United Kingdom

We have added more government statistics on direct debits (automated monthly payments from Britons' bank accounts), including spending levels and failed transactions.

This chart tracks payments that failed due to insufficient funds since the onset of the pandemic. Amid government support to households, the failed direct debit rate initially fell -- especially for repayment of non-mortgage loans. But throughout 2022-23, more direct debits to pay gas and electricity bills have failed as energy prices shot higher.

The Chinese passenger car market is currently experiencing a notable shift in trends. We ‘ve recently added the volume of passenger car sales from domestic brands, sourced from the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

The data has been used to generate a series in the chart below, which calculates the percentage share of Chinese brands in their local market. Remarkably, on a 12-month cumulated basis, Chinese brands have surpassed foreign brands, representing more than half of new passenger car sales. This development has resulted in record levels in volume since 2017, marking a significant achievement for the Chinese passenger car market.

Italy

Additional surveys from the Central Bank of Italy have been incorporated, with a prime focus on inflation and growth expectations.

The chart below pertains to the quarterly survey that is aimed at measuring the "likelihood of an improvement in the general economic situation in the next three months". The results are sectioned off per percentage brackets. The survey is conducted amongst Italian industrial and service companies that have at least 50 employees.

Over the past decade, the business sector has exhibited a very negative outlook on the short-term prospects of the Italian economy, with less than 30% of the companies surveyed on average indicating a likelihood lower than 25% for an improvement in the economy in the next three months.

Japan

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport & Tourism has provided us with construction starts data for private non-dwelling buildings in Japan. This dataset is sorted by building type and industry groups.

Our analysis, as shown in the chart below, highlights the contribution of each building type to the cumulative total over a 12-month period. Unfortunately, the annual growth of non-residential construction starts has hit an all-time low, hovering around -20% year-on-year, a figure that has only been surpassed during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009.

Despite this, warehouses have been compensating for the decline of other building types during the pandemic, due to their role in inventory storage. Investments across all building types, except for stores, increased in 2022 with the re-opening of the global economy. However, the global increase in interest rates has now caused construction starts to decrease across all building types on a year-on-year basis.