While the US economic outlook has been a source of dissention since early last year, few disagreed last summer that both Europe and China would be in recessions by now. Europe was expected to go dark and freeze during the winter months because of a shortage of natural gas resulting from Russia’s attack on Ukraine. China’s recession was expected to result from the government’s zero-Covid lockdowns. Instead, Europe succeeded in finding other sources of natural gas and Beijing simply ended its Covid restrictions.
Here are some recent relevant developments in Europe and China:
