(4 March 2022) The US, the EU, the UK and other allied countries have imposed sanctions against the Central Bank of Russia to limit Moscow's ability to use its foreign exchange reserves to support the Russian financial system after the largest Russian banks were cut off from the global financial messaging system SWIFT. Due to high world oil and gas prices, Russia's foreign exchange reserves had increased to a...

Samba TV provides viewing data that can help advertising companies understand the fluctuations of ad impressions across countries, markets, and ad categories, as well as viewership volumes at different times of day for each quarter, equipping them to find the best market, TV network, and time for their ads. Viewership data from Samba TV can also be used by advertising companies and TV networks for competitor...

(18 January 2022) In the third quarter of 2021, house prices in the eurozone rose at the fastest rate since Eurostat started recording this data in 2005. Low interest rates, supply constraints, and the boost in demand for new houses to accommodate work from home policies pushed the house price growth to the highest level since 2005, 8.4% year-over-year, in Q3 2021.House prices rose above 16% year-over-year in Q3...

(14 January 2022) Labor market conditions in the eurozone (EA19) — the E.U. member countries that use a shared single currency, the euro — improved in November, as unemployment fell to a record low since the COVID-19 pandemic started in March 2020. (December 2021 unemployment data will be released in February.) The eurozone registered a decline of 222,000 in the number of unemployed people in November compared to...

(12 January 2022) To meet its goal of net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Europe increasingly relies on wind energy. According to data from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), in 2020 and 2021 wind energy generation accounted for an average of 16.3% of Europe's total electricity generation. Though wind energy helps to reduce GHG emissions, the supply of wind energy...

(27 December / updated 13 January 2022) As Omicron spreads around the world, many countries are facing a new wave of COVID cases. At the end of December 2021, the number of new COVID cases globally was over a million per day — surpassing the rate the world had seen in past waves — and it has more than doubled since then. However, there's a key difference from the past waves: the number of daily deaths globally...

(24 December 2021) While many countries have started to phase out nuclear power generation under the pressure of safety concerns raised by the 2011 Fukushima accident, many Asian and Middle East countries have ambitious plans to substantially increase their nuclear power generation capacity. According to the latest data from the World Nuclear Association, the total capacity of proposed and planned nuclear reactors...

(21 December 2021) Achievement of the long-term global temperature goal — to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, ideally to 1.5 degrees, above pre-industrial levels — requires not only a transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, but also more efficient use of energy. In this dashboard we’ve put together data from different sources to estimate whether high energy prices can serve as an...

(20 December 2021) Europe, which aims to be the first climate-neutral continent by moving to a clean, circular economy, has increased its use of coal — the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel — to meet the growing demand for electricity. According to Eurostat monthly energy statistics, for January through September 2021 electricity generation by coal power plants saw a greater increase compared to the same period...

(17 December 2021) With the global energy transition gaining momentum, we've employed Knoema's public data repository to rank leading economies by their energy transition progress. Knoema’s Global Energy Transition Ranking is based on four indicators: all-electric car stock, using a dataset from the International Energy Agency; wind and solar electricity capacity data, from the International Renewable Energy Agency;...

(16 December 2021; updated 29 December 2021) According to aggregated storage inventory data, natural gas storage in Germany — the largest EU economy and the fifth largest economy in the world — averaged only 58% full in the first three weeks of December 2021. That is 23 percentage points below the ten-year December average for 2011 to 2020. On December 27, Germany's gas storage facilities were only 53% full. The...

(12 December 2021) In November, U.S. consumer price inflation, a measure of the cost of a wide-ranging basket of consumer goods and services, hit its highest year-over-year growth in four decades. Inflation continues to put pressure on households and businesses. The consumer price index was up 6.8% year-over-year in November, largely driven by food, energy and housing prices. Core inflation, which excludes volatile...

