European car sales rose to a nine-year high in 2016, with French manufacturer Renault SA taking advantage of recovering demand and Volkswagen AG’s tarnished reputation to leap to second place from third in the region. Industrywide registrations increased 6.5 percent to 15.1 million vehicles. Source: Bloomberg
Russia’s Gazprom will start gas supplies to China from Dec. 1, a month earlier than planned, the gas producer said on Friday. Deliveries of gas to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline were due to begin at the end of December 2019, but the project is only expected to reach full capacity in 2025. Source: Reuters
Two days of U.S.-Chinese trade talks ended with no specific details about whether progress was made or not Friday, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called them “productive” on Twitter. Source: WLOX
- In new official data out of China, both the Producer Price Index and Consumer Price Index inflation came in weaker than expected for January.
- The data comes amid a new round of U.S.-China talks in Beijing this week as the world’s two largest economies renewed efforts to reach a deal to defuse trade tensions
