Global Factories Struggle to Overcome Trump Tariffs, Uncertainty

Date: 04 May 2025 - 22:10

News ID: ۱۳۹۱۸۲

LONDON (Bloomberg) - More signs emerged in a wave of reports this week that global manufacturing is buckling from President Donald Trump’s trade war.
Purchasing manager indexes across Asia, along with revised numbers in Europe, showed new or persisting contractions in factory activity in April.
The reports capped a flurry of worrying signals: Few economies are avoiding the concussion of tariffs and paralyzing uncertainty that’s engulfed the world economy one month after the US president announced widespread taxes on American imports.
Releases earlier in the week revealed damage in the two main combatants, whose tariffs have effectively shut off incentives for trade between nations that account for more than 40% of global GDP. A report Thursday showed U.S. manufacturing activity shrank by the most in five months, a day after data revealed Chinese factories slipped into the deepest contraction since December 2023.
Factory sentiment is unlikely to turn around until there is clarity on where tariffs are headed — which may take time, said James Knightley, chief international economist at ING.
Before this trickle of initial indicators of a downturn began to surface, alarm at the world’s prospects was already on show in Washington as finance chiefs gathered for the International Monetary Fund’s meetings last month. After a cut in the growth outlook, the lender’s chief, Kristalina Georgieva, warned that the chances of a global recession will rise if uncertainty persists.
Now, the evidence is crystallizing of a synchronized hit that the world economy may struggle to shake off — even if the rewiring of international commerce sought by the White House does succeed through bilateral deals that remove trade barriers and suspend the imposition of higher levies.
The Asian reports on Friday were stark. Indexes for the region’s factory giants, including South Korea and Taiwan, slipped sharply amid falling orders and production cutbacks, according to S&P Global. In Southeast Asia, activity shrank in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.