The strong decrease in Russia’s current account surplus in 2019 has been confirmed.

China’s GDP growth came in unchanged at +6.0% y/y in Q4 2019.

The U.S. will halve its 15% tariff on about USD120 billion of Chinese goods and suspend planned duties that were set to take effect last December.

Exports faced a sudden stop during the last months but a partial recovery should be expected in key export champions as latest output, orders and inventories data was reassuring for them.

The economy created +145k jobs in December, softer than expectations of +160k, and the prior two months were revised down a total of -14k.

Manufacturing activity in Emerging Markets (EM) remained in contraction mode for the eighth month in a row.

The economy created +35.2k jobs in December, stronger than expectations of +25k, and recovering half of November’s -71.2k plunge (the fourth worst on record).

Whilst the European Central Bank is drudging to fuel inflation in the Eurozone, consumer price growth surprised on the upside in December in Poland (up to 3.4% from 2.6% in November), Hungary (to 4.0% from 3.4%), Czechia (to 3.2% from 3.1%) and Romania (to 4.0% from 3.8%).