That's how many cities there will be in China by 2020 that have at least 250,000 citizens and a largely middle class and affluent population. That would be up from 90 in 2010. That according to well-known consultant George Stalk of the Boston Consulting Group Thursday during a presentation to the CSCMP Toronto roundtable, where SCDigest's Dan Gilmore also presented. By way of contrast, there will only be about 60 cities in North America with populations of 250,000 or more in 2020 - actually down a bit from 2010. This and related developments will require Western companies to operate "two speed" supply chains, one for rapid growth regions in the developing world, and another model for slower growth domestic and developed economies, Stalk said. More on this soon.

That's how much producer prices in the US fell in January, primarily the result of declining oil and other commodity costs, the sharpest decline in 5 years. While most economist think the trend is temporary and likely not a sign of potentially devastating deflation, with continued worries about deflation in Europe and now even China, we'd say it is not a minor concern here either. U.S. inflation has undershot the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual target for nearly three years. Meanwhile, The Labor Department's consumer-price index rose at an annual rate of just 0.8% in December, with the January reading due out Feb. 26. If underlying inflation measures continue to soften, "it does open the door to the possibility that there’s more going on than simply weak energy prices," Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Michael Hanson said.