LBLV Google plans to abandon Fitbit’s data in ads 2020/14/07

LBLV provides an overview of economic news.


The main economic news for July 14:

1. Google plans to abandon Fitbit’s data in ads
Google, the world famous search giant, offered not to use health data of fitness tracker company Fitbit in its target advertising in an attempt to address EU antitrust concerns about proposed $2.1 billion acquisition. The deal, announced in November last year, would help the U.S. tech company to compete with Apple and Samsung in the fitness-tracking and smart-watch market, alongside others including Huawei and Xiaomi. The European Commission is expected to seek feedback from rivals and users before deciding whether to approve the deal, demand more concessions or open a four-month-long investigation if it has serious concerns.

2. British economy starts to recover, but slightly
UK’s economy started to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic in May, as the country’s activity began to increase after lockdown restrictions easing, but there was less of a rebound than economists had forecast. According to the data from the Office for National Statistics, Britain’s gross domestic product climbed 1.8% in May after slumping by a record 20.3% in April – the first full month of lockdown. Overall, for the three months ended in May, the economy slumped 19.1% and lost 24.0% compared with a year ago. The slight rebound was driven by just 0.9% growth in Britain’s large services sector, with weakness in professional services, commercial property and computer programming.

3. South Korea set to turn its economy to green
On Tuesday, South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in unveiled a plan to spend 114.1 trillion won ($94.6 billion) on a “Green New Deal” to create jobs and help its economy to recover from the impact of the coronavirus. The new project would move Asia’s fourth-largest economy away from its heavy reliance on fossil fuels and promote environmentally friendly industries powered by digital technologies, including electric and hydrogen cars, smart grids and telemedicine. South Korea aimed to have 1.13 million electric vehicles and 200,000 hydrogen cars on the roads by 2025, up from 91,000 and 5,000 respectively at the end of 2019, while the government would expand charging stations for the vehicles. Moreover, the “Deal” is expected to create around 1.9 million jobs in five years.

4. Customs data show a rise in China’s visible items
The China’s General Administration of Customs reported on Tuesday that the country’s imports and exports increased in June from the same period in 2019, mainly reflecting improving demand at home and abroad. Chinese imports climbed 2.7% in June, recovering from the 16.7% drop in May, while the analysts have expected the figures to fall 10.0%. Meanwhile, exports advanced 0.5% last month, compared with a 3.3% decline in May. June's exports were also better than economists' estimate of a 4.3% decline. Overall, China recorded a trade surplus of $46.42 billion in the first month of summer, much smaller than May's $62.93 billion and below the forecasted $59.30 billion.