Apple loses key fight round over $20 bln tax claim

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Friday’s Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.</p><p>I'm David Chaston and this is the international edition from Interest.co.nz.</p><p>And today we lead with news that Apple's tax tussle with the EU isn't going its way. And more than NZ$20 bln is at stake.</p><p>But first up, US jobless claims were <a href="https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OPA/newsreleases/ui-claims/20232401.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>reported</strong></a> lower in the seasonally adjusted data, but actually rose in the raw data, and by quite a bit. There are now 1.608 mln people on these benefits, a +2.1% increase in a week. This may be the very first actual sign of the long-awaited American labour market weakening - although to be fair these levels are only back to August levels and still far lower than most points in 2023.</p><p>The USDA <a href="https://www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde/wasde1123.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>WASDE</strong></a> update confirms earlier trends where American beef numbers are slipping and imports are rising. Prices are expected to rise well into 2024. American milk production is falling too and they raised their 2024 forecast milk price.</p><p>China slipped fully into deflation in October with <a href="http://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/zxfb/202311/t20231109_1944382.html" target="_blank"><strong>consumer prices -0.1% lower</strong></a> than in September and -0.2% lower than in October a year ago. Neither levels are in themselves important, but the trend is.</p><p>Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/zxfb/202311/t20231109_1944383.html" target="_blank"><strong>Chinese producer prices</strong></a> (PPI) remained -2.6% lower in October from a year ago, although these prices were unchanged from September. So perhaps the deflationary forces are running out of steam in China's factories. But they are not out of the woods yet. These pressures are still severe and perhaps one reason Beijing has reverted to imposing a fixed (to t