LONDON | Germany's imports have kept growing year on year at a moderate pace, with a 2.9 percent increase recorded in May. So have its exports, too. The latest data confirm the German economy as the healthiest core of the euro zone, with an accumulated trade surplus of €73.8 billion in that month, up from the €62.9-billion surplus in the same period of time in 2011. Export activity, indeed, has…
The implications of recent developments in Catalonia's export activity are bound to agitate the political scene of the region more than its economic stand, which remains at a deficit of around €15 billion. According to the statistics institute of the autonomous government, the Generalitat, Catalan exports to non-Spanish markets in 2011 were higher for the first time than those to Spain: the regional department for the Economy said the international trade percentage…
LONDON | By 2026 the UK could have increased its international business activity a booming 66 percent. The latest Global Connections trade forecast this week from HSBC Commercial Banking predicted that emerging markets will experience a tipping point in the balance of trade power, where imports will grow faster than exports within the next five years. That's opportunity for British ears. how to get your ex back According to official data,…
LONDON | UK firms are this week seeking new businesses in Baltic States and Finland. The British trade and investment minister, Stephen Green, is in a visit to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland that began Tuesday, focused on developing trading links with the UK and attracting new investment. Exports of goods and services from the UK to the four countries visited this week totalled more than £3.6 billion in 2010, while…
By CaixaBank research team, in Barcelona | In spite of an improvement in the economic climate in February and March, available indicators point to stagnation in the first quarter of 2012, representing a slowdown compared with the 0.2% quarter-on-quarter expansion in GDP posted in the last quarter of 2011. We have kept to our forecast of very modest growth for the whole of 2012 due to the situation of some…
LONDON | Those who were in need of arguments to claim the British-mainly nature of the economic troubles of the island are in awkward luck. The manufacturing industry saw a sharp decline in activity in May, according to the latest purchase manufacturing index release. The headline index fell back to 45.9 from the 49.7 consensus figure and from 50.2 in April, the second-largest drop in the 20-year history of the…
LONDON | The euro area continued to run a small trade surplus up to March. This is encouraging on account of stronger import prices, led by energy, in the first quarter of the year. But a closer look into the volumes suggests that import volumes are weakening. Estimates from Barclays Capital analysts put the declining at around 1% in January to March 2012 from the same period in 2011, after a…
By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | In brief, Germany would lose out in competitiveness with the rest of the world, were it to accept a monetary expansion policy. Germany is a big exports country, not just to the euro zone but to the outside, too. Check the graph as a proof. Foreign manufacturing orders from the rest of the world, in fact, are growing up quickly while demand from the…
BEIJING | The question on whether China’s economy is expanding or contracting is like answering whether the glass is half full or half empty. The positive official reading signals that there’s no need to worry. With its PMI index calculated after a sample of more than 800 big (and state-owned) companies, PMI is on the rise and above the 50% for the fifth consecutive month. Conversely, HSBC’s reading doesn’t seem to…
By Luis Alcaide, in Madrid | In 2011 Spanish exports of goods recorded the highest point after a period of intense growth since 2008. An increase of 16.8% in 2010 has been followed by a positive rate of 15.4% in the last year. The value of exports in 2011 reached the figure of €214.5 billions, which represents a share of 20% of Spain GDP. This share is equivalent to that…