BRUSSELS | By EU observer via Presseurop | Negotiators from the Council for the European Union and the European Parliament agreed an EU budget for 2014 in the early hours of November 12, bringing the prospect of an agreement on financing for the 2014-2020 period a step closer, writes news website EUobserver.
LONDON | By Barclays analysts | Industrial production data in September were slightly weaker than we expected, adding further downside risks to our expectation that Italy’s GDP growth was flat in Q3.
MADRID | By Adrianna Rodriguez* | The past year has been rocky for the United States, to say the least: Edward Snowden released the most significant leak in recent history; German leaders now think twice about their after hours phone calls, and the US spent about $24 billion on a national tantrum. It’s simpler to say that the country has finally lost all credibility in European eyes, however, that’s not necessarily the case. How is it that Washington can go through all this nonsense and still appear on top?
MADRID | By Stefanie Claudia Müller | Foreign media is astonished by how rarely Spaniards seem to protest against corruption within their own state. Although the correspondents try to sell these stories, at home no one seems to be much interested in publishing them, because the fact of a corrupt Spain is according to many European newspapers “old news.” This highlights the fact that Spain’s image problems are not recent.
MADRID | By Miguel Navascués | There is a harsh disagreement in the euro zone: when Mario Draghi tries to do something, he finds the opposition of Germany and its allies. It seems obvious that Europe won’t get out of the hole with such travel companions.
ROME | By Umberto Eco at L’Expresso via Presseurop | In the midst of the World War One, Marcel Proust created characters who, in spite of the conflict, were attracted by German culture. Proof, according to semiotician Umberto Eco, that cultural exchange has contributed more than anything else to the building of today’s Europe.
LONDON | By London analysts | Since the end of the most recent recession, US consumer confidence has remained on an upward trend, despite several negative shocks from government policy. Given this track record, we expect the fall in confidence related to the federal shutdown to be short-lived.
BEIJING | By Caixin Magazine | The third plenum of the Communist Party’s 18th Central Committee will start on November 9. Hopes are high that significant reform measures will be unveiled after the meeting. Here is what Zhu Haibin, chief China economist at investment bank JPMorgan, expects to see. He also explains why the success of the meeting will be determined by what comes next.
LONDON | By The Economist Staff via Presseurop | According to the British newspaper, Great Britain “faces a choice between comfortable isolation and bracing openness. Go for openness. Asked to name the European country with the most turbulent future, many would pick Greece or Italy, both struggling with economic collapse. A few might finger France, which has yet to come to terms with the failure of its statist model. Hardly anybody would plump for Britain, which has muddled through the crisis moderately well.”
LONDON | By Barclays analysts | In a surprise move, the ECB cut the refi rate by 25bp to 0.25% and left the deposit rate unchanged at zero. It also extended its fixed-rate, full-allotment facility to all refinancing operations by one year, at least until mid 2015. The ECB clearly signalled that it is concerned about persistently low inflation, even if deflation risks are contained. We will only know more about how long the ECB thinks low inflation will last next month when it publishes its macroeconomic forecasts. We see euro area inflation in 2014 dropping to 1.0% from the forecast 1.4% this year.