Germany's current account surplus totaled 10.4 billion euros in May, down by 6.2 billion euros from the previous month, the Deutsche Bundesbank said Monday.
The German central bank attributed the movement to a slight increase in trade surplus in goods, alongside a swing to deficit from surplus in so-called invisible current account transactions.
The pace of increases for supplier costs for food supermarkets in New Zealand was little changed in June, Infometrics said in a Monday report.The Infometrics-Foodstuffs New Zealand Grocery Supplier Cost Index showed an average increase of 2.1% from a year earlier."[June saw] the fifth highest number of monthly cost changes since 2018, across a variety of products," said Brad Olsen, Infometrics chief executive and principal economist. "As had been expected, a large number of cost adjustments stemming from conflict in the Middle East have finally landed."Over 6,900 products increased in cost in June month over month from May, with around half directly attributable to fuel adjustments, Olsen said."Larger increases for a number of fruits, fish fillet and shellfish, and fries, hashbrowns, as well as berries saw larger average increases across produce, seafood, and frozen departments, respectively," Olsen added.The majority of the cost increases in June were of a small-to-medium magnitude, with around 6,500 being increases of 0% to 20%.
Australian customers have so far spent over AU$7 billion during this year's FIFA World Cup, with spending increases recorded across key fan categories, according to an ANZ analysis released Monday.Spending has increased in various sectors: takeaway food by 6.6%, cafes and restaurants by 5.5%, bars and hotels by 5.2%, and sporting apparel by 9.3%, the report said.The trends reflect ANZ's observations from the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup, where customer spending rose by 8.2% year on year, exceeding AU$11 billion.During the 2022 tournament, spending rose in different categories, including takeaway food, cafes and restaurants, sporting apparel, takeaway alcohol, and bars and hotels.
China's second-quarter GDP deflator is projected to turn positive for the first time in over three years, state-owned China Daily reported Sunday, citing analysts and executives.The GDP deflator, which measures price changes across all goods and services produced domestically, has been in the contraction zone for 12 straight quarters and stood at 0.1% in the first quarter of 2026, the report said.Su Jian, director of Peking University's National Center for Economic Research, expects the Q2 GDP deflator to turn positive at around 1.9%, while Robin Xing, chief China economist at Morgan Stanley, upgraded his full-year deflator projection to 0.5%, according to the report.(Market Chatter news is derived from conversations with market professionals globally. This information is believed to be from reliable sources but may include rumor and speculation. Accuracy is not guaranteed.)