This report gathers over a decade of data on corporate inventory to sales ratios from over 1,400 companies. We find that inventories in Q1’22 climbed by 13% year over year while sales rose by just 6%. There are at least six different reasons for that disparity, ranging from…
Which industries have driven the U.S. trade boom? Where might they go next? What will be the impact on the wider economy? Flexport’s Trade Activity Forecast (TAF) was launched in October 2021 to provide a guide to the outlook for U.S. merchandise imports. We have expanded the…
The ECB has arrived late to the monetary policy tightening party but is more hawkish than expected. The structure of its actions - alongside those of the Fed - could have significant disruptive implications for financial market functioning as well as for consumers’ wallets.
The pandemic era has seen wild swings in US personal savings, with the rate hitting its lowest in over a decade in April. The accumulated savings during the pandemic have allowed consumption to remain strong, even as income growth has faltered. Most recently, there has been a…
Why is inflation so high? Will there be a slowdown soon? Are high inflation levels dragging on U.K. consumer spending levels? What can be done? The good news is that there are plenty of ways small and medium sized businesses can tweak their supply chain strategies to handle a…
Rising inflation and interest rates are suppressing consumer confidence and cutting into retail sales on both sides of the Atlantic. U.K. consumer confidence hit the lowest since the early 1970s and retail sales have trended downwards for eight straight months as of April.
As of July the Section 301 duties on imports to the U.S. from China will have been in place for four years and will be due for review. Whatever happened to the U.S.-China trade war? Did the tariffs deliver what was expected? What might happen next under the Biden administration?
Flexport has been tracking and forecasting U.S. consumers’ heightened preference for goods over services throughout the pandemic. Our indicator was designed to signal when there were signs of consumer behavior returning to pre-Covid norms. That signal just went off.