Weekly analysis
Industrial production has also increased for the first time since June. The growth in September amounted to 0,1% on a monthly basis, slightly below expectations for an increase of 0,2%. Last month, there was a drop of 0.2 percent. Industrial production makes up most of the industrial production. It in turn grew in September by 0.3 percent on a monthly basis. In October there was a decrease of 0.7 per cent.The capacity used by the factories increased slightly from 75.8% to 76%.
In the third quarter industrial production decreased by 1,5% year-on-year. Without the effects of hurricanes, there would be an increase of at least 0.5 percent, pointed out by the Fed. Recent data showed that industry is expanding at a steady pace. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) published its activity index in early October and it showed that industry in September expanded at the fastest pace in 13 years.
In China, the country’s communist leaders are trying to steer the country towards slower, more sustainable growth based on consumer demand and not so much on exports and investments. On several occasions, Beijing has used lending to prevent excessive delays, leading to high debt levels and slowing economic equilibrium.
Speaking at the opening of China’s Communist Party Congress, President Si Jinpin said the future before China is bright, but the challenges, particularly economic ones, are difficult. Among the serious challenges that Xi Jinpin highlighted as sufficiently unresolved are the expanding income gap, as well as problems in employment, education, health and others.
Si Jinping promised deepening financial reform and enabling markets to play a greater role in the economy, but did not mention specific measures. The growth of the Chinese economy slowed slightly to 6.8% year-on-year in the third quarter, but meets experts’ expectations.
In Europe, the prospects for the German economy remain good in October, but the increase is not as strong as the previous month. The indicator of the development of the economy in the Federal Republic rose 0.6 points to 17.6 points, according to the regular monthly report of the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim. However, this index remains below the long-term average of 23.8 points.
The World Bank has sharply increased its forecast for the growth of Bulgaria’s economy in 2017 to 3.8% in its latest report on the economies of Europe and Central Asia, published on Thursday. For comparison, in the previous May report, the assessment was for growth of gross domestic product of 3.0%, with the upward update due to stable domestic demand. The World Bank expects growth to be slightly accelerated to 3.9%, with the trend continuing next year, when the economy expands to 4%.
Unfortunately, last week the BSE did not calculate the World Bank’s forecast in its trading sessions and the Sophiks index remained below 670 points.
