ISA Economic Data Release: 3 February 2023

Highlights From the Past Week

- The economy of the Eurozone group of countries expanded by 1.9% on a year-on-year basis (0.1% quarter-on-quarter) in the fourth quarter of last year. This was a slightly better performance than had been expected,. For 2022, the Eurozone’s economy expanded by 3.5%.

- Saudi Arabia’s economy slowed in the fourth quarter of 2022, but still managed to record growth of 5.4% on a year-on-year basis during that period. Nevertheless, this was still the lowest rate of economic growth in Saudi Arabia since the first half of 2021.

- Companies based in the United States announced nearly 103,000 job cuts last month, the most job cuts in the US since September 2020. 41% of these job cuts were in the technology sector.

- Mexico’s economy expanded by 3.5% on a year-on-year basis in the fourth quarter of 2022. For the year in 2022, the Mexican economy grew by 3.0%, down from the 5.0% growth recorded in 2021.

- The South Korean government forecast that the country’s pension fund would run out of money by the year 2055, two years earlier than expected. South Korea’s report on the state of its pension fund is a warning to many other countries that their generous pension benefits will have to be scaled back unless economic growth rates rise significantly in the future.

Takeaways

- The relatively positive economic results from the fourth quarter of last year, and some better-than-expected economic indicators in recent weeks, suggest that some major economies may avoid a recession.