Macro Moves is a monthly Macrobond chart initiative that highlights lesser-known or newly added datasets, rather than the typical headline economic indicators. It focuses on:
Data Additions – showcasing new or recently included datasets.
Topical Themes – exploring current economic or market topics through a unique lens, using interesting or underutilized data from the platform.
The goal is to surface valuable, surprising insights - essentially a "Did you know Macrobond has this?" approach to help you discover data you might not know is available.
Tourism spendings in the U.S. are decreasing
International tourism to the United States has been slowing down in the past months. Politics and a strong dollar are the combined factors resulting in the negative spending balance close to $2 billion in March.
It is worth noting that the U.S. tourism spending balance has never been negative on an annual aggregated level. But, year-to-date, it is close to -$2.8 billion in 2025 so far, and projections anticipate a further decline during the year
U.S. tariffs are boosting TGA revenues
U.S. customs duties collections are hitting record levels and showing the impact of the tariff policy put in place by the Trump’s administration.
After a record $17.4 billions in customs duties in April, collection shit a new high of $23 billions in May.
U.S. Budget reconciliation: odds on deficit increase
As the U.S. Congress is currently working on the budget reconciliation process, PredictIt provides betting odds on its impact on the U.S. deficit.
As the chart displays, odds favored the biggest impact on deficit with an increase of $5.5T or more in deficit.
But comparing the data a month ago with today, we can see that odds are slowly shifting towards the range $2.5T - $5T.
U.S. businesses are reporting higher prices and lower benefits
We’ve just added the U.S. 9th District Business Conditions Survey, published by the Minneapolis Federal Reserve.
This chart displays the net balance of businesses in the 9th district reporting increased input prices and sales prices, which has steadily increased since January.
As a direct consequence, less and less businesses are reporting increased benefits.
Middle East turmoil has been impacting maritime trade routes
Global maritime routes have been significantly impacted by the geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East.
As this chart displays, volume traffic through the Red Sea has substantially declined since January 2024. Most of the maritime freight now transit via the Cape of Good Hope.
This chart is using the IMF daily dataset on Chokepoint Transit Calls and Trade Estimates.
Japan wholesale rice prices put pressure on inflation
In Japan, wholesale price prices have surged significantly since mid2024.
Its consequences have been felt by Japanese consumers as inflation increased from 2.25% to 4% in the last months of 2024, mainly driven by food prices.
As a response, the Japanese government released 210,000 tons of rice from its emergency reserves in February 2025. However, as the chart highlights, this emergency measure has so far failed to make a dent in prices.
South Korea: retail trade by type
We’ve expanded our coverage on retail trade in South Korea, adding the dataset displaying its breakdown per type: online versus offline retail.
Recent figures highlight a sustained decline in offline retail sales - a trend that mirrors patterns seen during the height of the COVID-19pandemic. Although there was a strong post-pandemic rebound, as consumers returned to physical stores and shopping malls, the momentum has since faded.
It may point to a more structural shift in consumer behavior, driven by the convenience of e-commerce and evolving lifestyle preferences.
Argentina: BYMA Dollar Index
We’ve recently added the BYMA Dollar Index - an implicit exchange rate, serving as a proxy for the parallel market value of the Argentine Peso.
Argentina long operated a crawling peg exchange rate regime, allowing controlled depreciation of Peso to manage inflation and provide stability. However, persistent economic issues — including high inflation, low reserves and a widening gap between official and parallel market rates — led to distortions and capital flight.
As part of recent agreement with the IMF, Argentina has dropped the peg and allowed Peso to trade within a wider band of 1000-1400 pesos per the U.S. dollar. This move realigned the official rate with market conditions and improved transparency for investors.
Qatar: year-on-year contributions to M2 growth
We now provide additional breakdowns for the Qatari M2 sub-components.
Since mid-2024, M2 growth has been driven mainly by rising domestic claims, while commercial banks have contributed negatively. This mirrors a similar pattern seen from 2018 to 2022.
Back then, increased public sector borrowing and spending - partly in response to the 2017 Gulf crisis - boosted liquidity through government channels. Meanwhile, commercial banks faced tighter liquidity and external funding constraints, limiting their role in money creation.
