1. Back to basics
Money in, Money out, Population growth – these three data points provide a good summary of China right now as headwinds to growth intensify.
Source: Jefferies, SAFE (August 2024)
Source: Jefferies, SAFE (August 2024)
Source: CNBS, Haver Analytics, Apollo Chief Economist. Note: Natural population growth shown. Natural population growth = (birth rate – death rate) * total population. (August 2024)
2. Data, data everywhere
The US increased power capacity in the first half of 2024 by the most in more than two decades, largely to meet the growing electricity demand driven by data centres and artificial intelligence. Electricity generation rose by 20.2 gigawatts between January and June, the Energy Information Agency said, the most since 2003. The additional capacity was 21% higher than the same period in 2023 and is expected to more than double to 42.6 gigawatts by the end of the year.
The US has over 5,380 data centres, which is more data centres than in all other major countries combined! Australia has just over 300.
Source: Statista, Cloudscene, Apollo Chief Economist (Data as of March 2024)
3. Election exhaustion
If it feels like the US election has been going on for a while, you’re right! Companies started discussing the election much earlier in this cycle than they have in the past, and we’ve still got over 2 months to go.
Source: GS Dataworks, Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research (August 2024)