Biden's America the only major global growth engine

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Tuesday’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>Today we lead with news that of the world's most significant economic blocks, only the US is still expanding strongly. Japan, China and the EU all seem to be falling away now.</p><p>Firstly in the US, the <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/chicago-pmi" target="_blank"><strong>Chicago PMI</strong></a>, a widely-watched factory index in the US manufacturing heartland, surprised with a strong rise of an already strongly expanding result. A small fall was expected.</p><p>However the <a href="https://www.dallasfed.org/research/surveys/tmos/2022/2201.aspx" target="_blank"><strong>Dallas Fed factory survey</strong></a> did slip as expected. But new order levels held steady at a fast pace, and costs are still rising quickly.</p><p>Canadian <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220131/dq220131a-eng.htm?HPA=1" target="_blank"><strong>producer prices</strong></a> were still rising at a very fast clip in December (+16% year-on-year) even if this is marginally lower than for November.</p><p>Both Japanese <a href="https://www.meti.go.jp/statistics/tyo/syoudou/result/pdf/202112S.pdf" target="_blank"><strong>retail sales</strong></a> and Japanese <a href="https://www.meti.go.jp/english/statistics/tyo/iip/index.html" target="_blank"><strong>industrial production data</strong></a> for December disappointed. Retail sales rose - just - from December but industrial production fell on that basis. Perhaps the recent 'green shoots' were premature.</p><p>In China, their <a href="https://www.markiteconomics.com/Public/Home/PressRelease/1f73eaf4a96d42f990ab6e69417e568a" target="_blank"><strong>private sector factory PMI contracted</strong></a> in January, a reading that was worse than the official factory PMI. Beijing might be focused on their Winter Olympic celebrations, and most peop