There is no reason to further extend a European Union deadline for France to cut its budget deficit, the EU’s top economic official said on Saturday, adding policy-makers should have learnt the lessons of the debt crisis and stuck to agreed rules.
In June last year Paris got two more years, until 2015, to bring its budget shortfall below the EU ceiling of 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), from a 4 percent gap the European Commission expects it to have this year.
But after a government reshuffle this week, France said that while it agreed the deficit should fall, it wanted to discuss the deadline again as slower cuts would help the economy grow.
Europe’s leaders argue that only deep budget cuts will revive the economy and inspire the necessary confidence among investors. The deal represents a major milestone for Greece, which was effectively shut out of the markets in 2010 when the debt crisis left it dependent on international bailouts to stay afloat.The…
"There are no facts, only interpretations”, Friedrich Nietzsche once said. One needn’t be a nihilist or a relativist to be bemused at the latest radical rewriting of history from our official number-crunchers. Everything we thought we knew about the British economy’s performance over the past 15 years or so now…
Tags: gdp, economy, official, years, rules, reason, europe
Low euro is like a "deflation" of the Euro. Is this good or bad ? Lets talk about devaluation. The idea being that the goods the nation has to offer will cost less with devaluation. Good idea, right? Many countries have resorted to this economic maneuver in order to increase exports.…
Feb 8 (Reuters) - If Greece is forced out of the euro zone, other countries will inevitably follow and the currency bloc will collapse, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Sunday. Greece's new leftist government is trying to re-negotiate its debt repayments and has begun to roll back…
To understand why many of China’s small property developers are struggling, look no further than Zhejiang Xingrun Real Estate.
The once little-known regional developer is now on the brink of becoming one of China’s biggest real estate bankruptcies in recent memory.
As China’s property bubble shows signs of deflating in some areas – in peripheral neighborhoods in lower-tier cities – privately held developers like Zhejiang Xingrun are falling by the wayside, victims of a toxic combination of unjustified optimism about the property market and sky-high interest rates.
One reason for global market weakness is investors’ fears that emerging market economies may be heading for a broad crisis, sparked by higher U.S. interest rates and slowing growth in China. Much of the analysis in the last few days has focused on why these nations are less exposed to…
For 31-year old Beijing resident Wang Yuanzhi, talk about a bubble in Chinese property is not something to be too concerned about. "If you look at the real estate market in China, it has already seen a golden decade of extreme fast growth. There will still be room for growth…
11 Ugly Charts That Confirm China's Dramatic Slowdown During the National People's Congress, China's policymakers announced that it would target 7.5% GDP growth target for 2014. This is down from 7.7% growth in 2013, and the recent data shows that the economy is clearly off to a slower start to…
China’s benchmark money-market rate is set for the biggest weekly drop since December as demand for cash eased after banks met quarter-end capital requirements. The seven-day repurchase rate, a gauge of funding availability in the banking system, tumbled 124 basis points, or 1.24 percentage points, to 2.98 percent as of…
China's central bank is prepared to take its strongest action since 2012 to loosen monetary policy if economic growth slows further, by cutting the amount of cash that banks must keep as reserves, sources involved in internal policy discussions say. A cut would be triggered if growth slips below 7.5…
For 29-year-old Fyodor Bagnenko, a fixed-income trader at Dragon Capital in Ukraine, selling bonds has become a lonely business.
From his seven-story office in central Kiev, about 20 minutes from the barricades on Independence Square that were the epicenter of protests that triggered the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War, he would trade more than $20 million of bonds a day last year. Since the revolution, there have been days where he couldn’t close a single deal as trading in Ukrainian financial assets dried up.
“We’ve had days where the market’s dropped five points or more and not a buyer in sight,” he said as he headed to his morning meeting March 14. “People have gotten whiplash, with the market jumping from complete indecision to frantic action, with the whole world trying to buy, or sell, simultaneously.”
