In the world of macro economics, after you examine the growth in your local area (micro economics), then you want to know what is happening in the US, Europe and China which are the three biggest economic blocks in the world. All countries post updates and often one suspects the updates from the US and Europe are more open, but updates are posted.

In an article by James Griffiths and Alexandra Li of Reuters, China announced its economy grew 8.1% in 2021 above the official target of 6%, however a slowdown in the 4th quarter led to the slowest growth since early 2020.

The year of 2021 was off to a strong start after the pandemic induced slump but lost momentum because of a property downturn, debt crisis and strict COVID 19 restrictions which have hit consumption.

China’s industrial output grew by 4.3% in December after a 3.8% increase in November. Consumer spending showed a 1.7% increase.

China is hosting the Winter Olympics this year and whenever there is an outbreak of COVID, officials lock down the area until the disease is more manageable.

Zhu Tian, a professor of economics at the Shanghai based China Europe International Business School said if things go well for China expect to see between 5 and 7% growth.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, a stock trading on the exchanges has to meet the regulatory agreements of the exchange and tell investors how they are doing. Thus the reason for quarterly reports and earnings season, the ability to have information reasonably open means investors can review the data and see how companies are doing. Are they meeting their targets, exceeding targets, what are the headwinds, why is the company continuing to make money and/or grow. Investors and analysts examine the numbers the companies release and make decisions. In China the government controls the information, but somewhere in the data is the real story. For investors an reasonably open system works best.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.