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This is the world in brief from The Economist.

Our top stories.

Consumer confidence in America fell to the lowest level since June 2022 in November,

according to closely watch data from the University of Michigan.

The government shut down and gloomy projections for unemployment and personal finances

fed the bleak outlook.

The slump was broadly consistent across respondents, irrespective of income, age and political views.

A notable exception was consumers with significant stock holdings, whose mood improved.

China's exports unexpectedly fell by 1.1% year-on-year in October,

the first such contraction since February.

The drop followed months of growth driven by sales

to Europe and Southeast Asia, which compensated for plummeting American demand driven by Donald

Trump's trade war. Analysts say China's aggressive, quote, frontloading of exports in anticipation

of a tariff surge has ended.

Into IKEA, which supplies the Swedish furniture franchises stores, suffered a 26% drop in annual operating profit.

It fell to 1.7 billion euros, $2 billion in the 12 months to August 31st from 2.3 billion euros the previous year.

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