At Morningstar, AQR Capital’s leader presents Fama and Shiller’s arguments and says he’s ‘learned to live with my schizophrenia’ “I’m not a super-hardcore efficient marketer,” says Cliff Asness of AQR Capital. Cliff Asness created a “watershed moment in the hedge fund industry” when he brought his sophisticated hedge fund strategies…
Please visit the souce :: http://econbrowser.com/archives/2014/09/interpreting-the-yield-curve-some-pictures Recently Jim highlighted the odd behavior of the various Treasury term premia. Here are some additional thoughts. First, from “Debt market goes off script” in the WSJ: Yields on short-term U.S. Treasury debt maturing in two to five years hit the highest level since…
The quick move higher in the yields of Europe's weakest sovereigns from historic lows may be just the beginning and on the edges it could start to affect other low-rated credits where investors have hunted for yield—such as U.S. junk bonds. Driven by speculation about the European Central Bank and…
Talk that Russia could be behind the bulk of the more than $100 billion drop in the Federal Reserve’s custody holdings for foreign central banks in the week ending Wednesday has many observers scratching their heads. This would represent about eighty percent of their dollar holdings.
As we noted earlier, rather than selling the Treasuries, Russia simply transferred them from the Federal Reserve out of the U.S. The incentive would be the threat of sanctions following this week’s Crimean referendum.
On Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen promised the House Financial Services Committee "a great deal of continuity" in monetary policy as she fills the shoes of Ben Bernanke. However, Yellen is not Bernanke. And depending on her read on the economy, she will use her powers to influence…
11 Ugly Charts That Confirm China's Dramatic Slowdown During the National People's Congress, China's policymakers announced that it would target 7.5% GDP growth target for 2014. This is down from 7.7% growth in 2013, and the recent data shows that the economy is clearly off to a slower start to…
Tags: read, economy, http://www.businessinsider.com, china
For 31-year old Beijing resident Wang Yuanzhi, talk about a bubble in Chinese property is not something to be too concerned about. "If you look at the real estate market in China, it has already seen a golden decade of extreme fast growth. There will still be room for growth…
China's central bank is prepared to take its strongest action since 2012 to loosen monetary policy if economic growth slows further, by cutting the amount of cash that banks must keep as reserves, sources involved in internal policy discussions say. A cut would be triggered if growth slips below 7.5…
I will let you guess where we are in this "cycle". Within a fractional reserve banking system, if the Federal Reserve decreases the discount rate and the rate is lower than the long bond rate by enough of a spread, the banks get motivated to borrow at or close to the discount rate and loan…
11 Ugly Charts That Confirm China’s Dramatic Slowdown
During the National People’s Congress, China’s policymakers announced that it would target 7.5% GDP growth target for 2014.
This is down from 7.7% growth in 2013, and the recent data shows that the economy is clearly off to a slower start to the year.
Before we launch into the data, it’s important to remember that part of the slowdown is intended by China’s policymakers as they try to clamp down on lax lending standards and rebalance the economy toward domestic demand driven growth.
For 31-year old Beijing resident Wang Yuanzhi, talk about a bubble in Chinese property is not something to be too concerned about. "If you look at the real estate market in China, it has already seen a golden decade of extreme fast growth. There will still be room for growth…
Chinese economic growth slowed to the lowest level since 1999 last year, expanding 7.7%. Policymakers have recognized the need to rebalance economic growth and are now slowly transitioning away from a credit and export driven economy to one driven by consumer growth. Some argue that the recent crackdown on shadow banking and the money market rate spikes are…
China's central bank is prepared to take its strongest action since 2012 to loosen monetary policy if economic growth slows further, by cutting the amount of cash that banks must keep as reserves, sources involved in internal policy discussions say. A cut would be triggered if growth slips below 7.5…
China's central bank reiterated its stance of continuing with a stable monetary policy this year and promising to contain risks in lending, noting that the economy has yet to find a stable base for growth. In its quarterly monetary policy report, released on Saturday, the People's Bank of China (PBOC)…
The global financial crisis did not start in 2008 but in 2007 when BNP Paribas and UBS AG suspended withdrawals from some of their funds. If the world is once again buffeted by a similar crisis thanks to the enormous splurge in Chinese lending and fears about the quality of…
China’s central bank is prepared to take its strongest action since 2012 to loosen monetary policy if economic growth slows further, by cutting the amount of cash that banks must keep as reserves, sources involved in internal policy discussions say.
A cut would be triggered if growth slips below 7.5 per cent and towards 7.0 per cent, they said, and would come on top of money market operations and currency intervention via state banks that traders say has already loosened monetary conditions.
