Not only western countries show “negative” figures. But the market seems calmed, and the expectation of a new injection of funds from the ECB is about to boost investors’ appetite.

Negative GDP figures are not only an issue of today’s west economies. In the last quarter 2011, India’s economic GDP growth showed a slow growth, compared to the weakest one registered three years ago. The difference with developed countries is that, this growth, for the period October-December, rose up to 6.1 percent..... Read More

HSBC comes to the rescue with positive news from the annual statements; the sterling instead, seems to show investor’s cautiousness about UK’s economy.


HSBC, the Biggest bank in the UK, and in Europe, presented its results for the year 2011. The bank, different from Lloyds and RBS, had in the last year positive figures, showing profits for £13.8 bn, a growth of around 15 percent respect to 2010.
Despite this, analyst were stipulating pre-tax profits bigger than the real ones, reported in £14.1 bn, which is not bad at all, especially if compared to the other banks mentioned above,...Read More

There comes a new Sun every Sunday, but the sun these days does not always shine to the economy and financial markets.

After the decline and consequently, polemic closure of News of the World in July, Rupert Murdoch hits again the tabloids on Sunday with Sun on Sunday. The first emend is to achieve high ethical standards, and the first edition proves to follow this path, especially after the scandals of the last paper, in which 10 journalists got arrested for several charges of corruption.

With an editorial titled “A new Sun rises today”, the sun, that will be seen every seven days, is filled with celebrity news, show business and new columnists, the paper will focus on convincing people of the rules of conduct they follow, in order for the readers to begin again to trust. ....Read More

After RBS, comes Lloyds with negative results, in a week with changes in the monetary policy

At the end of this week, Lloyds Banking Group reported a loss of £3.5 bn for the period of 2011. This negative figure, obtained before tax, makes a contrast of the results obtained in 2010, when the bank had a profit of £281m.

The bank, which is 41 percent tax-payer owned, declared also, through Antionio Horta-Osorio, the Chief Executive, that 2012 will be a tougher year than the previous one.....Read More

UK’s Economy contracted 0.2% in the fourth quarter 2011 – Guilty: Business Investment

The Office for National Statistics announced its review of the UK’s Economy for the end of 2011, revising it down to 0.7 percent with a previous estimation of 0.8 percent. Nevertheless, with the whole 2011 revision, the UK GDP shrank by 1 percent, going from 0.9 percent to the actual 0.8 percent.

Despite the fact that expenses from the side of consumers grew 0.5 percent, this increase did not help significantly to the overall economy....Read More

RBS announces £2bn Losses- More than Last year but far away from 2008


RBS, the Royal Bank of Scotland, announced the financial results of 2011, reporting a £2bn losses. After the negative news, the Bank also made a confirmation of the payment of £390 m in bonuses, to the 17,000 investment bankers, completing a total of £785m in total bonuses payments, to all of RBS’s employees. Despite this, the total outflow in bonuses has decreased respect to 2010, in 43%, mainly due to this situation, and for RBS’s investment bank, it is a reduction of about 60%, when last year the bank gave £950m.....Read More

Bank of England: Divided decisions to stimulate UK’s Economy, helping Pounds fall

The policymakers that belong to the bank of England were analyzing this month the possibility to inject another stimulus to the British economy. In this discussion, David Miles and Adam Posen decided to a bigger quantity, of £75 bn boost, in order to increase the money supply and keep the rates under control. The rest of the MPC, nonetheless, voted for a minor stimulus, of £50 bn, that, according to them, is sufficient enough to keep the inflation objective of 2 percent according to their forecasts, and that a bigger number would maybe send a mixed signal to the market:.....Read More

Markets in Europe began to recover confidence, even if Greece will struggle to reach the objectives and keep pulling down the European Economy

The GDP Growth of the biggest economies (the OECD Economies) fell only 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2011, according to the OECD. Even if it is a provisional data, it is still a significant sign that the countries were not so attacked by the perception of a new credit crunch in the Euro Zone. With negative numbers in important countries such as Italy (-0.7 percent) and Japan (-0.6 percent), UK and Germany both felt a decline of 0.2 percent, even if the latter ones helped in the overall 2011 positive performance. With this, the main factor behind the scenes continues to be Greece, which according to the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission of Greece’s debt, the country will find really steep the mountain to reach the target of 120 percent of its debt to GDP by 2020, needing among other things......Read More

Greece is expecting today the decision for the bailout and S&P has begun to analyze Japan’s situation.

