1. The “irrigation” strategy since the outbreak is pushing the global economy into a storm of high inflation. Inflation in the US and UK hit 6.8 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively in November, setting 40-year and 10-year highs respectively. In the face of the dual risks of central bank policy and high inflation, more investors have laid out in advance, with large inflows of money into inflation-protected bonds, commodities, gold and other anti-inflationary assets, reducing their holdings of bonds and emerging markets, and establishing defensive positions. Cash holdings reached the highest level since May 2020.

2. U.S. president Joe Biden signed a bill to raise the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion on December 16, local time, extending the Treasury’s borrowing authority until 2023 to temporarily avoid defaulting on government debt. The debt ceiling is the maximum amount of debt set by Congress for the federal government to meet existing payment obligations, and hitting this “red line” means that the US Treasury has authorized the exhaustion of borrowing. Before the increase, the US federal government debt had reached about $28.9 trillion.

3. The number of infections of Omicron strains in the UK has risen to between 3 and 5, that is, an average of 3 to 5 people per infected person, while the current R value of Delta strains in the country is between 1.1 and 1.2. Experts say the surge in Omicron infection could lead to more new COVID-19 admissions in a single day than at the peak last winter, when more than 4500 new cases were admitted in the UK. At present, Israel, France and other countries have announced tighter controls to restrict travel to and from the UK.

4. International Monetary Fund: affected by the COVID-19 epidemic and the global economic recession, the global debt reached a record US $226 trillion in 2020. The year 2020 saw the largest increase in global debt since the end of the second World War, with the ratio of global debt to gross domestic product (GDP) rising 28 percentage points to 256 per cent. As global interest rates rise and financial conditions tighten, a surge in global debt could increase economic fragility and hamper economic recovery, experts say. The key challenge for policy makers is how to properly implement the fiscal and monetary policy mix in an environment of high debt and rising inflation.

5. The “irrigation” strategy since the outbreak is pushing the global economy into a storm of high inflation. Inflation in the US and UK hit 6.8 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively in November, setting 40-year and 10-year highs respectively. In the face of the dual risks of central bank policy and high inflation, more investors have laid out in advance, with large inflows of money into inflation-protected bonds, commodities, gold and other anti-inflationary assets, reducing their holdings of bonds and emerging markets, and establishing defensive positions. Cash holdings reached the highest level since May 2020.

6. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects the Omicron strain to become the dominant new coronavirus strain to spread in the United States in the coming weeks. In the past week, Delta strain was still the dominant strain in the United States, accounting for 97%, while Omicron strain accounted for only 2.9%. However, in New York and New Jersey and other areas, Omicron virus infection has accounted for 13.1% of the new cases.

7.Due to the rise in urea prices, while imports decreased, South Korea’s urea solution imports surged nearly 56% in November from a year earlier to US $32.14 million. At present, although the shortage of urea in South Korea has been alleviated, the market demand is far from being met. According to statistics, in the first 11 months of this year, South Korea imported a total of about 789900 tons of urea, an increase of 1.1 per cent over the same period last year. Although there is a “urea shortage”, the total amount of imports has not changed much, because the shortage of urea solution only began in October. At present, the possibility of individual merchants hoarding urea solution cannot be ruled out.

8. South Korean house prices rose 23.9% in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, according to a data analysis report on the “Global Housing Price Index” released by British real estate information company Knight Frank19. Based on the actual price increases, South Korea ranked first among the 56 countries surveyed, followed by Sweden (17.8%), New Zealand (17.0%), Turkey (15.9%) and Australia (15.9%).

9. EDF’s nuclear power plants found defective pipelines, resulting in the shutdown of several reactors. The shutdown of the reactor will result in the loss of about 1 terawatt-hour of electricity production by the end of the year, and its full-year earnings forecast will be lowered to 175-18 billion euros, compared with the previous estimate of no less than 17.7 billion euros. At a time when electricity consumption is at its peak in winter, the contract price in Europe has set a record.

10. Central banks around the world are continuing to raise interest rates to curb inflation, largely ignoring the threat to economic growth posed by the spread of the highly contagious Omicron mutant. But recent central bank meetings highlight huge differences in perceptions of the threat of inflation at a time when countries need to support a fragile economic recovery. Central banks in rich countries are starting to worry about the “second round of inflation”. Some central banks in eastern Europe and Latin America have raised their main interest rates, but central banks in south-east Asia have stayed on hold. Asian countries are less worried that inflation will soar because there are no supply chain disruptions or that labour shortages will push wages up sharply.

11. According to information from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Yuansheng Asset, a hedge fund giant and the originator of global CTA strategy, launched a product called Yuansheng China quantitative Fund overseas, and overseas and domestic products entered the Chinese market at the same time. The table shows that Yuansheng China quantitative Fund was sold for the first time, selling a total of $14.5 million when the form was submitted, with two investors. Information from the China Securities Investment Fund Industry Association also shows that Yuansheng’s domestic private placement filed for the new fund in November and December respectively. Both at home and abroad, Yuansheng has diversified layout in China.

11. The global merchandise trade volume fell 0.8% in the third quarter due to the COVID-19 epidemic and supply chain disruptions, ending 12 consecutive months of strong growth, according to a report released by the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday. In contrast to the volume of trade, the total volume of world merchandise trade continued to rise in the third quarter due to the sharp rise in import and export prices. WTO said trade growth was still expected to reach 10.8 per cent in 2021, but the Omicron strain increased the likelihood of a negative impact.