Apart from supporting a stumbling economy, the stronger action of cutting bank reserves would provide a cushion against any shocks from financial reforms that the central bank is widely expected to push through this year, including a widening of the yuan’s trading band to give the currency more room to rise or fall each day and allowing banks more room to set deposit rates.
For 31-year old Beijing resident Wang Yuanzhi, talk about a bubble in Chinese property is not something to be too concerned about. "If you look at the real estate market in China, it has already seen a golden decade of extreme fast growth. There will still be room for growth…
11 Ugly Charts That Confirm China's Dramatic Slowdown During the National People's Congress, China's policymakers announced that it would target 7.5% GDP growth target for 2014. This is down from 7.7% growth in 2013, and the recent data shows that the economy is clearly off to a slower start to…
When stock markets are free-falling 10+% in a matter of days, it’s natural to seek some answers to the question “why now?” Some are saying it was all the result of high-frequency trading (HFT), while others point to China’s modest devaluation of its currency the renminbi (a.k.a. yuan) as the…
Chinese economic growth slowed to the lowest level since 1999 last year, expanding 7.7%. Policymakers have recognized the need to rebalance economic growth and are now slowly transitioning away from a credit and export driven economy to one driven by consumer growth. Some argue that the recent crackdown on shadow banking and the money market rate spikes are…
Global investors are lending money to Chinese property developers in record amounts this year, in spite of a deteriorating housing market and warnings from rating agencies over the state of the sector. Offshore bond issuance from mainland property companies is on track for a record year, with $18bn of debt…
When President Obama took office in 2009 at the height of the recession, the annual budget deficit came in at 10.1 percent of gross domestic product — a level not seen since the end of World War II. In the five years since, the budget deficit has been sliced more than half. New figures in Obama’s just-released budget put it at only 3.7 percent of GDP in 2014. Explore 60 years of deficits – and the occasional surplus – in the interactive chart below.
America has allowed its oil companies to export oil as announced in private letters to oil companies. This will, for sure, cause a stir in the global oil markets and lead to lower prices. Global oil prices previously soared due to the fall in the supply of oil- stoppage of oil exports…
U.S. economy added 533,000 jobs during the first three months of the year What do we need to analyse ? -To keep pace, job creation would need to accelerate in April -Watch which sectors of the economy are adding jobs. -Flirting with Full Employment -Average hourly earnings -The participation rate…
Most people that discuss the "economic collapse" focus on what is coming in the future. And without a doubt, we are on the verge of some incredibly hard times. But what often gets neglected is the immense permanent damage that has been done to the U.S. economy by the long-term…
The following are the expectations for the minutes of the January FOMC meeting by the economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital, and other leading banks. http://www.efxnews.com/
If trade and financial sanctions were imposed on Russia, the cost to the UK might well exceed the cost to Russia. That is presumably why the Foreign Office wrote - in a document carelessly (or deliberately?) displayed yesterday for the lenses of photographers - that "the UK should not support…
Perhaps the most notable development in the run-up to Friday’s jobs report is just how low the bar has been set.
The fact that the survey period over which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics collected data for the report (the week that included the 12th of February) coincided with nasty winter storms has received a ton of attention on the Street and in the press.
Moreover, Wednesday’s economic data docket delivered two data points that further served to reduce expectations. The first one was payroll-processing firm ADP’s February National Employment Report, which estimated only 139,000 workers were hired to private-sector payrolls last month (below market economists’ consensus 155,000 forecast). The second one was the Institute for Supply Management’s February survey of non-manufacturing firms (the non-manufacturing sector accounts for around 80% of U.S. economic activity), the results of which were indicative of the first monthly contraction in hiring since 2010.
