The world economy is recovering, but it is far from fully healed, next week’s numbers will show.
In the US, Monday’s ISM survey should say that manufacturing output and orders are both growing nicely. However, Friday’s labour market numbers will show that while employment rose in October, the jobless rate is still more than twice its pre-pandemic level, at over 7 per cent.
In Germany, official numbers should show that industrial production rose slightly in September, but it is still more than 10 per cent below its pre-pandemic level – which itself was lower than in 2017. And final purchasing managers’ surveys for the eurozone as a whole should confirm that the services sector is contracting again.