JAPAN
Japan’s trade deficit amounted to ¥1.45 trillion in December. In 2022 as a whole, the country recorded a trade deficit of ¥19.97 trillion, the largest since 1979. Exports increased 11.5% on a yearly basis, landing at ¥8.8 trillion in the last month of 2022, in comparison to the same month a year earlier. Meanwhile, imports were up 20.6% year-on-year, reaching ¥10.2 trillion, the Ministry of Finance said in a report on Thursday.
AUSTRALIA
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Australia unexpectedly stood at 3.5% in December 2022, unchanged from an upwardly revised figure in November and compared with market estimates of 3.4%, the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed on Thursday.
EUROZONE
Member of the European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) Governor Klaas Knot told CNBC on Thursday that the former institution is planning to raise its key interest rate by 50 basis points (bps) “multiple times” in the near future.
NEW ZEALAND
New Zealand food prices increased at the fastest rate in more than three decades in December, data from Statistics New Zealand showed on Thursday. Food prices grew 11.3% in December. The latest growth was the biggest since April 1990, when food prices rose 11.4%.
UK
UK house prices declined sharply towards the end of the year, data from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, or RICS, revealed Thursday. A net 42 percent of surveyors registered a fall in house prices in December. The expected balance was -30 percent.
