World economic highlights of the past week

Photo caption — View of a cargo port in Qingdao, Shandong province, China. Photo: THX/TTXVN

1. The US and China will suspend tariffs for 90 days and significantly reduce reciprocal tariffs. On May 12, officials from both countries agreed that the US would reduce tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%, while China would reduce tariffs on US goods from 125% to 10%. This is a breakthrough agreement that helps cool down the US-China trade war that has caused a lot of turmoil for the global economy and continuously shaken financial markets.

2. The Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Trade Ministers' Meeting held on Jeju Island, South Korea on May 15-16 was considered a success when the Trade Ministers of the 21 APEC member economies unanimously adopted a last-minute joint statement on the importance of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the multilateral trading system in connecting economies. The Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said this was a positive signal for the international market as APEC member countries are ready to cooperate to overcome the uncertainties in the recently increasing global trade environment.

3. The Bank of Japan should postpone raising interest rates , according to a recommendation made on May 16 by Toyoaki Nakamura, a member of the BoJ Board of Governors. Nakamura said that the BoJ must conduct monetary policy "prudently" and pay special attention to the impact of uncertainty in US trade policy on business and household activities.

4. India, Japan and the United Kingdom on May 16 informed the World Trade Organization (WTO) that they plan to increase tariffs on US goods in response to steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by the Trump administration since 2018. The countries consider this a "disguised" safeguard measure by the US and declared that they "reserve the right" to impose tariffs after a 30-day waiting period as required by the WTO.

5. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on May 14 lowered its forecast for crude oil supply growth from non-OPEC+ producers (including OPEC members and partners, including Russia) in 2025, mainly due to declining capital spending and increasing market pressures. OPEC forecasts that crude oil production from non-OPEC+ countries will increase by about 800,000 barrels per day in 2025, lower than the 900,000 barrels per day increase forecast by the group last month.

6. Mitsui Trading Group and European Energy, a renewable energy company, jointly launched the world's first environmentally friendly e-methanol product on May 13. Their joint venture Solar Park Kasso ApS produces low-carbon e-methanol by combining hydrogen (obtained using electricity produced at solar power facilities on the outskirts of Aabenraa, southern Denmark) with CO2 captured from biomass sources. The amount of CO2 emitted from e-methanol production is up to 97% less than that emitted from methanol production using fossil fuels.

7. Samsung Electronics announced its biggest deal in eight years on May 14, saying it would buy German air conditioning and heating systems maker FlaktGroup from private equity group Triton for 1.5 billion euros ($1.68 billion). The deal by Samsung Electronics is aimed at meeting the growing cooling needs of data centers serving artificial intelligence (AI) projects.

8. Microsoft on May 13 began laying off about 6,000 employees, equivalent to about 3% of its global workforce and the company's largest job cuts in more than two years, as the "giant" invests heavily in artificial intelligence (AI). Washington state, where Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, was hit hardest, with 1,985 employees cut, many of them in software engineering and product management positions.

9. The US Department of Labor said on May 13 that the US consumer price index (CPI) in April 2025 slowed down compared to the same period last year to 2.3%, slightly lower than the 2.4% in March 2025. The index slowed down in the context of the US announcing new tariffs on many countries - especially high tariffs on Chinese goods. This has caused concern in financial markets and raised concerns about the risk of price spikes.

Source: https://doanhnghiepvn.vn/kinh-te/su-kien-kinh-te-the-gioi-noi-bat-tuan-qua/20250519075421234