April 1, 2022

• Shanghai starts part two of its phased lockdown, confining some 16 million people living in the western part of the city to their homes after ending a four-day lockdown of the eastern half.
• Morgan Stanley downgraded their full-year GDP growth forecast to 4.6% from 5.1% on Friday, citing China’s “strict adherence” to its no-tolerance policy.
• However, China's success with COVID-19 impacts on health and economy over the whole pandemic has played well:
• China estimates the strategy has avoided 1 million deaths and 50 million illnesses.

True inflation in the UK is being driven by some very odd (if you are a Marxist) policy choices by the government. A lot of it driven by the bizarre adherence to a market energy system brought in by Toby Blair's Labour Party.

• The average domestic energy bill increase by 693 pounds ($911) over the next year as a result of sharp rises in wholesale prices.
• Average family will be 1,100 pounds worse off over the next 12 months, according to the Resolution Foundation.

• Russia has passed a decree that gas exports must be paid in its own currency.
• It can demand it, but it is unclear what happens if companies do not follow the order. Perhaps the threat of devaluing the contracts is enough to change minds.
• The real issue is if European companies have to buy in Roubles, they have to convert their Euros to Roubles first. Which means dealing with the Russian central bank – which is under full sanctions. The goal, it seems, it to put on some pressure to lift sanctions.

• EU may need to spend 0.5% of GDP to help 4 million Ukrainian refugees (10% of Ukraine's population).

• China is planning at least 150 new reactors in the next 15 years, more than the rest of the world has built in the past 35.
• The effort could cost as much as $440 billion; as early as the middle of this decade,
• China’s ultimate plan is to replace nearly all of its 2,990 coal-fired generators with clean energy by 2060. To make that a reality, wind and solar will become dominant in the nation’s energy mix. Nuclear power, which is more expensive but also more reliable, will be a close third, according to an assessment last year from researchers at Tsinghua University.

• European Data Journalism

• CPI growth in France has gone above 5% affecting enthusiasm for Macron.

• Global Corporate Bonds Lost $1 Trillion, and Risks Are Rising
• Credit suffers losses resembling Covid, financial crisis drops

The slump marked the biggest total return loss for high-grade bonds since Lehman Brothers’ collapse, and the worst junk performance since the start of the pandemic. The U.S. investment grade market alone saw about $440 billion in market value erased and is on track for the biggest three-month slump since 1980.