Our daily voyage around the world

🇺🇸🇲🇽 The US imported more goods from Mexico than China for the first time in two decades. Mexico sent $475.6 billion worth of goods to the US last year, marking a 5% annual increase, while imports of Chinese goods fell 20% year-over-year to reach $427.2 billion, per a new Commerce Department report. Overall, the US trade deficit – aka the gap between what America buys and what it sells abroad – fell 10% last year to $1.06 trillion, which analysts attribute to a weaker dollar that made the cost of US goods cheaper abroad.

🇨🇳📉 China replaced its head securities regulator amid poor stock market performance. The Chinese and Hong Kong markets were the world’s worst performers in 2023 – each falling around 10% – and have also been the worst performers so far this year. As of this week, ~$6.1 trillion in market value had been wiped from the Chinese and Hong Kong stock markets since their recent peaks in February 2021. The downwards economic trend in China has led to higher demand for fast-food restaurants, with both McDonald’s and KFC reporting a spike in Chinese sales for 2023.

🇪🇺🇭🇺 The EU launched legal action against Hungary’s new national security law. Budapest’s “sovereignty protection act," which took effect in December, allows authorities to investigate citizens receiving foreign funding, as well as imprison individuals who “undermine the country’s sovereignty” for up to three years. The EU says the act’s broad language targets government critics and infringes on the privacy and electoral rights of EU citizens. Hungary has two months to address the EU’s concerns.