Today is expected to be taken the final decision concerning Greece’s second bailout, on a day where the finance ministers that belong to the Euro Zone approve it and give a strong signal to the markets in the counter attack of Europe’s debt crisis. In this event will also be present the Prime Minister of Greece, Lucas Papademos, who practically took a last minute flight in order to secure the complete rescue package, where Germany is still analyzing the conditions to obtain it....Read More

Moody’s assessed a negative outlook today after cutting, as they anticipated, the ratings for Spain, Portugal and Italy, to A1, Ba2, and A2, respectively, with also, a negative outlook. Other countries were also downgraded, and this continuous menace has impacted UK, issuing a warning to the financial market of this country. The uncertainty regarding the fiscal consolidation, and the macro economical conjuncture of the Euro area, were the triggers to this action.

The exchange rate GBP/USD changed to 1, 5686. On the other hand, EUR/ USD fell quickly to 1, 3128, and the AUD/USD is in the level of 1, 0664. These are the events that were influenced by the previous news about the new position of the rating agency Moody’s. This will have also some effect into the investors’ minds, continuing to lower their expectations in the European market, and watching UK being under observation, decreases their confidence, and subsequently, their willingness to put or leave their money in these markets.......Read More

Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King has said the road to economic recovery in the UK will be long, arduous and uneven.

"After decades in which the stock of debt built up rapidly, there is a reappraisal," he was quoted saying in the speech.

Sir Mervyn said falling inflation and subdued wage growth nevertheless gave the financial institution more scope to act.

"There is scope for interest rates to keep low, and, if needed, for additional asset purchases," he added.

Official figures released the other day demonstrated that the individual Prices Index (CPI) measure of inflation in England fell to 4.2% in December, down from 4.8% in November.

Speaking working in Brighton, Sir Mervyn explained that low development in Great Britain economy has not been only due to inflation but additionally down to households tightening their belts as a result of worries about jobs and future income.

"Households overall have been net savers, as opposed to net borrowers, for every of history 36 months," he stated.....Read More

Vodafone's acquisition of Hutchison Essar is not liable to Indian taxation, a court has ruled, as the 2007 transaction took place outside the sub-continent - despite Essar being based there.

Vodafone and Hutchison successfully argued at the Indian Supreme Court that as neither company is headquartered in India they don't have to stump up for local capital-gains tax, which could have hit £3bn once all the various penalties for late payment were included.

So now the Indian government will have to pay back the bonds and guarantees amounting to several hundred million quid which Vodafone was forced to hand over during the four years the case rumbled on.

The Indian tax office reckoned Vodafone should have handed over £1.4bn in capital gains tax before the deal was allowed to go through in 2007, and won a couple of rounds at court before the matter reached the Supreme Court whose ruling is final...Read more

The European Union’s revenues contributed by AAA-rated member states dropped to 33 percent of 2011

The European Union had its long- and short-term issuer credit ratings of AAA/A-1+ affirmed by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, a week after the company cut the AAA ratings of France and Austria.
The outlook is negative because of “ongoing risks” for the Eurozone, S&P said. The long-term rating was removed from CreditWatch negative, where it was placed on Dec. 7.
The European Union’s revenues contributed by AAA-rated member states dropped to 33 percent of 2011 budgeted revenues from 49 percent before the Jan. 13 downgrade. In last week’s review, Germany and Slovakia were only two of the 16 countries that were given a stable outlook.
“Nevertheless, in our opinion, the supranational entity known as the EU benefits from multiple layers of debt-service protection sufficient to offset the current deterioration we see in member states’ creditworthiness,” Frank Gill, an analyst with S&P in London..... Read more

The Euro plunged towards the lowest level into two months against the U.S Dollar, as Moody's Investors Service plans to evaluate the ratings of EU nations, since the market remained disappointed that no concrete plan was agreed yesterday. The single currency was down 1.5% up against the Dollar yesterday, touching the minimum level since October 4th and over days gone by month, the Euro could be the biggest loser one of the 10 developed nations.

Considering that head on the ECB Jean Claude Trichet stepped down and was replaced by Mario Draghi, the central bank has evolved policy and it has begun to cut interest rates, removing on the list of Euro's main supports. Analysts are reducing their forecasts for your Euro in conjunction with the fastest pace this year .... Read More

Following the first half a year spent over the break-even line U.S. equity indices moved lower in early August and hit a yearly low in very quick time.
Following the first half a year spent over the break-even line U.S. equity indices moved lower in early August and hit a yearly low in very quick time. After placing base, the forex market rallied up 10% in six days, dropped 7% in 3 days, rallied up 9% in more effective and also and also in 2 in two days dropped 8%.
That's then a two-day move that rallied up 5% and dropped 6% within the next a couple of days, and also over the examples below five days rallied up 7%. Over the next three days a drop of 9% was seen.
The next major move was obviously a rally up of 7%, as well as a subsequent four-day move that dropped 10%, culminating along with the re-setting of yearly lows on October 4th. The subsequent 5 days rallied up 11%.
Traders then saw two big gaps to the highs of August which are then two large gaps down, with both moves happening in Futures trade in front of this individual 9-to-5 cash market open.
A smaller rally up was accompanied by another big day down. Within a couple of days it has another Futures market gap up, followed by another big drop for the reason that market transpired 9% in 7 days.
A couple weeks ago saw 2 days that gapped up by 6%, ....Read More

Latest growth figures demonstrated that the economy actually grew by more-than-expected in the third quarter at 0.5%, in comparison with 0.1% inside three month through June. The Pound has beenbesieged through speculation of a third quarter contraction even so the positive result can be tempered by suggestions that the UK economy remains facing a double-dip recession, as Europe's debt crisis intensifies.

