Manufacturing in Mexico is Having Its Moment. The U.S. is Buying In – and So is China (Micro News for April 27, 2024 – May 3, 2024)

Mexico is emerging as a winner in foreign direct investment as both Chinese and U.S. producers locate manufacturing facilities there to shorten supply chains and reduce the supply chain disruption risk highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic. This practice of moving facilities closer to home markets is called nearshoring.

Turkish Annual Inflation Soars to 67% in February (Micro News for March 2, 2024 – March 8, 2024)

Consumer prices in Turkey increased by more than a 67% annualized rate in February 2024. The highest price increases occurred in the hotel, café, and restaurant sector where prices rose by an annualized rate of 95% for the month. The education sector also posted over a 91% annualized gain while health care costs soared by over 81%. The overall annualized rate exceeded expectations by about 2%.

Biden Calls on Snack Companies to Stop Shrinkflation Ahead of Super Bowl (Micro News for February 10, 2024 – February 16, 2024

President Biden posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) calling on firms to stop shrinkflation a day prior to Super Bowl Sunday. He pointed out that drink bottles were smaller and chips bags contained fewer chips while prices remained unchanged. The post is viewed as one way he can connect with the American public about his understanding of the financial pain of inflation. However, it is too late to change package sizes prior to the Super Bowl.

U.S. Wholesale Inflation Closed Out 2023 With 1% Annual Rate in December (Micro News for January 13, 2024 – January 19, 2024)

The producer price index (PPI) indicates that inflation is continuing to cool off. The data show that wholesale price inflation increased by a 1% annual rate in December 2023. The PPI measures the changes in input prices used to produce goods and services. After removing the volatile food and energy prices, the core PPI was up by only 1.8% for the year. For comparison, the PPI peaked "at a record 11.7% in March 2022."