(02 December 2021) As governments and businesses aim to reduce carbon footprint to meet climate targets, measuring carbon emissions at global, country, and corporate levels has become extremely important. A key tool designed to reduce carbon footprint is carbon pricing/taxation, in which a government sets a price (or a carbon tax) that emitters must pay for each ton of greenhouse gas emissions they emit. Existing...

(30 November 2021) Omicron — the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 first reported to the WHO by South Africa on November 24 — is spreading around the globe. According to GISAID data, as of November 30th Omicron had been detected in 17 countries, including South Africa, Botswana, Israel, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Brazil and ten European countries. Little is known about the new COVID-19 variant's contagiousness yet, but...

(23 November 2021) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a basic measure of the overall size of a country's economy and is often used to compare different countries' economic power. But what exactly is compared when someone says that the GDP of country A is larger than the GDP of country B? The System of National Accounts (SNA) of the United Nations defines GDP as a monetary value of final goods and services — that is,...

(19 November 2021) Consumer price inflation, a gauge of the cost of living, accelerated in the United Kingdom in October, largely driven by higher energy prices and mounting supply-chain disruptions, reaching the highest level since December 2011. The U.K. consumer price index rose 4.2% YoY in October following a 3.1% increase in September. The October rise was more than double the target of 2% set by Bank of...

(15 November 2021) Amid the global semiconductor shortage, car manufacturers around the world have reduced production or even completely stopped car assembly lines. IHS Markit estimates that in January though September 2021, over 7 million light vehicle units were not produced due to the semiconductor shortage. In this dashboard, Knoema's team has put together monthly statistics on passenger car production in the...

(12 November 2021) The U.S. labor market has made significant progress since the removal of pandemic-related restrictions. According to the latest labor market report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in October 2021 unemployment decreased to 4.6% and the number of people employed was only 3% below the pre-pandemic figure. However, not all jobs have been bouncing back equally. BLS employment data...

(10 November 2021) A mismatch between natural gas demand and supply in Europe has pushed natural gas spot prices to record highs. In this dashboard we put together data on four key short-term indicators that will shape natural gas prices in Europe this winter: air temperature; wind speed in the North Sea; volume of natural gas in storage; and industrial production. Air temperature determines how much energy is...

The latest data on inflation from the World Bank shows that global inflation continues to accelerate. In May 2022, the world consumer price index (CPI) growth accelerated to 8.1% year-over-year. The last time year-over-year global inflation approached 8% was in 2008, when the world economy was stepping in the Great Recession. Knoema's global inflation heat map, based on the World Bank data, reveals the spread of...

(05 November 2021) Between Q2 2020 and Q1 2021, when the U.S. economy was struggling because of pandemic-related restrictions and high unemployment, an increase in government spending and tax cuts provided significant support to U.S. economic growth. However, after the fiscal stimulus programs ended in Q1 2021, the contribution of fiscal policy to U.S. GDP growth turned negative, according to the Hutchins Center...

(04 November 2021) As a part its 2021 International Debt Statistics Report, the World Bank has published data on the external debt of emerging and developing countries, broken down by creditors. This data not only reveals countries — the largest single creditors — but can also be used to estimate the financial power of particular creditors within a specific debtor economy. Detailed external debt data from the World...

(02 November 2021) The COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused the deepest recession in the global economy since the end of the WWII, is far from over. In this dashboard, based on latest COVID data, we visualize key statistical facts and correlations on the pandemic to date. Global COVID-19 waves since the start of 2021 have had consistent periodicity — four months between peaks. Assuming the four-month pattern...

(01 November 2021) According to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), in Q3 2021 U.S. GDP growth decelerated, dropping to only 2% over the previous quarter at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR). Detailed National Income and Product Accounts data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics helps to explain why real GDP growth in July through September 2021 was less than a third of the growth...

(29 October 2021) Amid worldwide efforts to achieve "net-zero" carbon emission targets, economic activities associated with intensive carbon emissions are losing attractiveness for investors. Forbes data on global corporations shows that between 2011 and 2021, the number of oil and gas companies among the 30 world's largest companies decreased from six to only one — Saudi Aramco, which went public in 2019. At the...

