The OECD diffusion index leads our global export index by about 6-9 months, and even if it is turning down into mid-2013, it suggests that better times are ahead for global export activity (upper chart). Indeed, we are now seeing…

One of the world’s biggest commodity producers, BHP Billiton, recently got a lot of attention by suggesting that the so far insatiable Chinese demand for commodities may have come to an end. The argument is simple enough: the rate of growth in China is slowing. However, the implications for commodity exporters, such as Australia, who have invested dizzying sums of money in expanding capacity to reflect an ever higher increase in Chinese commodity hunger, may be very big indeed.

The market has recently taken relief from the decision by China to lower the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) as well as the signal that it will be the first of a series of cuts. The real story however is that the shift comes in response to a sharp slowdown in both domestic and external demand in the first quarter of 2012 and thus it seems that investors may have taken too much comfort in the strong Q4-11 GDP print.