The Lender of England has renewed the quantitative easing plan prior to now month to boost lending conditions and support growth but economists still expect GDP to contract in the fourth quarter and first quarter of 2012, equating regarding a technical recession. A different report this morning indicated that UK manufacturing slumped in October by even more than initial expectations and the third quarter growth figures could be treated to provide a one-off after a surprise improvement in services industries over that period. .... Read More

The Pound weakened against almost two of the 16 most actively traded currencies, before an investigationthis morningis predicted showing that an index of retail sales fell this month..

The Pound fell contrary to the Euro through the most in two weeks last week, as European officials agreed to expand a rescue fund for indebted nations, which reduced requirement for Great Britain currency as a general perceived safe haven from the sovereign debt crisis. The Pound weakened against almost two of the 16 most actively traded currencies, before an investigation this morning is predicted showing that an index of retail sales fell this month.

EU leaders have persuaded bondholders to take 50% losses on Greek debt and boosted the rescue fund to an incredible €1 trillion. Officials have taken care of immediately global pressure to improve measures to battle your debt crisis, amid concerns that Greece will default as well as threat of contagion for some other high deficit nations like Italy and Spain.

Although the key information the rescue package are murky at best, the announcement last night will restore near-term confidence available in the market and the Euro has rallied throughout the snowboard subsequently. Last ditch talks with bank representatives led to the debt-relief accord, in an effort to quarantine Greece which will help prevent speculation against Italy and France from weakening the Euro-zone economy and impacting global growth. .Read More

Shares in European banks have increased after the reaction of investors to stabilize the debt crisis in the euro area.

European bank shares rise

Shares in European banks have increased after the reaction of investors to stabilize the debt crisis in the euro area.

In French and German banks, the shares were above 10%. In fact what led more were reports of a rescue package of measures after the IMF meeting last week in Washington, where finance ministers attending the G20.

These measures are expected to peëgjysmojnë Greek government debt, increase to 2 billion euro European Financial Stability Fund and strengthen the large European banks may be hit by the grace of the debts.

However, as AFP reports the German Minister of Finance, Vol Wolfgang Schaeuble said he has no plans to increase the size of the European Financial Stability Fund.

European governments hope that these measures are formulated for five or six weeks, at the right moment before the meeting of G20 leaders in Cannes, expected in early November.

However, EU officials in Brussels note that these measures should not be seen as the only big plan. Uncertainty to withstand debts led to the value of shares in European banks recent months amid concerns that they possess the Greek debt....... Read more

The crisis in the euro area, predictions for Italy

 The debt crisis in Italy is set back in focus. In an interview with Italian newspaper "Il Sole 24 Ore", European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet, called for Italy to be put in the savings package to reduce the debt crisis.

The government in Rome in early August announced savings measures with a volume of 45.5 billion euros, but a few days ago decided changes in the package.

Events in Italy closely monitored by Brussels, and a spokesman for the monetary policy of the Commissioner, Olli Rehn, said the savings goals adopted in Italy are in doubt.


While there was positive news for Ireland and Portugal at a time when the IMF approved the next tranche of the loan. Both the EU gave the green light for further financial support for Ireland
read more...

Inflation in China in July was higher than expected, despite government efforts to curb rising prices.

Consumer prices last month rose by 6.5 percent compared with prices a month earlier, notify the National Office of Statistics.
The increase comes despite China's Central Bank has raised interest rates five times since October 2010 in an effort to control prices.
Rise in consumer prices has become a hot issue for Chinese policy.
"There is no doubt that inflation is not getting better, seeing the price rise month after month," said the expert subsidiary of Societe Generale, Wei Yao.
For their part, Chinese authorities have stated that control of price increases is their number one priority.

U.S. crisis hits Asian markets
Asian markets were severely shaken due to fears that the United States are directed to a second recession after Wall Street recorded the biggest losses since 2008.

Japanese Nikkei stock index fell by 2.8 percent, for the South Korean Kospi by 5.3 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Sengu with 6 percent. Earlier the U.S. stock index Dow Jones fell by 5.6 percent, despite the efforts of President Barack Obama to calm investors. Another possible recession the U.S. will hit major Asian economies, the top international exports. Even the stock indices of other Asian countries are seeing a decline in value of their lowest levels for many months....Read More