(28 October 2021) In the modern digital world, access to the internet is increasingly becoming a basic human need. A worldwide broadband pricing report from Cable.co.uk shows how much the price for internet access varies across countries. Some key takeaways: The world's cheapest fixed-line broadband is currently offered in Ukraine, with an average monthly cost of US$6.40 per month. Five of the ten countries with...

(25 October 2021) The Gini index is one of the traditional measures used to estimate inequality in income distribution at a country level. It shows how far the income distribution between different subsets of a population is from income equality. To estimate a Gini index, national statistical offices (NSOs) need to collect data on personal income for each percentile of population. In this dashboard, the Knoema team...

(19 October 2021) In mid-October the Global Hunger Index released its annual report, which estimates progress in fighting hunger in more than one hundred emerging and developing economies. According to the 2021 Global Hunger Index report, the world will fail to achieve a low level of global hunger in the next decade. Here are key takeaways: The progress in fighting hunger made in recent years can be quickly wiped...

(14 October 2021) The mid-term prospects for the development of the global economy look promising — the International Monetary Fund projects that almost 6% global GDP growth in 2021 and almost 5% growth in 2022 will be followed with annual growth above 3% in 2023 through 2026. However, uncertainty around inflation pressure and the pandemic situation are considered major risks for global growth. Here are the key...

(13 October 2021) Low interest rates, economic stimulus and high uncertainty over the course of the pandemic boosted consumer demand for new homes as well as home prices around the world. To estimate a potential contribution of soaring home prices to overall inflation, we analyzed home price and housing rent data for 33 economies for which data was available in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and...

(07 October 2021) At the end of June of 2021, the U.S. government hit the public debt ceiling of $28.4 trillion. According to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's estimates, under the existing debt limit the U.S. government will have to stop paying on its obligations such as social security programs, salaries and interest payments on treasury securities on October 18. Prolonged debates and lack of consensus in...

(October 6, 2021) The energy crisis in Europe is intensifying, in part because the long and cold 2020-2021 winter depleted the volume of natural gas available in gas storage capacities. The latest natural gas storage data from the Aggregated Gas Storage Inventory shows that only 75% of gas storage capacities were full as of October 4th, compared to an October average of over 90% for 2016-2020. The low level of gas...

(04 October 2021) China's economy has quickly recovered from the coronavirus crisis and is expected to grow between 7% and 8% in 2021 due to recovery of global trade, expansionary monetary policy, and increase in government spending. However, the rapid growth of the economy not only creates income and jobs, but can also lead to a shortage of resources. Strong economic growth in China translated into high demand for...

(29 September 2021) On Sept. 22, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced that it would probably start tightening monetary policy in 2022. Markets hardly noticed the announcement, though, likely because the Fed continues to inject $120 billion of new money into the economy each month. So far in 2021, the Fed has already purchased U.S. Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities worth $1.1 trillion. Given that...

(27 September 2021) The latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that inflation in the U.S. is slowing down. In August, the consumer price index (CPI) decelerated to a 0.3% month-over-month increase compared to 0.7% to 0.9% monthly increases in April through June. The highest inflation has been concentrated among only a small number of categories of consumer goods and services. Prices for...

(23 September 2021) Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has for years been the key economic indicator used for cross-country comparisons. The value of GDP shows how large a country's economy is, and per capita GDP is used to compare countries' productivity and technological development. However, emphasis on these directly measurable indicators often obscures qualitative characteristics of development that can significantly...

(17 September 2021) Data from international organizations such as the U.N. and the International Monetary Fund shows that in the last five decades global economic growth decelerated by almost 50%—from an average 3.9% growth per year in the 1970s to an average 2.3% growth in the 2010s. Current trends in labor, capital, and productivity—the major drivers of economic growth—suggest deceleration will continue long...

