Trade

• [New] With thousands more satellites needed to meet global coverage and bandwidth demands, SpaceX is expected to fly dozens of Starlink missions in the coming years.
• [New] A global economic recovery in 2021 is expected to drive a 2.6% rise in coal demand following the major drop in 2021 triggered by the Covid-19 crisis.
• [New] In the long-term, the Taiwan Balance of Trade is projected to trend around USD 3400.00 Million in 2022 and USD 3000.00 Million in 2023.
• [New] Global growth will be aided by a recovery in 2021 to GDP growth of 3.5% in the United States and an even bigger 7.9% rebound in China, the world's two biggest economies.
• [New] An economic recovery is expected to take several years, and in 2020, more than 11,000 stores closed in the US, an all-time record that could be broken again in the coming year, according to some analyses, which have suggested that as many as 100,000 stores could close by 2025.
• [New] Based on estimates given by logistics company DHL, global coverage of vaccines over the next two years alone will require 200,000 movements by pallet shippers across 15,000 flights.
• [New] Global auto sales fell by 17.4% in 2020, and will increase by just 6.3% in 2021 to 81.1 million.
• [New] Security will trump trade in the first months of Biden's presidency, although Washington's return to the Paris climate agreement and World Health Organization will boost the impression of a multilateralist reset and improve the US image in developing regions.
• [New] The World Bank described two different outcomes that are contingent upon the outlook for vaccinations - a delayed vaccine rollout could limit global growth to 1.6% in 2021, while effective virus containment and a faster vaccination process might rev up global growth by up to 5%.
• [New] Digital currency bitcoin has emerged as a rival to gold and could trade as high as US$146,000 (C$185,223) if it becomes established as a safe-haven asset.
• [New] Since 2020 sparked the biggest change to the world of work following the global pandemic, and now that a third lockdown is underway in England, it's likely that many new trends and changes will emerge once again in 2021.
• [New] With China recently committing to carbon neutrality by 2060 and Joe Biden promising to return the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate change, the decarbonisation push is becoming both global and synchronised.
• [New] The near-term outlook remained highly uncertain and different growth outcomes were still possible, adding that a downside scenario in which infections continued to rise and the rollout of a vaccine delayed, could limit the global expansion to 1.6% in 2021.
• [New] Global economy is expected to grow by 4% in 2021, assuming an initial COVID-19 vaccine rollout becomes widespread throughout the year.
• [New] Among oil exporters, growth is expected to recover to 1.8% in 2021, supported by normalising oil demand, the scheduled easing of the OPEC + oil production cuts, policy support, and the gradual phasing out of domestic pandemic-related restrictions.
• [New] While America's 651 billionaires have increased their net worth by 30% to US$ 4 trillion, a quarter of a billion people in developing countries could face absolute poverty, and up to half the global workforce may have lost their livelihoods.
• [New] The variables in the near-term remain highly uncertain the World Bank warned, and a continuing rise in infections coupled with a delayed vaccine rollout, could limit global expansion in 2021 to just 1.6%.
• [New] Mexico should expect higher natural gas prices in 2021 as coronavirus vaccines become available and global economies heat up following the pandemic-inspired slump of 2020.
• [New] More than 250 new models of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) will be introduced in the next two years alone, and as many as 130 million EVs could be sharing roads the world over by 2030.
• [New] Achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 means that China will have 30 years for continuous and rapid emissions cuts, after it reaches the emissions peak by around 2030.
• [New] If China achieves its aim of reaching carbon neutrality before 2060 then it would lower global warming projections by around 0.2 to 0.3 C.
• [New] By the end of this century, average warming across global cities will increase by 1.9 °C with intermediate emissions and 4.4 °C with high emissions.

Last updated: 10 January 2021