U.S. economy added 533,000 jobs during the first three months of the year What do we need to analyse ? -To keep pace, job creation would need to accelerate in April -Watch which sectors of the economy are adding jobs. -Flirting with Full Employment -Average hourly earnings -The participation rate…
Tags: nfp, jobs, economy, usa, month, u.s, employment
The Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week. The report will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Thursday. APPLICATIONS MAY STAY LOW: Economists forecast that the number of people seeking benefits will dip 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 330,000, according…
America has allowed its oil companies to export oil as announced in private letters to oil companies. This will, for sure, cause a stir in the global oil markets and lead to lower prices. Global oil prices previously soared due to the fall in the supply of oil- stoppage of oil exports…
When President Obama took office in 2009 at the height of the recession, the annual budget deficit came in at 10.1 percent of gross domestic product -- a level not seen since the end of World War II. In the five years since, the budget deficit has been sliced more…
The Labor Department’s initial estimate of August job growth on Friday is expected to show another solid month of hiring. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast the economy added 225,000 jobs, which is roughly in between the 12-month average of 214,000 and the 3-month average of 245,000. The unemployment…
China’s Premier Li Keqiang isn’t the sort of man to blush in public. But yesterday, when he went in front of China’s national legislature and targeted 7.5% growth in gross domestic product for 2014, he should have. The problem isn’t the number — most economists agree that 7.5% is a manageable if difficult goal. Rather, the issue is that Li Keqiang himself doesn’t believe in the accuracy of Chinese GDP statistics.
That, at least, is what he told then-U.S. ambassador to China Clark Randt over dinner on Mar. 12, 2007. At the time, Li was the Secretary General of Liaoning Province, and widely viewed as a potential successor to Chinese President Hu Jintao. According to a Mar. 15, 2007, declassified U.S. diplomatic cable (released by Wikileaks) recounting the dinner, a “smiling” Li declared that Chinese GDP figures were “man-made” and therefore unreliable — “for reference only.”
The global financial crisis did not start in 2008 but in 2007 when BNP Paribas and UBS AG suspended withdrawals from some of their funds. If the world is once again buffeted by a similar crisis thanks to the enormous splurge in Chinese lending and fears about the quality of…
The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) economy has shown signs of overheating despite a sharp slowdown in economic growth, suggesting that, constrained by the supply of labor, its potential growth rate might have fallen significantly from its past level. With the priorities of the PRC’s authorities shifting from raising economic growth…
China's banks disbursed the most loans in any month in four years in January, a surge that suggests the world's second-biggest economy may not be cooling as much as some fear. Chinese banks lent 1.32 trillion yuan ($217.6 billion) worth of new yuan loans in January, beating a 1.1 trillion…
11 Ugly Charts That Confirm China's Dramatic Slowdown During the National People's Congress, China's policymakers announced that it would target 7.5% GDP growth target for 2014. This is down from 7.7% growth in 2013, and the recent data shows that the economy is clearly off to a slower start to…
Tags: china's, growth, economy, domestic, gdp, national, china
The yuan has recently been something of a safe haven among emerging-market currencies, yet market participants have learned from a bloody lesson over the past week that it is no longer an easy, one-way bet. A sharp fall of both the onshore and offshore yuan against the greenback made the…
If trade and financial sanctions were imposed on Russia, the cost to the UK might well exceed the cost to Russia.
That is presumably why the Foreign Office wrote – in a document carelessly (or deliberately?) displayed yesterday for the lenses of photographers – that “the UK should not support for now trade sanctions or close London’s financial centre to Russians”.
It certainly could be, but the odds do not favor it. Statistically speaking, it is far more likely that a run-of-the-mill correction is now underway and working its way through each sector of the market, to varying degrees of severity. Counter-trend rallies are sharp and short (think Wednesday), which is…
The August 2013 gross domestic product report by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis drew little attention, but it contained a fairly remarkable piece of data: Inflation-adjusted GDP per capita in the United States hit a new all-time high in the second quarter of 2013, the first time a new…
För 10 år sedan verkade den globala ekonomin att vara på bättringsvägen. Räntorna gick ner till 1 %, Storbritannien var i sitt 12:e år av oavbruten tillväxt, Kina var en del av WTO och alla trodde på att marknaderna själva kunde korrigera sig. Den monetära systemkrasch som kom var oförutsedd…
America has allowed its oil companies to export oil as announced in private letters to oil companies. This will, for sure, cause a stir in the global oil markets and lead to lower prices. Global oil prices previously soared due to the fall in the supply of oil- stoppage of oil exports…
When President Obama took office in 2009 at the height of the recession, the annual budget deficit came in at 10.1 percent of gross domestic product -- a level not seen since the end of World War II. In the five years since, the budget deficit has been sliced more…
