over two decades.
• The European Central Bank has cut policy rates by 75 basis points to 2.5% from 3.25% earlier.

Asia

• The growth in industrial production in China continued to decelerate with a 5.4% increase in November (the weakest in the last decade) as compared with the 8.2% growth in October and the 11.4% increase in September.
• Malaysia’s industrial production declined by 3.1% in October vs a decline of 1.7% seen during September. Besides, the exports for October declined by 2.6% (vs an increase of 15.0% in September); the imports declined by 5.3% yoy in the same month (vs an increase of 11.9% in September).
• Japan’s industrial production saw a sharp decline of 7.1% in October as compared with a growth of 0.2% in September. The slowdown in the industrial activity is evident from a 15.5% yoy decline in machine orders in October as against a decline of 4.2% in September.