China’s Q4 2024 GDP surged to 5.4% year-on-year, up from 4.6% and marking the highest level of the year, and the fastest year-on-year growth of any quarter since Q2 2023.

US December retail sales rose 0.4% over November, below the expected 0.5% that analysis had predicted.  Economists said the results still reflected a healthy economic outlook.   Wells Fargo economists calculated a 4.1% year-over-year jump in holiday sales above their projections of 3.3% holiday sales growth.

UK retail sales, adjusted for the inclusion of the Black Friday sales at the start of the month, fell by 0.3% month-on-month in December after a downwardly revised 0.1% expansion in November, per the Office for National Statistics.  Retail sales for the fourth quarter as a whole fell by 0.8%.  While retail as whole fell, sales of clothing rose 4.4% in December.

Spain’s core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, also reached a four-month high of 2.6% in December, up from November’s 2.4%, per the National Statistics Institute (INE).   Despite current inflationary pressures, the outlook for Spain’s economy remains positive, per CaixaBank forecasts.

UK inflation edged down to 2.5% in December from 2.6% in November, the Office for National Statistics said.