(09 September 2021) Inequality in the distribution of income is one of the most important measures of the quality of economic development, along with changes in the overall level of per capita income. However, national statistics offices typically devote much less time and resources to investigating income inequality indicators than traditional economic indicators such as GDP. As a result, official statistics on...

(19 October 2021) Through June-September of 2021, consumer price index (CPI) inflation in the U.S. accelerated to 5.4% on a year-over-year basis, which was the highest monthly growth rate in the last 12 years. Not all consumer goods were affected by price increases equally. For example, used car and gasoline prices were up 40% year-over-year in July, while consumer coffee prices have only increased by 1%...

(27 September 2021) Reaching the decarbonization goals outlined in the Paris Agreement in order to create a sustainable future energy system will require huge investment by all major economies. This dashboard explores the energy transformation forecast through 2050 from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and uses data from IRENA and the International Energy Agency (IEA) to provide an overview of the...

(10 August 2021) "Climate change is irreversible." This was perhaps the most significant conclusion of the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report, a product of the combined efforts of 234 scientists from 66 countries, projects that in the coming decades climate changes will increase in all regions of the globe, with increasing heat waves, longer warm seasons, and...

(09 August, 2021) The inflow of immigrants and migrant workers is often perceived extremely negatively by the existing population of a region, due to expectations that immigrants may represent a threat to cultural values, security, and availability of jobs, not to mention the fact that working migrants and some immigrants often send the largest share of their income back to the country of origin, which can...

(05 August 2021) The US consumer price inflation (CPI) index is probably the most tracked economic indicator today. The main question: whether the current inflation wave has been driven by temporary factors (as the Federal Reserves hopes) or is something that will turn into a long-term threat to U.S. economic growth. Findings from the small business survey from the National Federation of Independent Business...

(05 August 2021) To support the economy and health systems during the coronavirus crisis, governments had to increase spending, financing the increase mostly with growing debt. However, buildup in government debt doesn't necessary lead to the deterioration of fiscal stability, at least not in the short term. Eurozone countries, which on average increased government debt by 14% of GDP during 2020, now pay even less...

(30 July 2021) What drives economic growth? Economists give a variety of answers to this question, ranging from cheap labor or endowment with ample natural resources to institutional environment and the development of digital technologies. The answer policymakers choose determines economic policy, which ultimately affects how different sectors of the economy develop. Since the industrial revolution, development of...

(26 July 2021) According to the World Bank’s State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2021, there are 64 carbon pricing schemes in operation around the world today, covering over 21% of global emissions and generating over $50 billion of revenue per year. Though the share of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions covered by carbon pricing initiatives is growing fast, with a threefold increase over the last decade, experts...

(19 July 2021) As a part of the European Green Deal, the European Commission has presented a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) for selected sectors aimed at addressing the risk of climate change by reducing GHG emissions in the European Union and globally. The current list of CBAM goods include five broad commodity groups — aluminum, cement, electricity, fertilizers, and iron and steel — but the list may be...

(15 July 2021) The dissolution of the USSR back in 1991 led to the emergence of 15 independent states, which then began a rapid transition from central planning to a market economy. Without getting into the still-ongoing debate about the collapse of the USSR and the need for this economic transition, let's take a look at the results of 30 years of reforms in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) countries by the...

(13 July 2021) In 1971, to prevent inflation-induced outflow of gold from the country, US President Richard Nixon ended the convertibility of US dollars to gold at a fixed exchange rate. This decision, which was followed by similar measures in other countries, ended the post-World War II period during which the value of national currencies remained unchanged relative to the value of gold. The decades of post-Gold...

(08 July 2021) China’s outbreak of African swine fever back in 2018-2019 hurt domestic pig meat production and provided opportunities for meat* producers around the world to increase exports of pork and other meat to supplement China's diminished domestic supply. The US, the EU, and Brazil have benefited the most from the growing Chinese imports of meat, but some smaller meat exporters that had not traded meat to...